Stand Count - How to Capture and Import Imagery

FieldAgent Stand Counts allow you to efficiently and effectively capture population counts on every acre of your operation – processing images from throughout a field to identify every plant in every image for the most accurate and complete results. Currently supported crops are Corn, Soybeans, Cotton, and Potato.

How to Capture Stand Count Imagery

When to Fly

Timing is important when flying for stand count, see timing and growth to fly by crop below.

Crop	Timing	Planting Size
Corn/Maize	V2-V3 or V4-V5	Greater than 4 inches from leaf tip to leaf tip.
Soybean	V2-V3	Greater than 4 inches from leaf tip to leaf tip.
Cotton	5-6 Leaf Stage	Greater than 4 inches from leaf tip to leaf tip.

What Drone and Sensor

The integrated sensors on the Mavic 3E/3M and Phantom 4 Pro V2 will also collect imagery for stand counts. These sensors are flown at 50ft to ensure plants can be recognized in the imagery. To see a full list of sensor's supported see link .

Flight Settings

Select the Stand Count Preset in FieldAgent Mobile when creating a flight plan. FieldAgent Mobile defaults to an overlap of -300%. This will produce ~1 stand count per acre. If you'd like more or less, adjust the overlap under parameters higher (more frequent Stand Counts) or lower (less Stand Counts).

Atmospheric Conditions

Make sure you plan accordingly as lighting, winds and precipitation can change.

• Lighting - In order to get the best results when flying for stand count I would capture imagery between 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset. In addition also have consistent lighting conditions for the best results.

• Wind - The wind conditions should be within the specified limits of the drone or system being used to carry the imaging sensor.

• Precipitation - There should be no active precipitation during imagery capture.

Non-Flat Terrain

Processing Stand Counts requires a specific and consistent height above the plants throughout flight. When flying over non-flat terrain, Terrain Informed should be turned on. Also, planning a terrain Informed flight DOES require an internet connection in order to download the terrain data. Terrain Informed Flight planning instructions for: DJI drones with FieldAgent

Obstacles

You are responsible for planning and executing safe flights. Always check the flight area for trees and other obstacles. During flight, be prepared to take over at any time. WARNING: Concave flight boundaries with surrounding trees at or near the planned altitude should be replanned as line missions. Look closely at planned flight routes before pressing launch. Some flight patterns over concave flight boundaries may cut through the boundaries. Cutting through the boundary is the most efficient path, but not always the safest. To solve this problem, clear the flight plan and, in the order the drone can safely fly, select all the locations where you would like to capture an image for stand count. Planning flights in this manner also makes it less likely that images are captured over areas where a stand count may not be possible (ex. Over terracing or irrigation channels). See below for an example of a custom planned line flight that ensures the drone will not cross over trees while capturing photos.

Importing Data

Learn how to import your imagery into FieldAgent here .