Sorghum in Tupaciguara: harvest in progress, monitored

Monitoring of a sorghum harvest in progress at Fazenda Tio Geraldo (Tupaciguara, Brazil), flown over two days (August 17–18, 2026, 1,216 photos, 21.34 ha mapped at a 5.0 cm/px orthophoto). On the flight date, the field was 35% harvested (7.25 ha) and 65% standing (13.38 ha), with 96% of the area classified as mature and only 0.8% still with active leaf.

The recommendation was to harvest the remainder in a single pass, without staggering between the west block (8.75 ha) and the east block (3.94 ha) — a logistics decision, not an agronomic one, since the VARI spread between zones (0.093) fell within measurement noise. The report also compared it against the previous July 25 flight: the recommendation to start from the center-south did not hold up — harvest actually progressed from the north-east (north third 35.3% harvested vs. 10.8% in the recommended south third).

The study explicitly states what it did not measure: plant height (the point cloud was too sparse, result discarded), grain moisture and yield — the harvest date still depends on field-measured grain moisture (18–25% range for grain sorghum).