Transforming the Landscape with Ranger: Skytec Partners with Limestone Valley RC&D for Agricultural Soil and Usage Studies

Skytec leaders have historically partnered with conservation organizations for land use monitoring. With the introduction of the company’s comprehensive Ranger tool, Skytec can capture macro and micro-level monitoring and analysis to create dynamic, predictive tools that have the potential to benefit agribusiness and conservation organizations alike.

Skytec leaders recently announced a new partnership with Limestone Valley Resource Conservation & Development, a nonprofit committed to enhancing communities within its 11-county area through conservation, water quality improvement, natural resource education, and sustainable agriculture.

“Overall, through Limestone Valley RC&D, we work to improve the lives of North Georgians within these counties with a focus on agriculture,” says Stephen Bontekoe, Executive Director of Limestone Valley. “We address and aim to improve public well-being through community support packages—improving air quality, water quality, and soil health—related to natural resource issues that stretch beyond individual parcels.”

Seeking Best Management Practices

Skytec Chief Technology Officer Andy Carroll and Bontekoe saw an opportunity through the Natural Resource Conservation Service to better understand dynamic soil properties and develop best management practices for conservation across Limestone Valley’s 11 county area.

Through this partnership, Skytec will capture remotely sensed imagery products, such as satellite imagery through Planet, with LiDAR and infrared data through UAS. Skytec data analysts will layer other available land use data with collected soil sample data. The end goal is to develop a proof-of-concept tool that shows correlations between land use best management practices and soil types. This tool will enable Limestone Valley and other conservation organizations to create a predictive model that will ideally inform best management practices to increase soil health.

“Our goal is to establish where we might see correlations between land use, soil types, and management practices. With the vanguard of new technologies with Skytec, we’re employing tried and true field data and lab analysis to verify correlations that we can then better understand the best management practices that impact dynamic soil characteristics,” Bontekoe says.

 

Macro- and Micro-scale Data
Skytec and Bontekoe will analyze 10 different soil types across the region for 18 months, collecting and analyzing soil samples on a trimester basis to evaluate microbial life and soil respiration and analyze this information in relation to data captured through satellite imagery and LiDAR.

By collecting on a trimester basis to evaluate dynamic properties of soil and documenting land management history and current practices, Bontekoe and Skytec hope to provide a better snapshot of what is happening agronomically to better understand what’s happening within the soil profile.

“This project really demonstrates the capacity of Ranger as we capture satellite data and UAS data, combined with field samples,” Carroll says. “Ideally we’ll be able to fine tune a soil management system that will benefit these North Georgia communities.”

LiDAR and near infrared imagery provide data related to the vegetative quality, which Bontekoe says can be correlated to the nutrient density of plants. Similarly, the team will interview land managers and owners about management practices and overlay that data to generate an output that a planner could use to better understand the overall impact of these practices.

“We want our product to benefit our community,” Bontekoe says. “If we can produce better dynamic soil properties to keep the soil healthier, we may help farmers stay in business, produce healthier foods, improve local economies, and reduce negative impacts to our overall environment with greater climate resilience.”

Meeting Conservation Objectives

Bontekoe and Skytec aim to combine field data collected from various soil types and additional data over a greater area to build a full scale tool that can better inform the planning process.

“This tool may be able to help us meet overall conservation objectives—to increase organic matter in soil—and specifically help planners understand the nuances of individual soil types, as well as land uses and best management practices that have the greatest return on investment,” Bontekoe says.

Agriculture as a business seeks greater return on investment while also caring for the infrastructure, or the soil, Bontekoe notes.

“We’re seeking to create a tool to better understand how to gain the most return on investment and conservation or production benefit. This tool has the potential to enhance American farm production while also protecting American resources and making us more climate resilient. We’re leveraging technology to move forward and meet the needs and demands of a changing climate and growing population.”

Learn how Skytec’s Ranger application can help your business monitor crucial assets—contact us for a demo.