Orchard census: data for growth
Jul 2024
Even without specialized geospatial technology knowledge or skills, Australia’s apple and pear growers are gaining new perspectives on their orchards through aerial data and location intelligence.
Jul 2024
)
In early 2022, Apple & Pear Australia Ltd (APAL) identified a need to build a more comprehensive understanding of the orchards that make up Australia’s domestic apple and pear industry. Many orchards across the country lacked up-to-date reliable data to inform business decision-making in their orchard businesses. In some family-owned properties decades of historic knowledge existed in hand-drawn maps or in people’s minds, passed down through generations.
APAL set out to develop the APAL Orchard Census to help growers better understand their orchard properties and share valuable insights on the apple and pear industry’s plantings, including variety mix, density and tree age.
Some growers had previously commissioned maps of their orchards but many hadn’t been updated in years; some were even relying on hand-drawn maps.
)
In 2022, APAL launched a project that aimed to create a Geographic Information System (GIS) that would provide Australia’s apple and pear growers with current, accurate insights to make actionable decisions.
The APAL team began collating data from multiple sources to build an information hub for apple and pear growers containing: consumer, export, harvest, and wholesale data, and crucially, on-the-ground data from the growers themselves, with Nearmap high resolution imagery completing the picture.
Insights extracted from that data and imagery formed the core of the APAL Orchard Census.
At the time APAL began developing its Orchard Census in 2022, Nearmap imagery covered about 65% of Australia’s apple and pear orchards.
Within two years, Nearmap coverage had increased to capture 95% of Australia’s orchards.
One of the challenges APAL faced when collecting data for the APAL Orchard Census was the proliferation of ‘fruit salad’ blocks, which are planted with different varieties at row level rather than by hectare, often with no clear pattern or order. Nearmap imagery helps uncover details to give an understanding of where different varieties begin and end.
)
With the emergence of new, popular apple and pear ‘club’ varieties such as Pink Lady®, Kanzi® and Jazz™, some traditional varieties, like Braeburn, have waned in popularity. This drives consumer demand which influences plantings. The ability to identify varieties is crucial to smarter orchard-management decisions.
“With Nearmap detail we can see what is there and what was there – tree spacing in some instances, where tractors are, and depending on the time of year we can tell the variety by the colour of apples in the bins – the detail is just unbelievable,” said Lauren Mann, Industry Data Manager.
The APAL Orchard Census comprises ~12,000 polygons imported into Esri ArcGIS via the Nearmap API. The polygon data – which includes root stock, tree variety and age, hectares planted, tree spacing and density – helps understand the current status of orchards to make more accurate crop forecasts. This commercially sensitive information is available exclusively to APAL and its growers.
“We need different data points throughout the value chain, right down to the tree,” said Lauren Mann. “Then post-harvest we can see how stock is flowing through cool stores, which gives us an understanding of stock levels compared to consumption.”
Frequent Nearmap surveys – using fixed-wing aircraft fitted with Nearmap proprietary camera systems – help APAL monitor changes over time, to understand the age of trees by knowing when they were planted – information that sometimes even the growers, despite their willingness to help, can’t always provide.
)
“Instead of asking growers to give us data for the whole orchard we can just hover over and click through the maps to see what’s changed, by blocks or rows, and send the growers updated maps,” said Lauren.
Up-to-date aerial maps in the APAL Orchard Census help inform orchard crews to better understand the orchard layout, seeing which rows and trees need attention.
“We’re supplying high-res maps back to the orchards which they’re able to print out and put up in their offices, which has been a game-changer to encourage growers to continue sharing their data.”
Aerial coverage of Australia’s apple and pear orchards will also help by providing APAL and growers with a backup historical view, helping the industry recovery and rebuild after disasters such as the bushfires experienced in Batlow, New South Wales in 2019/2020.
“A key thing was having that relationship with the growers, but with Nearmap imagery to focus the discussion, it was easy to create that.”
Lauren Mann, Industry Data Manager, Apple & Pear Australia LtdThe ability to show growers their orchard in high-resolution detail is helping APAL build better rapport with growers, with accurate imagery reducing the need to manually clarify data, with more time available during face-to-face meetings to discuss general orchard business and future potential.
“The APAL Orchard Census is probably one of the most comprehensive databases in Australian agriculture today,” said Lauren Mann.