Tuesday, June 23, 2015
This morning, John and I went out with the Phantom II UAV (drone) to get some views of the flood damage at the Burke, Freddie, and Huey farms. It was very revealing about each farm location. While we were reassured with less flooding at Burke, we found more water than expected at Freddie and Huey.
John prepares the UAV for flight over Burke.
We set the GoPro camera for a “time lapse” type of photography at Burke, and it snapped a still picture every 10 seconds. We came home with 54 pictures! We were gratified that the area where we installed tile last fall came through this big rain event in a satisfactory manner. The only losses at Burke were some lowland areas along Kessinger Ditch, which we expected in this huge rain event. While the water is bank-full in Kessinger Ditch, the rain collecting inside the levee cannot escape until the water level in the ditch recedes. This did not occur fast enough for the low ground on Burke this time. Overall, the drone gave us good news at Burke!
John sends the drone on its way over Burke.
Can you still see the drone? At this point it is about 40 m up and 100 m away. John had it as much as 600 meters away this morning.
Here is one of the still photos from Burke. The soybean rows and sprayer tracks run vertically through the picture, while the effects of last fall’s drainage tile install run from lower left to upper right. This picture provided the ‘happy news’. that the beans survived the heavy, heavy rain. This area of Burke can be seen during planting on our YouTube site. Click the icon in the upper right of the page, to take you there.
This is one of the photos of ‘bad news’ from Burke. You can see Kessinger Ditch at left, then the grassy levee, and the large brown area of mud-coated soybeans from the left to the center of the pic. This brown area will need a replant when the soil dries.
The other images taken today from Freddie and Huey were in video form, and I hope to get those unedited versions posted to YouTube soon.
The UAV became a real farm implement today, and provided us with information of great value.
Dennis, Your blog is sooo interesting. So sorry you are having so much rain. We were in a drought and I hate to see my water bill this month. But now we are getting the usual afternoon thunderstorms and cannot say how we are celebrating to see rain our way.
All is well, Robin and family will return from the West this Saturday evening. Will look forward to seeing photos of their trip.
Take care and know I think of you and yours daily.. Love, Renee PS Would you Dad just look in disbelief at how ³farming² has changed in one generation…drones???
On 6/23/15 5:44 PM, “Carnahan & Sons, Inc.” wrote:
> casifarm posted: “Tuesday, June 23, 2015 This morning, John and I went out > with the Phantom II UAV (drone) to get some views of the flood damage at the > Burke, Freddie, and Huey farms. It was very revealing about each farm > location. While we were reassured with less fl” >
Thank you, Renee. Glad to know Robin and family will be back home soon. About dad? I think he’d be right with us…he was a good innovator. But even so, I’ve been farming for 40 years now, and as I look back on those years, I’m amazed at the advancements we’ve seen. Take care; it sounds like you’ve had some very hot days!