In Northeast Colorado, Lens is enabling cost-effective agriculture monitoring at scale using accessible high-resolution imagery and powerful analysis tools to analyze vegetation trends and track farming practices like cover cropping and harvest timing.
Across the expansive agricultural landscape of Northeast Colorado, center pivot irrigation systems dot the terrain. For agricultural evaluators and program managers, understanding what's happening across these thousands of parcels—spanning individual farms to statewide conservation initiatives—has traditionally required expensive field visits and time-consuming manual surveys. But remote monitoring offers a streamlined, time-saving approach. With the advanced analysis tool and a library of satellite imagery sources to choose from, Lens makes it easy to monitor agricultural properties at unprecedented scale and accuracy.
In this example, we cover how to:
With Lens, agricultural evaluators can access high-resolution imagery on a per-acre basis, with recent captures available as recently as last month. But the real power emerges when analyzing trends over the past couple of decades using the platform's vegetation analysis tools.
By selecting individual pivots and analyzing changes in vegetation indices like NDVI, a compelling story of agricultural practices unfolds. Data from 2018-2019 shows notably lower vegetation values compared to subsequent years—clicking on individual data points reveals that only half the pivot was in production during those seasons. Compare this to 2021 when the field was fully irrigated and productive, or 2022 when the area remained fallow until late winter cover cropping created the higher vegetation values visible in the data. The analysis even captures unexpected events, like snowstorms in February 2023 that appear as distinctive white values in the timeline.
Beyond individual parcel analysis, the Lens Dashboard provides custom visualization capabilities that aggregate trends from hundreds or thousands of parcels into comprehensive statewide overviews. For managers evaluating cover cropping practices, soil health initiatives, or programs like STAR, this scaling capability transforms individual field insights into program-wide intelligence.
When it comes to evaluating agricultural properties for investment decisions, managing statewide conservation programs, and monitoring the adoption of sustainable farming practices, Lens brings together the imagery, analysis tools, and actionable insights to support critical agricultural decision-making at any scale.
Contact our team to get started.
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