The use of drones in agriculture is rapidly increasing. A field trial was conducted in Globodol using the DJI Phantom 4 Pro field drone to measure plant spacing in maize. The trial was laid out at three planting speeds of 6 km/h, 9 km/h and 12 km/h using the Amazone ED 4500-2 Special vacuum maize planter. For each treatment, represented by different planting speeds, there were three replicates where planting distances were measured. We compared the planting distances measured with the handheld meter and with the field drone. At the end, ear analysis and grain yield were measured. The average plant spacing was similar at all three different speeds, ranging from 16.7 to 17.1 cm. There was little variation or absolute difference between plant spacing measured with the handheld meter and the field drone. The smallest difference occurred at a planting speed of 9 km/h, 0.45 cm. The greatest grain yield occurred at a planting speed of 12 km/h (6527 kg/ha). There were no differences in the number of rows per ear, while the number of grains per ear varied from 395 to 418. Grain mass per ear ranged from 110 to 118 g, while cob mass ranged from 11 to 12 g. The results show that the use of a field drone to measure planting distances is useful compared to manual measurement with a handheld meter. Also, a higher planting speed of 9 km/h or more is recommended in terms of grain yield and ear analysis with the vacuum maize planter.
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