Eliminating Manual Plant Stand Counts

Feb 02, 2023

Learn how SWAT CAM can be used to identify and evaluate crop establishment in your field.

By Haley BilokraIy
Farms.com Intern

Is it possible to understand your field more and make better decisions without wasting valuable time?

Derek Rude, Vice President of Research and Development at Croptimistic Technology Inc., explained at the 2022 Western Precision Agriculture Conference and Ag Technology Showcase in November 2022 that this is possible using SWAT CAM.

SWAT CAM is used to create crop and weed leaf area maps and should eventually eliminate the need for manual plant stand counts.

No extra time or labour is required to generate these maps because the SWAT CAM is installed on sprayer booms and images are automatically captured every 50 to 70 feet. While these photos are used to instantly generate crop and weed maps, they can also be accessed at any time to view crop progress without travelling to the field.

The current model of SWAT CAM can identify wheat, barley, oats, durum, canola, peas, potatoes, corn, soybean, lentil, flax, dry bean, edible bean, and kochia.

Future updates to SWAT CAM will include the ability to do plant stand counts for canola, soybean and corn. It will also be able to estimate bare soil and residue cover.

Get a sneak peek at SWAT CAM and it's many uses by wathcing the video below.

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