Soft fruit and berries
High value per square metre, short windows
Picking forecasts for labour planning, irrigation uniformity under tunnels, bird pressure and frost on early varieties.
Blocks of 0.5 to 15 hectares, open field and tunnels.
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What actually goes wrong
Soft fruit is the crop where a scheduling mistake costs the most per hectare. Pickers are booked days ahead against a forecast, and a forecast that is out by a quarter means either fruit left on the plant or a crew standing idle. Under tunnels, irrigation problems compound quickly because there is no rainfall to mask them. Birds take a meaningful share in the fortnight before picking.
How we set it up
Frequent counting flights through ripening so the picking forecast is updated rather than set once. Thermal irrigation checks on the tunnel blocks, where a blocked line shows within days. Detection-triggered bird deterrence rather than a permanent noise source next to a public road.
The flight calendar across a season
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Frost risk profiling on early varieties.
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Pollination assist on poor weather days and fruit set counts.
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Irrigation uniformity under tunnels and canopy health.
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Counting flights for the picking forecast and active bird deterrence.
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Plant health census and replacement planting list.
Capabilities in play, in order of how much they carry
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Yield forecasting
Count what is actually out there
Drones count plants, fruit or ears and turn the counts into a yield estimate for each part of the field.
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Irrigation analysis
Find the dry corner and the buried leak
Thermal imaging exposes dry patches, leaks and uneven coverage so water goes where it is actually needed.
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Autonomous bird deterrence
Move the flock without living next to a gas gun
Drones clear birds from ripening crops on demand, instead of a permanent noise source that birds learn to ignore.
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Frost protection
Know which hollow will freeze tonight
Drones measure temperature across the block and identify the pockets that will drop below the damage threshold first.
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Pollination support
Cover the gap when the bees cannot
Small drones assist pollination indoors and in blocks where natural pollinator activity is short.
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Automated pest monitoring
Standing patrol over every hectare
Regular flights check fields for pest damage and mark the affected areas on a map you can act on.
What you end up with
Recorded on your fields, flight by flight. Not a projection.
- Picking crews booked against a forecast that updates through ripening
- Irrigation faults under tunnels found in days rather than weeks
- Bird response logged by block and hour instead of running continuously
- Plant replacement lists built from a census, not a walk