16 Farmers want answers quickly when something in the field isn’t right. New tools like Taranis are helping agronomists spot issues earlier so growers can act faster. “It is helping the agronomist be in the right place at the right time with the right solution for that grower,” Katie Staton, Director of Customer Success with Taranis, told Farms.com Precision Agriculture Digital Digest. Taranis is a cutting-edge crop and farm management software—and self-named company headquartered in Westfield, Indiana—providing increased yield and efficiency for precision agriculture. Taranis and its AI system capture high-resolution images from drones to paint a comprehensive picture of field activity. The company offers three service plans for its customers with feature differences between them. 01 Advanced+ includes four flights 02 Elite+ has five flights, 03 and Pro+ has six flights. Only the Taranis team and contracted pilots interact with the drone. “We fly six times throughout the season, so that’s six guaranteed touchpoints that a grower will get from their agronomist,” Staton explained. “So, when we’re flying, we’re looking early on right at an emergency for stand count and early weeds between broads and grasses, so we can see if that residual is working [or] do we need to do a replant from stand count?” Flights later in the season help detect disease pressure, insect pressure, and nutrient deficiencies. The company’s pilots fly DJI M300 and M30 drones. These drones are equipped with one camera underneath to capture leaf-level imagery and about 1/25th of an acre overall. There’s also a wide-angle camera that covers about 1/8th of an acre. The drones are loaded with Taranis’s proprietary software to ensure it meets FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations. The FAA oversees civil aviation safety, air traffic control, aircraft certification, and the rules that govern all US airspace. About 10 days after the initial flight, Taranis drone operators do another field scan to look for things like disease, nutrient deficiencies, and insect damage. In total, agronomists who work with Taranis are providing their customers with between 80 and 90 days of growing season coverage. Taranis, also the name of a Celtic god associated with control of the sky, is most effective in corn and soybean operations as it’s been capturing images and data on those farms for 10 years. But work is ongoing to include more crops in the dataset. “We are developing and working in potatoes, sugar beets, sorghum, rice, sugar cane (and) cotton,” Staton said. Agronomists interested in using Taranis in their field scouting can participate in the company’s onboarding program to become familiar with the HELPING AGRONOMISTS PROVIDE BETTER SERVICE FOR FARMERS Taranis uses cameras and AI to tell field stories. DIEGO FLAMMINI FARMS.COM
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