Atfarm crop monitoring: what does it do?

European satellites take pictures of the whole world every 2-4 days. Atfarm translates these into biomass maps.

What can Atfarm do for me?

Atfarm helps you to plan your field trips more efficiently by checking the fields from your computer before you go there: Which field seems to grow slower and need a check? Which areas in the field need a closer inspection? If I need to take a sample in the field, where is the best place? Atfarm will not solve crop problems but helps you to find out quicker. When you know where they are, you can try to fix them. Some can be fixed this season, but others possibly only for next season or never. This depends on the cause.

What happens if there are clouds?

A satellite can not see through clouds. Atfarm automatically filters out these images. Sometimes a small cloud is visible. This image can not be used. Luckily images are taken every 2-4 days, so the cloud problem is smaller than with earlier satellites.

Why is the basic map to draw field boundaries outdated? Sometimes fields are merged or split into two or show a different crop type.

Like in Google Maps, this detailed map is made from images taken from an airplane. This is expensive and usually paid by local governments. Therefore these maps can be 1 to 10 years old.

I can not draw my field, as the base map shows a cloud over my field. What to do?

In very rare situations, there can be images with a few clouds. In that case, please send an email to hello@at.farm .

How do I switch to crop view?

Biomass is the same as crop development. In the bottom right corner of the map, next to the zoom buttons you see a square. When you click on it, you see 4 options: Base map: used to draw your field borders Field view: actual satellite image in true color. You can actually see from the satellite what the real color is of your crop. For example, you can see a brown field turning green, or a green cereal field starting to turn yellow-brown getting ready for harvest. This view is not well suited to show different shades of green. The next two options are better for that. NDVI biomass: biomass, or crop growth is calculated from different information (wavelengths) from the satellite images. Differences are clearly visible in different shades of green. NDVI is the best choice in the early development of the crop. Later the whole field turns dark green and differences are no longer visible. This is the time to move over to Atfarm’s unique 4 th option: N-Sensor biomass. N-Sensor biomass: Atfarm is unique here to show differences in a well-developed crop. For early growth stages, option 3 is better. Take care: the color range goes from brown over green and blue to pink. A bare field will show as dark brown, but a young crop will display as lighter shades of brown. This might be confusing in the beginning.

Biomass is the amount of green crop growing in your field. This is calculated from different information (wavelengths) from the satellite images.

Atfarm | Yara International

Farmers in wheat field looking at Atfarm

Monitor your crops using satellite images

Today your adviser has to keep distance and you want to plan your field visits efficiently.

Yara’s Atfarm offers free and easy to use crop monitoring via satellite images.

Regular observations enable more efficient use of fertilizer, manure and other inputs.
Differences in the field can be spotted easily. Focus your field checks easily.
Simply draw or import your fields and ready to go in minutes.

Create a free Atfarm account

Example - winter wheat with 3 seeding dates

This Atfarm image shows a field with 3 different seeding dates. You can clearly see 3 clear zones with low to high biomass. With Atfarm you can easily follow how these differences get bigger or less.