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158 WINES&VINES January 2016 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS WINE EAST W estfield, N.Y.—The day after harvest finished at Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield, winery owner Fred Johnson took his brand new drone into the vineyard and sent it up to shoot video of the countryside around the winery. Less than a week later, Johnson had a 2-min- ute, 20-second video featuring spectacular vineyard photography, trees at the height of fall color and Lake Erie in the distance. But Johnson plans to use the drone for much more than taking pretty pictures. Row crop farmers have used GPS soil mapping for several years, and now extension personnel from the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Labo- ratory—located just down the road from the winery—have started developing vineyard maps that combine information from soil and spatial sensors to help growers obtain more accurate crop estimation. Last year, the ex- tension specialists mapped John- son's vineyards, so he now has the coordinates for his 110 acres of vineyard. "I plan to take videos of our vineyards with the drone's camera about four times a year: once when the vines have about 1.5 feet of growth, and again at full growth. I'll definitely do one be- fore harvest and one after har- vest," Johnson told Wines & Vines. "Stressed vines drop leaves more quickly, and the exact location shows up in the videos." According to Johnson, the gla- cial till soils of the area between Lake Erie and the escarpment have diagonal bands of clay soil running through them, and those bands show up as the most Drone Reveals Stressed Vines at New York Estate Winery stressed vines in the photos. "We need to fertilize more in those areas that are stressed. There's less available to the vines because of the soil structure." Johnson's drone is a DJI Phan- tom 3 Advanced Drone that navi- gates using GPS locations it obtains from numerous GPS sat- ellites from both the United States and Russia. It can fly for up to 23 minutes on a single bat- tery charge and go up to 1.2 miles from its home base. "It knows how far away it is from home base and how much battery power is left," Johnson com- mented. "If you continue to fly it when the battery is getting low, it will ignore what you tell it and go home on its own." The camera on Johnson's DJI Advanced Drone is a 2.7K video camera that takes 1920p x 1080p video. It has a built-in 3-axis sta- bilization gimbal that keeps the camera level and has image-trans- mission technology that allows the operator to see what the camera is seeing as the drone flies hun- dreds of feet from the operator. For those who prefer a higher resolution camera, the DJI Profes- sional Drone has a 4K video camera. —Linda Jones McKee Wine Packaging by Packaging Designed & Manufactured by a Wine Maker, for a Wine Maker 4138 Vineyard Road Stewartstown, PA 17363 Tel: 800-292-3370 Fax: 717-993-9460 Phone: 717-993-2431 Naylor Wine Cellars is a lifetime member of Wine America, Pennsylvania Wine Assoc, Ohio Wine Producers and NY Wine & Grape Foundation WPN is a premier supplier to over 2,000 wineries and wine & spirits shops. Our auto bottom carriers & shippers are the perfect sturdy solution for your retail & online sales! www.NaylorPackaging.com Features & Benefits - Extra sturdy construction for the most protection - Quick & easy to pack & set up - Folds to conform to many different bottles - Trademarked design - Bio-degradable - Quick delivery from our stock - Lies flat for easy storage - Takes up half the space of comparative packages - Tested & approved by UPS and Federal Express as a preferred method of shipping bottles - Custom imprinting and packaging is available to display your logo, enhancing your brand image The bands of brighter yellow Riesling vines are planted on heavier soils.