A pilot project combining multispectral proximal sensors and digital cameras
for monitoring tropical pastures

Handcock, Rebecca N.; Gobbett, D. L.; González, Luciano A.; Bishop-Hurley, Greg J.; McGavin, Sharon L.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4673-2016

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4673-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

EUROSPEC – spectral sampling tools for vegetation biophysical...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4673-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 16

Research article

|

22 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 22 Aug 2016

A pilot project combining multispectral proximal sensors and digital cameras for monitoring tropical pastures

Rebecca N. Handcock, D. L. Gobbett, Luciano A. González, Greg J. Bishop-Hurley, and Sharon L. McGavin

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4673-2016-supplement

Data sets

Animation of 545 days of daily digital camera images of tropical pastures from the fenced node at the CSIRO Lansdown Research Farm, Queensland, Australia R. N. Handcock https://doi.org/10.5446/19349

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Short summary

Proximal sensors can assist in managing feed in livestock production systems but raw data needs calibration to biophysical values such as biomass and ground cover. Our pilot project monitored tropical pastures for 18 months using digital cameras, multispectral sensors, soil moisture sensors, and field observations. We developed stringent data cleaning rules that are applicable to other sensor projects. Proximal sensors were found to deliver continual and timely pasture data.