At the recent American Pecan Council, Pecan Congress meeting we all learned about Land IQ. APC contracted with Land IQ to map every acre of pecans in the US and they have been working for the past few months to get the job completed. This will be an ongoing project but most of the acres are mapped and it is very interesting. Using sophisticated satellite maps, map algorithms and ground truthing they have a nearly 100% accurate map of pecan tree acres, pecan orchard owners, pecan orchard age and even a prediction of production based on tree size and age.
The Texas Pecan Board is working with APC and Land IQ to also be able to use Texas data for a variety of reasons:
Help TPB locate growers
Identify potential for insect and disease movement in the state
Identify new or changing orchard plantings
Help with crop estimates for marketing
Develop a grower network to gather weekly crop progress and crop condition
Aid in grower outreach for education
Help in marketing (Texas consumers like to buy from Texas growers)
Identify managed native orchards or native orchards that could be managed
These are just a few possibilities and over the next few months I will share how we are using this new technology to improve Texas pecans.