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Abstract. When suboptimal plant stands occur, growers must decide if replanting is justified. Replanting is generally justified when 50% or more of the planted area is occupied by 3-foot skips between adjacent plants within a row (Jost, 2006). However, it is generally difficult to visually assess the percentage of planted area occupied by 3-foot skips, and it can be cumbersome and time-consuming to manually measure. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may allow for quicker and more precise assessments of planted areas. The objective of this study was to compare and evaluate the performance of UAVs to traditional methods in measuring size and frequency of skips in cotton plant stands. Research trials were conducted at three sites in eastern North Carolina during the 2019 growing season. Trial were subjected a randomized complete block design: four-row plots and four replications of various ratios or mixtures of DP 1646 and DP 493: 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and a 100% simulated replanting treatment, at 43,560 sd/A. Immediately following emergence, glyphosate (32 oz/A) and glufosinate (42 oz/A) were applied to terminate all conventional seedlings and to leave natural, random skips that varied in size and frequency. The percent of planted area occupied by skips of various size and frequency were detected using a DJI Matrice 600 Pro drone and counted using Precision Hawk Precision Analytics. An algorithm was developed in R Software to measure distances between plants. Similarly, subsamples of 200 ft. of row were measured in each plot for comparison. Data were subjected to regression analyses and a McNemar test. UAV measurements of skips (size and frequency) across the entire planted area of each plot were conducted in approximately 25 percent of the time required to manually measure only a 200-ft. subsample of row. Additionally, Manual measurements resulted in a more frequent failure to detect skips at thicker plant stands compared to the UAV measurements of the entire planted area. Results from this research show similar R-squared values between methods and a general agreement in the McNemar test results.