Crop cameras are rapidly changing fertiliser application from a fixed-rate operation into a real-time decision process. By continuously analysing crop growth and biomass across the full field, the latest camera systems can instantly adjust nitrogen rates on the move — opening the door to more precise input use, lower losses and smarter autonomous farming systems. Future Farming looks at the latest developments, emerging suppliers and where this technology is heading next.

Dimitris Evangelopoulos, a Greek grower of durum wheat for a pasta producer and a technology enthusiast, was looking 10 years ago for a crop sensor to optimise the protein content of his wheat. He chose a Trimble GreenSeeker. However, he was dissatisfied with the limited field of view of the sensors and the inability to convert measurements into fertiliser applications using his own calculation rules. Together with George Varvarelis, and supported by that pasta producer, he started developing his own crop camera in 2017 under the name Augmenta.

Meeting the specific needs of Dutch growers remains the key to success

The camera was first presented at an event in the Netherlands in 2019 to raise additional funding. At the time, claims were made of up to 12% higher yields, up to 20% better product quality and up to 15% less fertiliser use. When Vantage Agrometius took on the importership in 2022 and introduced the Augmenta Field Analyser in the Netherlands, more than 500 units had already been sold worldwide. This gave several growers enough confidence to purchase one for around €20,000. ‘A valuable addition,’ said a number of them after one season. Mainly thanks to the multispectral camera, which scans the crop or soil 20 metres ahead and up to 42 metres wide in high resolution.

Fruit growers and wine growers leading the way in applications

For use in orchards and vineyards, various camera systems are now available aimed at variable treatment of individual trees and parts of them. For example, the Dutch company Aurea Imaging supplies the TreeScout sensor set for mounting on top of the cab for fruit tree-specific applications. BBLeap supplies its LeapEye camera technology for orchard sprayers for tree-specific treatments. WEED-IT also supplies its Quadro system for the same purpose to orchard sprayer manufacturers. American company Bloomfield Robotics, which was acquired by Kubota in 2024, mounts its FLASH camera on quads and tractors for scanning mainly fruit and nut trees, focusing on crop growth and health. On the other side of the world, New Zealand’s Cropsy does something similar in vineyards.

In this case, while mowing, the Aurea Imaging TreeScout sensor mounted on top of the narrow-track tractor cab scans the blossom on the pear trees. In this way, a blossom map is created that can be used for subsequent operations. Photo: Peter Roek

Takeover throws a spanner in the works

One year after its introduction, Augmenta was taken over by CNH Industrial and priorities changed. The multinational, which had already taken a minority stake in the company earlier, prioritised countries other than the Netherlands. Many Augmenta Field Analysers ended up stored away here, as growers felt their specific development requests were no longer being addressed. However, Raven, also part of CNH Industrial and operating in Europe from Hoorn, North Holland, believes the takeover could work out positively for growers here. According to Thijs Esselink, commercially responsible for Raven in North-West Europe, the company has not stood still. “You can use the Augmenta Field Analyser in 4 ways: for scanning crops, for scanning and directly applying variably, for variable application of products and fertiliser based on previous scans, and by using a task map as the basis for an application.”

Optical crop sensors and cameras from past to present

Enthusiasm was already high some 30 to 35 years ago, when research started on several continents into the potential of crop sensors for site-specific top dressing of arable crops with nitrogen fertilisers.In Oklahoma in the United States, researchers at Oklahoma State University started research in 1989 into detecting weeds on arable land using (near) infrared sensors. After it had already been concluded that detected variations in the biomass of a winter wheat crop could be used to vary nitrogen top dressing, the same sensor was tested for that purpose. Spectral near infrared (NIR) values were converted into Normalised Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI). This is a measure of crop condition, also referred to as a crop index or greenness index.

In the late 1990s, the researchers entered into a partnership with NTech Industries for production of the sensor, which from then on was called GreenSeeker. Based on the same principle, the WeedSeeker was also introduced for spot spraying weeds. In mid-2009, Trimble then acquired NTech Industries. Both sensors are mainly found on sprayer booms.

German technology ‘blows over’

Also in the 1990s, fertiliser producer Yara, then still called Hydro Agri, started developing the N-Sensor for nitrogen top dressing in cereals at the Hanninghof research farm in Dülmen, Germany. This N-Sensor came onto the market in 1999 and also sparked the interest of Dutch arable farmers. Mainly because the sensor worked from above the cab of a tractor or self-propelled field sprayer. Not one sensor every few metres, but a box measuring biomass on both sides. Although with a limited field of view per sensor and for a certain number of (cereal) crops. This means the Yara N-Sensor is mainly used in large-scale cereal-growing areas.

Further south in Germany, Fritzmeier Umwelttechnik started commercialising the Isaria crop sensor in 2012, based on 20 years of research by the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Thanks to the use of 4 instead of 2 wavelengths of (near) infrared, the Isaria crop sensor was said by the manufacturer to suffer less quickly from saturation that occurs when measuring crops that have absorbed a lot of nitrogen. In August last year, the German company FarmBlick acquired Isaria from Fritzmeier.

This is the Augmenta Field Analyser

The Field Analyser features 3 multispectral cameras (NIR, red narrow and red edge for the NDRE crop index) for biomass measurement and 2 4K RGB cameras for visuaThe latter work with pixels measuring 3.08 cm². 3.08 cm2. The field of view equals the mounting height multiplied by a factor of 10 and is a maximum of 42 metres wide. In practice, this is usually a maximum of 40 metres. Within that range, 20 sub-areas are distinguished (at 40 metres, each 2 metres wide), which the cameras can interpret separately.

If you set the camera to a narrower working width, each sub-area becomes one twentieth of that width. For controlling an implement, such as a fertiliser spreader or field sprayer, only the NIR values are currently used. The measured values are averaged per side, allowing separate left and right dosing where relevant. All measurement values and as-applied values are stored.

Different mounting bracket but the same technology as before. The Fie...

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