WinField United Partners with Aker For New Scouting App

To help farmers with timely decisions, WinField United and Aker partnered to introduce AkerScout this spring. A directed crop scouting mobile and web app AkerScout helps identify and prioritize damage across multiple fields and crops to address areas that need immediate attention.

AkerScout comes with a base set of features that are free; however, various premium features are enabled when high-resolution aerial vegetation imagery is loaded. The AkerScout base free app offers:

• A comprehensive database supporting over 70 crops to identify pests, diseases and plant-limiting environmental stresses.
• GPS-enabled crop scouting with identification and capture of disease, pests, weather, plant population, severity of damage, photos and notes.
• Field mapping and comprehensive reporting.
• Compatibility with iOS and Android across phones and tablets.

Aker UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) imagery, combined with a review by a staff of agronomists, creates scouting zones that define areas of concern. This verification allows calculation and prioritization via financial threat of field problems — be it weeds, diseases, insects, or compaction or drainage issues — for quick action. Aker uses current market prices and crop yields to project the potential cost of not taking action.

AkerScout support three types of imagery. AkerScout imagery provides a clear, quick snapshot of field health so that prompt action can be taken when necessary.

• RGB imagery: Documents crop stresses that can be seen with the human eye.
• Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) imagery: Defines zones of plant health and can be used for nitrogen prescriptions, fungicide recommendations and to confirm nutrient uptake.
• Thermal imagery: Informs irrigation management decisions, defines soil management zones and documents diseases.