Use of Drones in Extension Teaching and Research for Wheat Producers
Teaching & Educational Technologies
Jacob Powell
Associate Professor (Practice)
OSU Extension Service
The Dalles
Abstract
The use of drones is becoming more common in cropping systems, however the technology still has a way to go before widespread adoption by wheat farmers in the Pacific Northwest. Multiple extension training events over the last several years by OSU Extension has started making this technology more approachable for farmers to use and understand. Satellite imagery has also been used in the past to calculate NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) by farmers and crop consultants to determine low and high productivity zones in fields. NDVI is calculated using the amount of near infrared reflectance and low red reflectance that occurs off of the crop canopy. More affordable and smaller multispectral cameras are now making it possible to accurately determine NDVI at a higher resolution with drones. Drone imagery was taken throughout the growing season in 2025 and 2026 in North Central Oregon across multiple winter wheat trials with different soft white and hard red wheat varieties examining variable fertilizer rates. A DJI Mavic 3M Drone was used with a 20MP RGB camera (4/3 CMOS) with a four-lens 5MP multispectral array. Drone flights were completed in April and May when winter wheat was at jointing and flag leaf stages. NDVI values were calculated from multispectral drone imagery using PIX4D Fields software. Fertilizer rate and crop available soil nitrogen were found to be significantly correlated with NDVI. NDVI was significantly correlated with grain yield and grain quality. However, there was no significant correlation with nitrogen concentration in wheat tissue sampled at jointing. NDVI values between different wheat varieties was significantly different. This research suggests that drones can be used to make informed management decisions in winter wheat production during the spring, but accuracy may vary with wheat class and variety. Additional research and teaching is continuing this spring and preliminary results will be shared. The use of satellite imagery to determine NDVI will also be discussed and compared to results from using drone mounted sensors. Use of drone imagery and different teaching ideas for extension teaching will also be discussed.
Authors: Jacob Powell
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Jacob Powell Assistant Professor (Practice), Oregon State University Extension, Oregon, 97058