Multispectral Crop Surveys: NDVI & NDRE Mapping

What is a multispectral crop survey?

A multispectral drone survey captures light beyond what the human eye can see — specifically the red edge and near-infrared bands that reveal how a plant is actually photosynthesising, not just how green it looks. Flying a DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral over your field, we build georeferenced index maps that expose variability in crop health across every part of the field, at a resolution fine enough to spot individual problem patches.

NDVI vs NDRE — what's the difference?

NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) is the most widely used vegetation index, and it's most useful early in the season when crops are still establishing — it's highly sensitive to changes in biomass and vigour at that stage. NDRE (Normalized Difference Red Edge) uses the red-edge band instead, and stays sensitive to chlorophyll and nitrogen status even once a canopy is dense and closed, when NDVI readings start to plateau. We capture both indices on every flight, along with GNDVI, OSAVI, and LCI, so you get a complete read on crop condition regardless of growth stage.

What this data is used for

Index maps translate directly into decisions: identifying where to target a fungicide pass, where nitrogen is running low, where establishment has failed and needs attention, and where drainage issues are quietly costing yield. The same georeferenced data underpins variable rate application and prescription mapping, converting crop variability directly into a file your sprayer or spreader can act on.