March 2021 - 16

Laser scarecrows used for Northeastern sweet corn
By Dean Peterson
VGN Correspondent
Sweet corn growers in Rhode Island
are in one of the most highly urbanized
areas in the country. The term is
peri-urban agriculture - where all
growers adjoin an urban area and,
unfortunately, this can put growers
close to a state of siege with urban
neighbors.
For sweet corn growers, the issue is
noise and the propane cannons used to
scare birds away.
" Rhode Island is a highly urbanized
area and there is real conflict over
noise between sweet corn growers and
their neighbors, " said Rebecca Brown
in the University of Rhode Island's
(URI) Department of Plant Sciences
and Entomology. Brown was a speaker
at the recent Great Lakes Fruit,
Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO,
which was held virtually.
Laser scarecrows are used in many
places for bird control in sweet corn but
Rhode Island is different. The fields are
very small and often irregular.
" New York growers have had good
success with lasers on 100-acre fields, "
Brown said, but those models of laser
scarecrows don't fit Rhode Island.
" We wanted something in place of
propane cannons that wouldn't upset
neighbors, " Brown said.
A laser scarecrow for peri-urban
sweet corn had to be economical
enough to have each unit protect less
than 10 acres or growers wouldn't use
it. The laser had to work at least as
well as propane cannons, had to be
easily movable between fields without
a lot of labor and had to be capable of
operating on either a battery or small,
solar panel.
" Commercial laser products didn't
fit large urban areas, " Brown said.
" We had to have a way to turn the
laser off when crossing an area where
the grower wanted to turn it off. We
needed a way to block the beam so it
wouldn't interfere with neighbors or
traffic. " The laser beam also had to be
kept low enough to not interfere with
aircraft takeoffs and landings.
The laser beam angle and height
had to be variable to accommodate
different corn heights and Rhode
Island's irregular and rolling fields yet
still be simple to adjust.
The device eventually produced by
URI researchers was the URI Laser
Scarecrow Design.
The URI Laser Scarecrow Design
features a 50 milliwatt (mW), widebeam,
laser.
It has a servo motor for
precise, vertical rotation and a stepper
motor for horizontal settings. An
infra-red tape sensor controls the laser
pattern.
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The URI Laser Scarecrow Design
mounts on the side of a pole. The laser
is mounted under the main device and
has a tilt switch to protect aircraft. The
scarecrow has a daylight sensor and
turns on at dawn and off at dusk.
Early results with the URI Laser
Scarecrow Design have been effective
with less than 10% damage when
damage on unprotected fields reached
almost 80%. " Laser scarecrows are
most effective if placed early - before
the birds discover the corn - so you
can keep the birds from even settling
in the field, " Brown said.
" We aim the beam at the tassel
so the birds see them, " Brown said.
" The beam is like a lid on the tassel
and the birds won't roost on it. "
However, any tassels above the beam
aren't protected; uneven fields are a
challenge.
URI isn't selling the laser scarecrows
and is continuing its research on them.
The next step is to study larger fields to
determine the maximum coverage area.
Brown estimates the cost of URI's
prototype to be about $600. URI is
seeking a commercial company that
could manufacture and sell the units and
could possibly put the machine on the
retail market for about $1,000 to $2,000.
More details on the URI Laser
Scarecrow Design are available at
www.laserscarecrow.info. VGN
University of Rhode Island Professor Rebecca
Brown checks out the operation of a laser
scarecrow being tested in a cornfield at the
URI Agronomy Farm. Photo: Nora Lewis
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March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2021
