Uniube center pivot: brachiaria cover and soil data

Brachiaria cover study on the Uniube center pivot (Uberaba, Brazil), based on a drone flight on July 24, 2026. Brachiaria covers the pivot's 5.0 ha as a soil-protection crop ahead of soybean planting in September. The flight measured 95% live cover and 4.8% bare soil (including the pivot tower's wheel track) inside the irrigated circle.

The quadrant-by-quadrant reading split the pivot into four sectors: West with 98.3% cover and a VARI vigor of 0.274 (the best), North with 97.6%, South with 97.4%, and East as the weak point, with only 87.5% cover, 11.0% bare soil and the lowest vigor (0.149) — 5 to 8 times more bare soil than the other sectors.

Three main bare-soil patches were identified (excluding the tower track), the largest at 1,324 m². The recommendation was to run an irrigation uniformity test (can test) on the East sector before reseeding brachiaria, since the likely cause is that the pivot waters that span less.