A new version of the drone-enabled crop scouting app Skippy Scout is being launched using a national roadshow that’ll offer free attendance at five events across England.
Agricultural drone software specialist DroneAg will be offering live interactive demonstrations in:
- Northumberland (NE66 4ED) on October 16 (09:30-12:00);
- Shropshire (TF10 8JZ) on October 20 (09:30-12:00);
- Leicestershire (LE7 9XE) on October 21 (09:30-12:00);
- Norfolk (IP25 7SA) on October 22 (09:30-12:00); and
- Yorkshire (YO7 3PQ) on October 23 (09:30-12:00).
Each will see the new 2.5 version of the award-winning software launched to new and existing users.
“This marks a big step for Skippy Scout because we’re launching the new artificial intelligence (AI) software that will count plants, measure healthy crop cover compared to weed cover, report on damaged crops and highlight insect damage,” DroneAg founder Jack Wrangham said.
Automated analysis of images taken using drones will detect the percentage of weeds compared to healthy crop, plants per square metre, instances of disease and insect damage.
“Skippy Scout 2.5 is the most advanced crop scouting tool we’ve produced and is the culmination of years of development work, so we’re looking forward to demonstrating to existing and potential users during our roadshow,” Mr Wrangham added.
In conjunction with AI, the new version will also draw on satellite data to track and benchmark crop health.
“Satellite health maps appear as layers in the app and are updated up to three times a week,” Mr Wrangham said. “These maps act as a guide to help the user target areas based on key crop performance indicators and can help to identify issues. This might be very high growth early in the season that could indicate weeds, or areas of low biomass that would indicate gaps in planting.”
Attendance is free for anybody who wants to learn more about using drones for crop scouting, and places can be booked by visiting: www.skippy.farm/roadshow/.
