O’Brien, Texas
The past five to 10 years have brought many innovations in technology that we see in our daily lives and the devices we use. Even on the farm, equipment, GPS and applications are changing constantly. Five years ago, we all knew there were satellites taking images to use for things like mapping systems.
What you might not realize is that today there are more and more satellites going overhead — maybe even multiple times per day — gathering a database of images of farms and fields. These images can have so many uses if we just know how to use them.
Cotton Incorporated Agricultural and Environmental Research Director Dr. Ed Barnes, said these satellite images have increased not only in the frequency captured, but also in the resolution of images. This allows us to use them clearly and effectively in different field applications.
“The scale and quality of the satellite images in the last three to five years has really changed the game of being able to use remote imaging for farm data and research analysis,” Barnes said. “We are also able to access these images mostly free, or at a very low cost, which is a great advantage to growers to see how they could readily incorporate remote imaging into their management practices.”
Canopy Temperatures
Cotton Incorporated has partnered with researchers in Arizona to utilize remote imaging databases to analyze heat stress and canopy temperature. The information assists in developing irrigation schedules, capturing drought tolerance in specific varieties and predicting boll retention and development characteristics.
Dr. Randy Norton, director and Extension agronomist at the University of Arizona, has been working on the effects of canopy temperature and boll retention for a couple of decades. He said this research has provided a great understanding of what elevated canopy temperatures are doing to boll retention and viability of pollen, mainly from growth chamber work and reading sensors in the field. Now they can take this knowledge and apply it to a large field by using satellite images.
Dr. Varaprasad Bandaru, a research plant physiologist with the USDA-ARS, is also working on these projects alongside Norton and other Arizona scientists. Bandaru’s expertise in modeling systems and analyzing satellite images has brought together the knowledge of heat stress and reading of satellite images, allowing this information to be understood and applied at the farm level.
“Essentially, we can acquire satellite images, analyze them and estimate the canopy temperatures for these fields on specific days. That information can be used by growers in a variety of ways— determining irrigation schedules, monitoring the balance between vegetative and reproductive growth conditions during these heat stress periods, developing heat stress maps, and more,” Bandaru said.
Effective Water Use
Irrigation scheduling is a perfect example of how this imagery has benefited the crop. According to Norton, a weather shift has happened in Arizona over the past several years resulting in less of a monsoon season pattern to more days with lower humidity and more extreme high daytime temperatures, creating more heat stress.
Even though Norton is continuing to see level two heat stress in cotton crops across the state, analyzing canopy temperature trends will allow growers to maximize an irrigation schedule to use the water most effectively during those heat events and still harvest a good crop.
Farmers can also record heat events and correlate fruit loss or stress during flowering to make management decisions utilizing the remote imaging galleries.
“Through years of research, we have a good grasp on what heat stress does to boll retention and pollen dehiscence through our smaller scale research plots,” Norton said. “But now, using these satellite images, we can apply what is happening in a large field to help manage the crop in heat stress.”
Not only is this information useful to growers for managing crops mid-season, but seed companies are also using Norton and Bandaru’s expertise and research during their variety trails. Companies participating in variety trials in Arizona are using this information to develop more heat and drought tolerance in their lines.
Beltwide Benefits
While not all states experience the high temperatures of Arizona, all states do experience some type of heat stress and elevated crop canopy temperatures in their specific area for a variety of reasons.
“It’s very exciting for us at Cotton Incorporated when we can invest in research that not only benefits growers in that state but will also have a great impact beltwide,” Barnes said.
For more information on Cotton Incorporated funded projects in remote imaging, you can contact Barnes at ebarnes@cottoninc.com.
Funded by America’s cotton producers and importers through check-off dollars collected by The Cotton Board, the Cotton Research and Promotion Program’s research and promotion activities are conducted by its contractor Cotton Incorporated, with the purpose to increase the demand for and improve the market position of cotton.