Digital Harvest · USSC Case StudyDigital Harvest · USSC Case StudyIn April 2026, USSC confirmed a mealybug species not previously seen in the region on its sugarcane southwest of Lake Okeechobee. Within the season it had been found in 102 fields. Two questions decided what to do about it. Was the pest spreading on its own, or was it being carried from field to field by normal operations? And what made some fields far more likely to be hit than others? The two answers call for very different responses, and acting on the wrong one is costly. This analysis settled both. It did so by bringing together two kinds of information that are each incomplete alone: USSC's own field records, which show where the pest was found, and Digital Harvest's satellite, weather, and location data, which show the pattern behind it. Neither explains the outbreak by itself. Read together, they turn a list of infested fields into a decision.
The infested fields fall into separate pockets with clear gaps between them, the outbreak grew in a direction that runs against the season's prevailing wind, and one infested field sits more than ten kilometers from all the others, far beyond how far this insect travels by itself. That is the fingerprint of a pest carried between fields by people, equipment, and planting material, not one spreading naturally.
Cane in its first season is infested at about three times the rate across all fields, and this holds regardless of soil. Only one soil type offers real protection. Newly planted cane on sandy ground alone accounts for 45% of every confirmed case.
A pest spreading under its own power leaves a recognizable trace. It radiates outward from where it started, reaches the closest fields first, and stays tightly grouped. This outbreak looks nothing like that. Grouped by how close together they sit, the infested fields form a few separate pockets rather than one solid mass, and those pockets are spread out: the fields only connect into groups once you allow gaps of up to a kilometer between them.
Direction tells the same story. The outbreak grew from an older pocket in the south toward newer fields to the north, roughly opposite to the way the wind blew across the season. And one infested field sits more than ten kilometers off on its own, well past the short distances this insect can cover on foot.
Wind cannot account for the shape of the outbreak, the direction it grew, or that distant field. Movement of infested planting material and machinery between fields can. The distinction is not academic. It changes the response from guarding a perimeter to cleaning equipment and planting material as they move between blocks.
Every field differs in three ways that might explain why it was infested: the type of soil, how long ago the cane was planted, and the cane variety. The catch is that these three are tangled together. Fields of a similar age, soil, and variety tend to sit next to one another, so any one of them can look important simply because it happens to fall where the outbreak is. Separating them is where the analysis earns its keep. Each factor was tested with the other two held constant, and checked against the fields immediately surrounding the outbreak, so a real effect could be told apart from an accident of location.
Crop age is the real driver. Newly planted cane is infested at about three times the rate across all fields, and the rate falls steadily the longer the cane has been in the ground. This pattern holds on every soil type, which means young cane is genuinely more vulnerable, not just unlucky in where it sits. Soil matters too, but less, and in only one direction: a single soil type, Cold Muck, protects. Among newly planted fields, those on sand and on Warm Muck are infested at a similar rate of about 7%, while those on Cold Muck sit near 1.4%. The earlier impression that sandy soil was driving the outbreak turned out to be young cane that happened to be planted on sand; once crop age is accounted for, the real divide is Cold Muck against everything else.
Variety made no difference that held up: the varieties that looked worst were each represented by only a few fields, and the one common variety that stood out lost its signal once location was taken into account. The practical result is a rule USSC can act on before the next scouting round. The fields most likely to be infested are the newly planted ones on any soil other than Cold Muck, so attention can go there first instead of being spread evenly across thousands of fields.
Put together, the evidence tells one story. A newly arrived pest took hold in young cane, most likely brought in with infested planting material, and then moved from field to field with everyday operations. The fields most at risk are the newly planted ones on soils other than Cold Muck, because they combine the most vulnerable stage of the crop with the most likely way in.
This picture is built from what was found in a single season. Fields that were not scouted may be infested without appearing here, so every rate in this analysis is best read as what was detected rather than the full extent. Crop age is also bound up with timing: newly planted cane was at its most vulnerable stage exactly when the pest arrived, so its vulnerability and its timing cannot be fully separated on one season of data. These are strong, tested associations. They are not, on a single season, proof of cause. Saying so plainly is part of the method.
The answer that mattered to USSC did not come from any single source of data. USSC's field records showed where the pest was. Digital Harvest's satellite history, weather, and location analysis showed the pattern beneath it. On their own, each was a partial view. Combined and tested against each other, they produced an explanation solid enough to act on, along with an honest account of what it does and does not prove.
That is the capability on display here, more than any single finding about mealybug. The data that answered this question also does not expire with it: it becomes the first layer of a record that builds season after season, so the next question starts from history rather than a blank page.