Farmstar
FARMSTAR, the crop management support service developed by Infoterra France, is already well-known for the management of wheat, barley and rape crops.
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This year, for the first time, a Corn campaign was set up as an experiment in the west of the Gers département and the Mont-de-Marsan region, in Les Landes département.
This campaign, conducted in the framework of the INFOAGRI project (certified by the Aeronautics, Space and Embedded Systems competitiveness cluster in the Aquitaine and Midi Pyrénées regions), served three cooperatives (Maïsadour, Agralia and Vivadour) and about forty farmers.
It ran from the end of April to the end of October 2007 and covered approximately 2,000 hectares.
Despite a very wet summer in the southwest of France, Spot Image, which provided the satellite data required for the service, was able to obtain five SPOT and FORMOSAT images (namely about one image per month). Thanks to the processing and analysis of these images, and phenological and eco-physiological models, six FARMSTAR maps have been delivered to farmers, with advice drawn up by ARVALIS – the Plant Institute. This advice, regularly spaced over time, consisted of:
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recommendations for the addition of nitrogen at the start of the campaign
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information about the state of the crops at three key dates in their development (sowing + 6 weeks, flowering, and seed stage at 50% humidity), which is particularly important for regulating irrigation
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forecasts on the date of maturity (seed at 30% humidity), allowing the logistics of harvesting to be organised.
