Satellite Imagery for Building Rx

The Impact of Satellite Imagery:

Satellite Imagery is a powerful tool for any operation, no matter the size. Using these layers, you can capture the variability that is present in your fields without having to be physically in the field. The next step is understanding the variability. Is your plant vegetation lower on your hilltops because the crop is burning up? Do you have areas in the field that have drowned out due to poor drainage? Have some areas in your field reached canopy already while others are lagging? Are there areas of the field being affected by pests or diseases? Satellite Imagery allows you to identify any of these issues by directing your scouting to areas that show differently than others, and you can take action if needed!

Selecting the right image:

At VRAFY, we offer 3 standard imagery layers, each of which can be utilized for scouting or creating imagery-based prescriptions. We offer 2 different vegetative index layers along with a plant biomass index. The vegetative index layers (NDVI and SVI) will show you how healthy plants are in the field. Our Biomass index (PCD) shows areas of more plant tissue in green with areas of less plant tissue in yellow or red.

The layer you chose to build your prescription will likely depend on what your planned application is. If you want to build an in-season nitrogen prescription, you will likely want to use a vegetative index as your crop’s yield potential will align more closely with its current vegetative index, meaning areas of higher current vegetative index will have a higher yield potential than areas in the field with a lower current vegetative index. However, if you want to build a prescription for your soybean fungicide application, you may prefer to use the plant biomass index (PCD layer) as this will highlight areas that may be more susceptible to white mold or other fungi.

Creating the prescription:

Once you’ve found the layer that best shows the variability you want to address in the field, its easy to build a prescription to match your needs. From Operations Center, simply select the “Create Manual Rx” button.

This will load our prescription building tool for you. You select your product (or add new product if you don’t see yours listed), click the “Run Rx” button at the top of the page and it will automatically create your zone map. You can use the “Smooth Map” or “Remove Small Regions” checkboxes to simplify the zone map

Now you assign your target rate per zone. You will then see your field average, total product needed, cost of the application (if you entered a cost value in your product)

Once the prescription is set up just how you want it, scroll to the bottom and click the “Run” button to save the shapefiles to your computer, or send the prescription straight to your machine if your machine is JDLink enabled.

To bring this prescription into any display, you will need it formatted correctly for your display. Find our display formatting guide from our knowledge base here.