Continuous Video Monitoring And Online Sharing Of Wide Row Corn, Cover Crop, And Companion Crop Growth For A Full Year.

Commodities

Practices

"If this is such a good idea, why isn't everyone doing it?" We have all heard that. The "Good Idea" that this project aims to greatly popularize is the concept of growing a lush, healthy companion crop in the Opportunity Space between wide corn rows that is not terminated as cover crops are, but allowed to grow alongside/between the corn rows for the full season. The concept behind this practice is that the co-existence of a healthy companion crop between (not in) wide corn rows can benefit from the available sunlight and do well without hurting the corn crop, provide soil health and environmental benefits and in some cases may help the corn crop-but that is hard to believe unless you see it with your own eyes, thru the growing season, and then after the corn harvest. A field day is a snapshot in time. The access to the imagery in the field on a continuous basis allows the target livestock grower to "visit" the field many times thru the season to get comfortable with the concept. A weekly report by me may be live for actual interaction and discussion. Very effective, in my experience.

Solution: This project harnesses the latest technology in image capture, data transfer, remote internet access, and widely available internet access in the ag community. Specifically, the key elements are: 1) Starlink remote internet access everywhere with low power requirements, 2) High capacity battery storage units, with ability to be recharged in the field with solar panels, 3) Much higher quality cameras developed for the security industry, but with capabilities that should be very effective in capturing differences in crop vigor, weeds, (or lack of) and 4) An ag population, including the older owners/influencers, that is much more comfortable accessing the internet for data and imagery, which can be transferred via the Starlink satellite internet and made available to the general public on demand rather than being pushed sporadically. The essence of this project is to put all the above components together in a rugged, stable, secure weatherproof platform that can be located in the field in one spot for the whole season, or moved with a tractor to other areas of interest. There is no new technology needed to make this work. Rather it is the assembly of off-the-shelf components, plus good image and data processing, storage, and accessible delivery that makes it unique and state of the art. This one digital image collecting "hub" can be positioned in the field after planting, adjacent to several different practices/row arrangements to show differences in plant development within a very local, similar environment. It can be temporarily set aside for treatment passages, etc. It's captured images will be ground-truthed with drone image maps, which can be overlaid with corn yield maps, soil maps, etc. in ag software. Properly done, this can create a real-time experience in the field all season long for hundreds or thousands of people. It should also be fortified with highly accelerated image files that compress the season-to-date into no more than a 3 minute video which can be viewed weekly on a frame-by-frame basis. Think of all the security camera imagery you see on tv and then imagine having that in a test plot that is showing why it is good for soil stewardship with economic and agronomic benefits of a grazable field after corn harvest.

Objectives: 1) Assemble the actionable bill of materials for the project prior to the 01 Apr 2026 starting date. Upon approval and funds availability, quickly procure, assemble and test the system so that it can be placed in the plot field right after planting, which will likely be 15 Apr 2026. 2) Confirm the capabilities of the camera systems to zoom in to very close detail of corn plant and cover crop emergence, ideally in the same image frame, but separated by a few inches to avoid competition. 3) Create a weekly YouTube or equivalent video that summarizes progress to date. The earlier sessions will explain what is expected to happen with the different crops and arrangements, and the later sessions will confirm with imagery that it indeed is happening as expected. Or not... 4) As the season progresses, the major event will be a weekly live video conference with questions, feedback, discussion to build understanding for what is happening in the field-and most importantly, what it means to the soil, the environment, and the grower's practices and economics. The time from harvest thru the winter will be equally important to the grazing cattlemen as the corn growing season. Great imagery will be key. Ref the image below, taken just prior to corn harvest. There is grazing food for months, even with a snow cover.