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Rolla, ND |
A few comments. First, there are certainly places to use technology, understand that there is competition.
Secondly, we have had NDVI, and infrared films and such for a half century now. I have seen many, many presentations on how great it is and have used it. So far, it doesn't in general pay its way. Sometimes black and white is the best, sometimes color sometimes infrared.
I would assume you have some camera capabilities now. Why not do a test run type of market research, take say 1000 acres. Selling service is a lot different than selling hard goods. You can't pick up the phone and have a pallet of service off the truck tomorrow. When you are home take your drone and pattern fly 1000 acres like you would intend to do for NDVI. Process your photos much like you would. Maybe that means mosaic georeference whatever. Spend time looking at the photos to see things that differ, much like you would intend to with NDVI. Then Go out and guided by the pictures look at the areas of interest like you would if scouting insect or disease or tissue samples or soil tests, basically pretend to do a diagnosis. Do things as similar as you can without investing a bunch of money. If you have to walk into the fields in the summer do that now. Figure out if you are going to trust the photos to the extent that if you don't notice something from the photo, you don't look.
The idea being in the end to see how many acres it is reasonable for you to cover. You need to also think of how to most efficiently operate around rain, mud, wind and so on.
When you see what it is reasonable to cover, that gives you limits and helps you know what you need to charge to come out on the venture. Realize you will not have as slick a presentation or be able to make as many claims as the big companies but you will know your customers and they will know you.
See if there is a market at the price and features you can provide. Realize that you can't make this a loss leader to make profitable sales, nor will you have the ability to mine the data thex same way the national companies do.
Careful in making maps. You wouldn't want to base your nitrogen application on a weed or disease infestation most of the time. One of the things about precision ag is you can be be wrong with a great deal of precision.
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NDVI Mappers
