New Bayer app can identify diseases

Mar 23, 2018

The app uses technology similar to facial recognition

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Bayer is developing a new app to help farmers identify weeds within their fields.

The Digital Farming Scouting app, which Bayer hopes to launch in Canada this spring, will build on the capabilities of its WEEDSCOUT app. WEEDSCOUT incorporates technology similar to facial recognition to identify weeds.

This technology is different than traditional weed identification apps, said Warren Bills, a digital farming business developer with Bayer.

With traditional apps, “you used to have to take a photo and compare it with other pictures. You use a drop-down menu to classify certain things about the weed and end up with a result,” Bills told Farms.com yesterday.

Warren Bills

“When a farmer takes a photo of a weed with WEEDSCOUT, the photo is automatically compared to thousands of other pictures in a trained database. (The app) properly identifies the weed.”

The Digital Farming Scouting app will use similar technology to help growers identify diseases and stages of leaf damage.

“Rather than a farmer saying a leaf is 20 per cent damaged and someone else saying the leaf is 60 per cent damaged, the app would identify the proper level of damage and that would correlate into a recommendation to spray or not to spray” Bills said.

In addition, the Digital Farming Scouting app features anonymous alerts and intensity maps to help industry professionals understand if a disease or weed is spreading.

The more people that use the app and upload photos of weeds and diseases, the more accurate the app becomes in identifying those issues, Bills added.

Bayer is also investigating spray technology to help growers use chemistry more efficiently.

Cameras on sprayers would incorporate the same technology used in the Digital Farming Scouting app to perform scout and spray applications.

“The sprayer could identify the weed, insect or disease, select the proper product and spray the correct rate,” Bills said, adding the technology would help growers reduce the amount of product they apply.

Bayer’s aims to have the camera sprayer technology as a practical prototype scheduled for 2019.

For more ag-related apps, check out the Farms.com apps page.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.