When most people hear “drones in agriculture,” they think spray drones. They have their place, but that’s just one piece of the story.
For operations making decisions long before a sprayer ever hits the field, mapping or imaging drones are one of the most valuable tools. Early stand counts, plant health, stress detection, performance tracking. Mapping drones let researchers see the field before problems show up to the naked eye. That’s how Karl Bobholz, Product Manager at Renk Seed, an independent seed company based in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, integrates drone-based data into product advancement decisions.
Karl grew up in the Corn Belt, down the road from a seed company, spending summers detasseling corn. Since then, he built a career in the seed industry that spans independent and large-scale corporate breeding programs, giving him firsthand insight into how products are developed, evaluated and positioned for growers.
At Renk Seed, Karl works in breeding and product development. Thousands of experimental corn hybrids are tested every year across dozens of research locations. However, only a small fraction of products make it into a bag. Every product has to be backed by solid, reliable data.
As the technology became available, Renk began to adopt mapping drones in their processes to strengthen field observations, standardize measurements across locations and remove guesswork. With a small team and a limited research budget, Karl knew any technology had to prove its value quickly.
“I knew there were solutions out there,” he said. “But I didn’t have the budget of millions of dollars like a large corporation.”
The Right Relationship
He started with a few used drones and off-the-shelf software, testing what worked and what didn’t. That’s when he found Pix4Dfields. Working with the software and talking with Julius Petri, Head of Agriculture for Pix4D, Karl began figuring out how to adapt prior learning into Renk’s research.
Not long after, Julius connected him with Airstrike Ag and its founder, Nathan Stein.
“It was refreshing,” Karl said. “Nathan gets it. He’s a farmer. And he’s an ag technology geek like me.” That relationship matters. Having a partner who can speak both farming and data makes it possible to move drones from an experimental tool to a trusted part of Renk’s research workflow.
Field Recon into Data
Today, drones are fully integrated into Renk’s breeding program. Using the DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral with Pix4Dfields, Renk is able to collect consistent, repeatable data throughout the growing season.
“We fly four times a year,” Karl said. “Flights begin early, around V2 emergence. We focus on stand establishment. Pix4D lets us define polygons for each entry and extract data plot by plot. Early Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) shows how plants are performing, while ground elevation sets a baseline for later measurements.”
“Next is V5 to V6. That’s early-season vigor,” he said. “We’re doing NDVI again to understand each product's early growth.”
VT to R1 is for stress evaluation. Really what that is, is understanding what products are under stress from early season as it switches into reproductive state
At R5, near black layer, Renk captures canopy elevation and compares it with ground height to calculate overall plant height. Additional indexes track stay-green and other traits that are hard to quantify by eye alone.
“Before, we were just relying on yield,” Karl said. “It might be 40 bushels off from one entry to another, and maybe we didn’t know it was half-stand. Now we’re using drone data for quality control before putting it into our predictive modeling tools.”
Data Eliminating Bias
Drones haven’t completely replaced boots-on-the-ground in seed research. We still walk plots, especially late-stage entries, but the scale and objectivity have changed the game.
“I’m still walking the field,” he said. “But instead of trying to walk everything, I can focus on late stage products and still get data on products that are three, four, five years out.”
Bias is out the window.
“As product managers, we all have favorite products,” he said. “The drones don’t care what products they are. They just tell you what the data says.”
According to Karl, “Spray drones get the attention, but mapping drones are the real unsung heroes.”
As drones become more accessible, trust is still the differentiator. “There’s no shortage of innovation in the marketplace, but at some point, you have to choose a solution you believe in and run with it.”
For Renk Seed, that solution is Airstrike Ag. From the field to the data lab, it is the connection he relies on to turn raw drone flights into actionable intelligence and keep Renk’s research moving like a mission-ready unit.