March 2026 issue

Volume 59, Issue 3

Farmers in the Mid-South are losing yield because water and heat stress often go unnoticed until it’s too late for effective intervention. This month, we start a three-part series, "Seeing the Stress from Above: Drone Imaging for Smarter Water and Crop Management," where we’ll show how modern UAV imaging uncovers early, invisible crop stress—and how farmers and their advisers can use the right tools and maps to make smarter irrigation decisions that boost efficiency, reduce risk, and increase profitability.

In this first article in the series, we’ll explain how drone-based thermal and multispectral imaging can reveal early, invisible stress signals—long before crops show visible symptoms—allowing growers to act sooner and allocate water more efficiently. By shifting from reactive scouting to proactive, field-wide monitoring, UAV tools help farmers and their advisers protect yield potential and make smarter irrigation and management decisions.