A critical review of remote sensing and other methods for non‐destructive estimation of standing crop biomass

Abstract Several different techniques for the non‐destructive estimation of pasture or range biomass are critically reviewed and compared to remote sensing methods. Similarities and differences between the visual estimation procedure, β‐attentuation, capacitance meters, weighted disc, and spectral methods are discussed in terms of accuracy, time, ease of operation, operational constraints and calibration procedures. No one technique has been shown to be superior across the board to the other techniques reviewed for ground‐based biomass estimation. A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each non‐destructive method allows for the selection of the technique most suited to a particular application.