Crop Testing Facility Reduced Bird Presence by 90% with Lasers

Location:	North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Application context:	Cabbages and sprouts (Agriculture)
Problem definition:	Bird damage to crops
Bird species:	Pigeons (Columbidae) and Crows (Corvidae)
Bird behavior	Pecking
Time of the year with bird problems:	All year round during testing (except during the harvest period)
Time of the day with bird problems:	From dusk till dawn
Number of systems:	1 x Autonomic
In use since:	2015
Laser projection area:	First trial: 4 hectares (9.9 acres) Second trial: 6 hectares (14.8 acres)
Number of birds before Autonomic’s use:	200 birds over 2 fields
Bird reduction after the Autonomic’s use:	90%

Stockbridge Technology Centre successfully tests laser bird repellent system on crops

The Stockbridge Technology Centre focuses on investigating technological developments for the horticultural industry. They test different chemicals on crops to find out their effectiveness.

90% bird reduction

The Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC) began using the laser bird repellent device in 2015. They came across the issue that birds would come down and peck at the crops, causing damage to the crops.

Successful bird control implementation

The Autonomic was installed for testing on two different crop fields. The first one had a laser projection area of 4 hectares of cabbages. The bird repellent system was set up to switch on an hour before sunset. The second trial was on 6 hectares of sprouts. STC counted approximately 200 pigeons across the two fields.

Once the software was programmed and the patterns configured, the Autonomic began projecting the laser beam over the destined area. STC noticed that as the laser was projected towards the birds they immediately dispersed. The birds did try to return to feed from the crops but due to continuous disruption from the laser pattern, they were unable to do so.

A few demonstrations were conducted to some growers from the nearby area, during the testing period. Due to the positive bird repelling results achieved by the Stockbridge Technology Centre throughout the test period, a grower purchased the bird repellent laser.

STC and the growers who attended the demonstrations were pleased to see the evidence that showed the bird repellent laser did pose a physical threat to the birds and prevented bird damage.

Effectiveness of bird control tool

The continued demonstrations to the growers provided the same evidence based on the testing done STC. It was clear that the bird repellent laser did indeed pose a physical threat to birds, and was an effective tool to help with bird damage reduction. This resulted in one more grower buying the laser bird repellent system. They had considered netting before but then decided that the Autonomic was more effective and cost-efficient.

“The laser bird repellent system is very reliable, easy to use, robust, and well built. These features helped us to deploy the system successfully.”

– An employee of Stockbridge Technology Centre