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Photo by the Crop Condor The Condor, soaring at 1,000 feet, shot this photo of the Purdue Agronomy Center five miles west of campus on U.S. 52 (the highway at the top).

Ross also found that cloudy days, so prevalent in this section of the country, make high-quality satellite imagery iffy, at best.

“It just isn’t completely dependable,” Ross says. “We were always at the mercy of too many variables. But with the Crop Condor, now we can control everything.”

The Crop Condor prototype cost about $30,000 to build. Ross hopes future generations can be fabricated for about half that.

To date, the Condor has recorded only still digital photographs. But Ross hopes to hook up a video camera to the UAV so clients can see what it sees while the Condor is still in flight.

When that happens, Ross says the potential of the Condor is as limitless as the sky itself.

“Forestry and wildlife agencies could use the Crop Condor to monitor forest fires,” Ross says. “Cattlemen in Montana could use it to monitor their herds on the open range. I could even see police departments using the Crop Condor to help them during football games with traffic control.”

But Ross knows the Condor’s claim to fame is how quickly and accurately it can help farmers improve the yields of their fields.

“There still are only two ways to increase crop production,” Ross says. “A farmer can either buy or rent more ground, or he can improve the productivity of the ground he already has.”

When an acre of prime farm ground can go for as much as $4,000 (if there is any ground available), the economics of the decision become pretty simple. Tile line location can cost from $5 to $10 an acre.

Ross launched his career while he was an undergraduate studying general agriculture.

“For three summers, I worked for Agro Advisers out of Star City, scouting fields in northwest Indiana,” Ross says.

For four years (1979-82) Ross worked for Chemlawn Corp. as a diagnostic field agronomist and integrated pest management manager.

After a 12-year stint with Ag VANTAGE and CLC Laboratory in Westerville, Ohio, Ross was appointed director of agronomy for the Remington Hybrid Seed Co.

Based about 30 miles northwest of the Purdue campus, Remington Hybrid operates production plants in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota.

It was the perfect time and place to start CAL MAR Labs. Soon, CAL MAR was performing 1,200 soil samples a day, making it one of the busiest independent soil labs in the country.

But even the best and the busiest consultants have someone they rely on for advice.

For Ross, it’s a source he has used most of his life ... his dad.

“He’s still the best diagnostic agronomist I know,” Ross the younger says.

The price is right, and the advice usually is, too.

Contact Ross at curtr@calmarlabs.com