Case Study: Marion Ag Service preserves crop yield with Planet satellite imagery

Prevent Potential Crop Damage and Preserve Revenue with Satellite Data

The customer, Marion Ag Service, a provider of solutions to growers, faced the challenge of identifying spider mite infestations in hop fields early enough to prevent significant crop damage. Traditional scouting methods were too slow to detect this fast-reproducing pest, which had previously resulted in a grower losing over $67,000. To help their growers, Marion Ag Service sought a better method for early detection and turned to vendor Planet for a solution using their PlanetScope Monitoring satellite imagery.

The solution implemented by Planet provided Marion Ag Service with high-resolution, daily satellite imagery. This data allowed for the early identification of crop stress, signaling a probable infestation weeks before it was noticed by an agronomist on the ground. The results demonstrated that with Planet's service, a well-timed intervention could have saved a grower more than $43,000. Consequently, the affected grower employed Marion Ag's precision services for the following season, validating the value of Planet's data.

Marion Ag Service

Jeff Freeman

Director of Sales and Marketing