Saving a trial after a supercell

Posted on 12. September 2024 by Moritz Gaßan

As anyone involved in agricultural trials knows, setting up and supervising a trial involves considerable effort. Not to mention the knowledge gained from such trials!

It is more than a little frustrating when something goes wrong in the final phase, e.g. due to a severe weather event. This is exactly what happened to us during an experiment in 2024.

…On 18.06.2024, a so-called supercell caused severe damage in the Saxon district of Meißen: Trees were uprooted and houses were partially covered.
Two parallel 380 kV power lines were also affected. A total of 17 pylons were knocked down by the violent storm…

Figure 1: A high-voltage pylon toppled during the event, photo by 50Hertz

Two high-voltage pylons stood at the edge of our test, and during the storm they fell into the trial areas.

Figure 2: Masts and trial site BEFORE the storm

Figure 3: Poles and trial site AFTER the storm, fallen poles top left in the field

Due to the toppled masts and the traffic during the securing measures, a proper harvest including yield mapping was no longer possible in some places. As there was only room for three repetitions on the plot, the trial could no longer be evaluated with statistical certainty.

Figure 4: Data from yield mapping

Multispectral drone flights to the rescue

Rather coincidentally, we flew over the area with our Phantom P4 RTK and its multispectral camera the day before the storm event. It is known from the literature that the yield data can be derived from the NDRE index from a certain period before the harvest.

Abbildung 5: Berechnung des NDRE Index aus NIR und Red Edge Orthophotos

Figure 6: NDRE index calculated from the drone data

This correlation could also be proven here with the help of the yield data from the unaffected area of the trial and the drone data.

Figure 7: Correlation NDRE to yield from yield mapping

On this basis, a fictitious yield map without storm effects was calculated for the entire trial area, making the trial evaluable again!

Figure 8: Fictitious yield map in a 1m grid as the basis for the trial evaluation

Ask us, we look forward to your tasks! We specialise in company-specific solutions, we value you and your challenges =;-).

Our contact details are:

exagt@exagt.de or personally:

moritz.gassan@exagt.de
+49 (0) 170 365 2072, +49 (0) 34324 269739

arnim.grabo@exagt.de
+49 (0) 176 72588814, +49 (0) 34324 269737

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