Fruit Growers News published a feature on Skysense — Skysense Drones Take Flight Against Bird Damage in Fruit Orchards — looking at how growers of blueberries, cherries, and apples are using our drone program to protect their harvest.
The numbers behind the story are familiar to anyone farming high-value fruit: bird damage costs the U.S. fruit industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year, with losses running as high as 27 percent of sweet cherry yield in some studies. Traditional deterrents — netting, kites, sound cannons — lose their effect as birds adapt.
The article follows how our program works in practice: drones launch from an on-site charging dock, patrol from sunrise to sunset on flight plans built for each orchard, and are supervised by certified pilots in Kennewick, Washington who study the bird species and risk zones specific to every site.
The best part, as always, is hearing it from growers:
“I love that they’re all electric… it’s extremely low maintenance,” says Jamie Baird.
“Skysense allowed us to focus on harvest operations while knowing our fruit crop was being actively protected,” says Patrick Dorsing.
Read the full article at Fruit Growers News, or run the numbers for your own operation.