Eastern Ontario Crop Conference 2016

1. Agricultural Remote Sensing
ECC 2016
Leander Campbell (AAFC-Ottawa)
Nicole Rabe (OMAFRA-Guelph)

2. Satellites, manned, & unmanned aircraft imagery
~ availability on the rise…
• More imaging satellites in
orbit bringing revisit time
and costs down
• Unmanned aircraft are
small & portable on-
demand crop diagnostic
tools
– BUT won’t answer the why
crop looks bad just says it
doesn’t look healthy
• Any imaging system needs
ground-truthing and more
definitive agronomic
assessment to determine
the why & mng’t action
Planet Labs, a San Francisco aerospace start-
up, has launched 113 Dove Cube Sats
(10x10x13cm) and are oorbit – hope is to
photograph the Earth every single day.
By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish DateMarch 16, 2014. Photo by Jim
Wilson/The New York Times.

3. Online
Remote
Sensing Ag
Solutions…
multi-year
NDVI maps

4. Online advanced image
processing…cleaner images

5. Remote Sensing 101
www.airinov.fr
missionscience.nasa.gov
Algebra: Vegetation
Indices

6. A discussion at
3 scales:

7. … it can provide:
o Spatially complete information over very large &/or inaccessible regions;
o Information at wavelengths sensitive to vegetation and soil properties.
o Well calibrated data over time;
… it can support activities and programs:
o EO data at various spatial and temporal scales can support agricultural
land use management, biomass estimation, modeling and monitoring.
Remote Sensing is attractive because…

8. Near-real-time Surface Soil Moisture Mapping
• Near-real-time weekly, bi-weekly and monthly surface soil moisture maps derived from
daily passive microwave data from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS)
satellite.
• Collaborating with USA (NASA and USDA) on the calibration of the Soil Moisture Active
passive (SMAP) satellite.
AAFC EO-Based Activities

10. Near-real-time Crop Condition Assessment (NDVI)
• AAFC’s Canadian Ag-Land Monitoring System (CALMS) delivers near-real-time weekly NDVI-
based estimates of crop conditions using daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-
radiometer (MODIS) reflectance observations
• Contributes to the Canadian GEOGLAM crop condition assessments for the Agricultural
Market Information System (AMIS).
AAFC EO-Based Activities

11. AAFC EO-Based Activities

12. 2015 AAFC Crop Map Inventory to Date

13. Leander
was here
July
2015!
AAFC Roadshow
2015!
Translates into
overall inventory
accuracy: 87.9%
@LeanderCampbell

14. 2015 Crop Map – Kemptville Region
Soybean
Corn
Winter Wheat
Barley
Sod
Pasture/Forage
Other Cereal
Veggies
Oats
Ontario corn inventory
accuracy: 92 %

16. 3D

17. Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry
Crop Rotations (2013-15)
No Rotation
3-Crop Rotation
Corn-Soy Only Rotations
Pasture/Forage

19. Municipality of Ottawa
Crop Rotations (2013-15)
No Rotation
3-Crop Rotation
Corn-Soy Only Rotations
Pasture/Forage

21. Prescott & Russell
Crop Rotations (2013-15)
No Rotation
3-Crop Rotation
Corn-Soy Only Rotations
Pasture/Forage

23. Why do we not have much
wheat in the rotation in the
East???
• Soils?
• Winter kill?
• Disease?
• Wheat: no
economics to
it???

24. 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2004
2005
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Rye Beans Oats
Spring wheat Barley Winter wheat
Corn (grain + fodder) Soybean
Not Just an Eastern Trend!
% harvested area, Ontario, 1981-2013
(Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Field statistics 2014)
Gaudin A et al., PLOS one (2014) DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0113261
Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

26. Rotation complexity effect on corn yield:
Ridgetown 2010-2013
Gaudin A et al., Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment (2015), 210:1-10Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen
Corn sees a
benefit of
adding wheat ~
2-6%

27. Gaudin A et al., Agriculture, Ecosystem and Environment (2015), 210:1-10Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen
Soybeans see a
substantial
benefit of
adding wheat ~
13%
Rotation complexity effect on soybean yield:
Ridgetown 2010-2013

