The Use of NDVI in a Differentiated Nitrogen Application Strategy in Perennial Ryegrass for Seed Production.

Denmark is a world leading grass seed exporter that is striving to increase efficiency and modernisation of the production system. To further increase the efficiency while reducing negative environmental impacts, there is a need to introduce precision agriculture technologies in these crops. This study aims to develop and implement differentiated nitrogen application based on images and calculation of normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI). The study will focus on drone/camera technology used to achieve NDVI values, when images should be taken during the growing season and how the NDVI values are correlated to the final seed yield. The study has been carried out in perennial ryegrass and red fescue grown in field experiments at Aarhus University, Denmark.