Grass Breeding – Let’s Do it on the Fly!

While walking through DLFs field tests these days, bird-singing or silence may be interrupted by a remote continuous hum from high above. The sound is coming from the breeder’s new assistant; a drone collecting images from the entire field

It is spring, fields are green and birds are singing in the sky. Each breeder is on the move, setting up new crosses and assessing hundreds, or thousands of plots for different traits. It is a tedious, but very important job, as the accuracy by which this task is conducted will set the threshold for the subsequent selection step. Higher accuracy equals better statistics and more confident selections. So does also the number of assessments. Time becomes a limiting factor in a race for recording as many data as possible within a narrow growth window – assistance highly appreciated!

Here is where the drones enters the stage. Read more about this valuable tool in the European Seed Magazine's Turf & Forage Insiders, where Chief Scientific Officer in DLF, Klaus K. Nielsen makes his judgement.