Aker aerial imagery trials showing ROI from corn and soybean fungicide

This season, third-party trials conducted by growers and in collaboration with Aker are tracking plant health and yield results for Delaro®, a new corn and soybean fungicide from Bayer. As the season progresses, comparison images show the positive plant health benefits Delaro has on crops.

After applying fungicide, Aker uses high-resolution drones to capture multiple images of the fields. The results give growers a map, with red areas indicating less healthy plants and green representing healthy plants. The trials will also track yield comparisons.

“Monitoring a crop in a season can help pinpoint if plants are under stress from things like disease,” said Todd Golly, co-founder of Aker. “Using aerial imagery helps growers understand how to better optimize inputs, which can increase yield and profitability. It helps growers be more productive in the field.”

Delaro provides broad-spectrum residual activity from dual modes of action, giving growers disease protection from day one through the end of the spray interval. This allows for consistent performance and better yields. It also improves plant health, allowing corn and soybeans to better handle stress.

“Trials in 2017 found that Delaro provided a substantial yield increase over the untreated check in corn and soybeans,” said Ray Lello, fungicides product manager at Bayer. “However, we also consistently heard from trial participants that they observed improved plant health from Delaro. That’s why we are thrilled to collaborate with Aker to track qualitative metrics like plant health in addition to the known quantitative yield results of Delaro over the untreated check in corn and soybeans. Understanding how these benefits help contribute to an overall return on investment is beneficial for growers as they look to get the most out of their corn hybrids and soybean varieties.”

Delaro was first available for the 2018 growing season. Before its release, across two years of trials, Delaro averaged a 12-18 bushel per acre increase in corn and a 4-5 bushel per acre increase in soybeans compared to untreated checks. In these trials, Delaro had a 90 per cent win rate over the untreated checks.

Aker is an in-season crop monitoring and autonomous scouting solution for farming globally. Aker enables proactive observation and directed scouting to alert of adverse environmental conditions impacting crop health and yield.