A new version of the agricultural software programme Drone Ag, which uses drones to inspect crops, claims to be 10 times faster than traditional crop walking.

A new version of the mobile app was launched this week and is capable of covering up to 25ac in just five minutes.

The app, called Skippy Scout 2.5, offers field overview, automated scouting and field reports using maps uploaded by the user, and images taken by the drone.

“Our image analysis takes only minutes to provide an easy-to-understand report of the whole field,” said Drone Ag founder Jack Wrangham.

Artificial intelligence

The reports are generated using artificial intelligence (AI) interpretation to flag up potential crop issues and can also be compared to satellite and yield maps to find correlations in field performance.

It can also provide a breakdown with indicators for green area index (GAI), healthy and unhealthy crop cover percentage, weed percentage. It also gives an insect damage measurement.

Skippy Scout version 2.5 provides PDF field reports to help users spot problems with pests and weeds more quickly.

Crop issues such as weeds or pests can be found by viewing the leaf level images on their phone or tablet.

The app can be used by anyone who owns a drone with the monthly subscriptions starting at £30.