Description
The following study investigates the accuracy and practicality of exploiting the color dichotomy present between C3 and C4 grass species to estimate their respective proportions from drone or camera captured imagery. Understanding the proportions of C3 and C4 grasses in pastures is vital to sound decision making for livestock production. The ability to monitor these proportions remotely will also allow for large scale monitoring as well as detection of changes in botanical composition over time and in response to weather events, management, or climate change. A free green canopy cover (GCC) analyzing software, Canopeo, was used to quantify green plants in captured images, providing an estimation of C3 grasses that retain green color in colder seasons while C4 grasses do not. The GCC estimates from Canopeo were compared to what was measured using occupancy grids. We found that green canopy cover software could estimate the proportion of C3 grasses in images captured by a drone and a Nikon camera.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
Drone and Digital Camera Imagery Estimate C3 and C4 Grass Ratios in Pastures
The following study investigates the accuracy and practicality of exploiting the color dichotomy present between C3 and C4 grass species to estimate their respective proportions from drone or camera captured imagery. Understanding the proportions of C3 and C4 grasses in pastures is vital to sound decision making for livestock production. The ability to monitor these proportions remotely will also allow for large scale monitoring as well as detection of changes in botanical composition over time and in response to weather events, management, or climate change. A free green canopy cover (GCC) analyzing software, Canopeo, was used to quantify green plants in captured images, providing an estimation of C3 grasses that retain green color in colder seasons while C4 grasses do not. The GCC estimates from Canopeo were compared to what was measured using occupancy grids. We found that green canopy cover software could estimate the proportion of C3 grasses in images captured by a drone and a Nikon camera.
