The age of the ag drone won’t just help researchers and specialized analysts, says an Iowa research organizer who uses the small flying machines.
They will also become a common tool for commercial farmers dealing with problems in the field.
“I think they’re going to have huge potential in farming,” Patrick Reeg of the Iowa Soybean Association said in an interview during the Manitoba Agronomists Conference Dec. 12.
“They’re incredible. They’ve got autopilot, so you can program in what you want flown and watch them hands free.”
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Reeg operates a program that compiles information from Iowa farms and produces analysis designed to maximize production and reduce variability based on tweaking production practices.
The program, called the On-Farm Network, closely monitors all the variables involved in the on-farm crops using surveillance from ground level to piloted airplanes.
However, in the last couple of years researchers have been experimenting with drones operated by private companies that offer their services to farmers.
Drones are able to get in close to crops and use sensors to monitor soil and crop conditions.
Reeg said drones are often better at assessing problems than what farmers can now do by patrolling the edges of fields in pick-up trucks and on foot.
“In Iowa, we get springs that are very wet and we get areas that are drowned out and the grower is on the fence about whether he should replant some of the field or all of the field,” said Reeg.
“You could send one of these units up and actually determine what needs replanting.”
