Frost troubles Keith Mann each year. The icy condensation is detrimental to his crop in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the modern American cranberry industry. As the temperatures drop into the fall months, the owner of 150 acres of cranberry bogs throws on some layers and preps a network of sprinklers, which spray enough temperate water to keep the vines above freezing until the sun rises.
This is no small feat. With hundreds of sprinklers deployed across his field, checking each nozzle would require a team of people working throughout the night. Recently, Mann came across a solution: a drone.
“I’ve always been an RC enthusiast,” Mann told The Verge. “I’ve had RC helicopters and planes since I was a kid. What I find most useful is I can scan over all my acreage in a short period of time.”
Last Christmas, he purchased DJI Phantom 4 drone. In the early morning, he sends his drone over fields, providing him an aerial view of the land, allowing him to point out where some of the sprinkler heads aren’t activating. “Flying at 300 feet, they stick out like a sore thumb.”
Mann is just one of many Massachusetts farmers who have been using technology in innovative ways to adapt to a changing climate, along with increased competition from farmers in other states. In the birthplace of the cranberry industry, tech and data might hold the key to survival.
