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Field camera system looks at lodging in cereal crops

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are developing a custom field camera track system to collect data on dynamic plant traits.

Research lead Alex Susko says the project looks at how cereal crops respond to wind in real time to better understand lodging.

“Coming up with ways you can actually quantify that and possibly look for different physiological relationships with movement, and then underlying genetic components to hopefully guide management strategies for minimizing lodging resistance going forward.”

He tells Brownfield similar field camera systems exist, but his system is open source, less expensive, and easier to construct.

Susko says he’s hearing from soybean breeders who are interested in the technology.

“I personally think it would be a very useful system if you’re looking at something that varies on a short timescale.  So if you’re looking at drought stress or hyper-sensitivity response to drought, if you’re looking at wilting over a short period of time.  Something like that I think this type of camera system can be useful for.”

Susko plans to analyze several hours of video in the months to come.

He says he’ll be looking at the relationship of plant traits, planting dates and weather conditions to see how it relates to crop movement, and how that correlates with lodging.