Senus has been working with farmers, agronomists, and agri-corporates for over 7 years, optimising technology to provide precise soil-health insights to farmers in a simple manner.
Harnessing Precision Insights for Sustainable Agriculture
Over £15 million is spent annually on soil testing, yet the majority of the resulting data ends up on paper in unconventional locations such as the floor of vehicles, biscuit tins, or tucked away in the back of farmhouse filing cabinets. This inefficient use of data can lead to nutrient imbalances and an excessive use of costly fertilisers.
The typical Senus farmer can achieve up to a 33% reduction on their fertiliser expenses by simply implementing more efficient nutrient management practices across the farm.
Data Interpretation with Senus Maps
Multiple layers of satellite data are displayed in an easy-to-interpret format on the Senus maps. Watercourse, soil type, elevation, aspect, and habitat maps, are complemented by farm-specific weather data.
Optimising Nutrient Management with Senus’s NMP
Each farm can run a field-by-field nutrient management plan (NMP) through Senus, which can display a full year’s agronomy plan for your crops. The NMP is fully customisable and adjusts to changes throughout the year. For instance, if March is too wet for applications, the NMP will automatically optimise the balance of the allowed fertiliser for subsequent applications later in the year.
Enhancing Productivity with NDVI Mapping
Senus maps also feature the NDVI report, a valuable tool that ranks fields in terms of productivity. Senus’s interactive maps make NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetative Index), one of the most widely used remote sensing indices since the 1970s, more accessible to farmers and agronomists.
Insights into Crop Health: Understanding NDVI
Fields can be compared and ranked against others with similar crop type, soil type, and management on Senus. Comparisons across years are also facilitated. The NDVI index is suitable for estimating crop productivity across the year, based on how a plant’s leaf reflects energy and light. It provides insights into a crop’s current state and enables comparison with other temporal images to observe changes over time. NDVI uses the near-infrared and red bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to estimate a dimensionless indicator ranging from -1 to 1.
Chlorophyll is the pigment that reflects green waves and absorbs red waves and makes plant leaves appear green to the human eye. A healthy plant, rich in chlorophyll and cell structures, absorbs red light and reflects near-infrared (NIR) during photosynthesis. Consequently, the plant develops and grows and contains more cell structures. With an unhealthy plant, the opposite is true.
In the NDVI map, blue and green colours signify low levels of plant growth or chlorophyll activity. Red shades indicate high levels of plant vigour. The NDVI report in Senus enables fields to be ranked over a 12-month period. This allows farmers to easily identify underperforming fields and facilitates further investigation of potential causes such as compaction, disease, deficiency, or other factors impeding crop yield.
Time-series analysis of fields for soil nutrients is also made easy by the Senus trend maps. This allows at-a-glance monitoring of soil nutrient trends, especially important for the macro elements like phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) which take time to build but can deplete quickly.
Interoperability: FARMEYE’s Open Approach
One of the most important aspects of any digital AgTech nowadays is interoperability. Senus has an open approach to maximise the value of data for farmers and agronomists. Multiple APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are supported by Senus, while integration with machines is supported by Geo-JSON file data export. Soil reports can be exported in map, PDF, and spreadsheet formats also.
Unlock the potential of your farm with precision insights, cost-saving solutions, and seamless data integration with Senus.
Eoghan Finneran,
CEO, Co-Founder at Senus