29. Economic justification for diversifying rotation
Eg. adding wheat into a CS rotation
- 2-6 %increase in corn yield
- 6 bu/ac @ $4.00/bu = $24.00
- 9-14% increase in soybean yield
- 5 bu/ac @ $12.00/bu = $60.00
- reduction in N requirement
- 25 lb/ac @ $0.60/lb = $15.00
- Other (tillage reduction, yield stability, enhanced
opportunity to sell residues, reduced nutrient removal…)
- conservative estimate …. = $ ??.??
Total additional PROFIT to wheat approx. $100.00/ac or more
Adapted from a slide courtesy of Bill Deen

31. GrainYield(bu/ac)
2010 2011
ROTATION: Corn Yields after Wheat +/- Red Clover,
Ridgetown 2010-12
C-S-W
C-S-W(rc)
2012
C-S-W
C-S-W(rc)
C-S-W
C-S-W(rc)
C-S-W
C-S-W(rc)
Ave
Similar to Elora an increase in yield of 5-8%
Note: Fertilizer N applied to all plots 1980lbs/ac

32. Building more complex rotations in Ontario is
not just all about economic return…
….it also building soil resilience during adverse
weather events!

33. -10 0 10 20 30 40
Rotation effect (% of CCSS cluster mean)
-10 0 10 20 30
CCSW
CCSW(rc)
Rotation effect (% of CCSS cluster mean)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
CCSWrc
Benefits of diversification under different
weather scenarios - soybeans
Gaudin A et al., PLOS one (2014) DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0113261
HOT DRY seasonsOPTIMAL - High Yielding COOL / WET seasons
No TILL TILL
Crop abbreviation: C = corn, S = Soybean,O= Oat, B = spring barley,W= Winter wheat, rc = underseeded red clover, A = Alfalfa.
(*) significantly different from high yielding years (cluster E) at p = 0.05.
Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen

34. 2010 Wheat then Soybeans
Orthophotography
• 50cm resolution
• Early spring
Field Scale:
Sources of Imagery
(Source: SWOOP 2010 )
In-season
Analysis
2014
Soybeans :
Processed
Image
Unmanned Aerial
System (UAS):
@ 5cm
resolution

35. Field Scale: Ag Remote Sensing
Opportunities

36. Raw UAV Image → Map Product → Management Decision
Image Source: Sensefly - eBee
For more info. go to Farmsmart Conferences – ZoneSmart Proceedings: http://farmsmartconference.com/zonesmart-2015-
Wheat Stubble & Red Clover (August 21, 2105) near Guelph, Ontario
Farm: Image Analysis: Nicole Rabe
(Land Resource Specialist – OMAFR
Predictive Digital Soil Map
Source: Doug Aspinall (Soil
Scientist – OMAFRA)
Agronomic Question: what is my Nitrogen credit?
Keep in mind what the
imagery is measuring
during growing
season…
Only the plant OR
underlying soil
landscape variability?

37. Measuring benefits of complex rotation &
making better management decisions….
• Red clover underseeded to
wheat
• Other cover crops following wheat – oats, oilseed
radish …
Slide Courtesy of Bill Deen(Meyer-Aurich et al, 2006a; Meyer-Aurich et al 2006b; Munkholm et al, 2012; Munkholm et al, 2013;
Gaudin et al, 2013; Gaudin et al. 2014; Gaudin et al. 2015, Wyngaarden et al, accepted
Nitrogen Prescription
Map:
Red: full 70lb N credit
Orange: 46lbs N
Yellow: 23lbs N
Blue: no credit

38. AAFC Crop Mapping Data - For FREE!
Datasets are available via GoC Open Data website: http://open.canada.ca
Interactive map via AAFC Geospatial Platform
www.agr.gc.ca/atlas/geoplatform

39. Future National RS Goals
•More active engagement of end users. Stronger linkages lead to better
defined informational requirements and improve ability of users to apply EO
in meaningful way.
•Derivation of validated biophysical
parameters (e.g. yield) from EO data
at multiple spatial and temporal
resolutions.
•More timely delivery of time-sensitive
products.
•Increased use of data from
crowd-sourcing to better inform &
validate informational products.
•Closer international collaborations
(e.g. JECAM) will identify best practices for data collection, processing and
dissemination to ensure consistency and comparability among agricultural
systems.

40. For updates and information about the
Agricultural Information Atlas, follow us on
Twitter:@ONfieldcrops @ONhortcrops.
URL: www.ontario.ca/agmaps

41. Nicole.Rabe@ontario.ca
Leander.Campbell@agr.gc.ca
@LeanderCampbell
Thanks!
Questions / Comments?