Drones are helping Alex Harrell take efficiency to the next level on his southwest Georgia farm and cut costs in the process.
“The drones are running foliar and fungicide treatments and stink bug spray every day now. We’re running wide open,” says Harrell, who farms 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans, watermelons and wheat in Lee County, Ga.
With two drones, Harrell can easily cover 500 acres of crops in a day – and even more if the situation warrants.
“We rarely call in an airplane, because we can mix and spray everything ourselves and we don’t have to worry if it’s mixed right,” he says. “We can go out to the field at daylight, the middle of the day or night, or whenever we want – all on our schedule.”
Timely Applications And Better ROI
Application timing is critical when it comes to growing high-yielding crops, Harrell tells David Hula, world champion corn grower, on this week’s Breaking Barriers with R&D podcast.
“Take away timeliness and it doesn’t matter how you spray or what fertilizer or products you use because they will not work right,” says Harrell, who holds the world record for soybean yields.
He scored back-to-back wins in the Georgia Soybean Production Contest with 218.2856 bushels per acre in 2024 and 206.7997 bushels in 2023.
Harrell says there are pros and cons to using a drone, as there are with adopting any other technology.
The main pushback he gets from other farmers is they tell him an airplane can spray 10 times as much as a drone in a day.
“My argument is like, ‘Well, it should. A plane costs about $1 million, while this drone is $30,000 and runs on a battery. It’s also not going to replace a $700,000 sprayer. But what a drone will do is allow you to do all the mixing and spraying yourself and on your own schedule,” Harrell says.
“Getting an aerial applicator to spray more gallons (higher volume) can be tough … some will fight you tooth and nail on that, because they get paid by the acre,” he adds.
Hula says he’s been tempted to buy a drone at different times over the years, but he’s always talked himself out of it. “Every time I go to Commodity Classic or a farmer clinic, there’ll be a drone guy there and I’ll think, man, I need a drone. But then I’d have to be home to fly it, and it would be another time commitment.”
More Opportunity For Revenue
Increased application flexibility and the opportunity to pick up some side jobs are factors that appealed to southwest Wisconsin farmer Caleb Wolters, who bought a drone this past winter.
“We’re spraying acres for ourselves and then we’ve lined up a bit of custom work as well,” Wolters says. “Foliar stuff, doing some on-farm trials with it, too, mostly fungicides, and we might do a little bit with herbicides.
“There’s a few drones in our area, so I won’t be the first one to use one,” Wolters adds. “But if things go well this year, we’re going to push it a little harder next year. It is always good to have another revenue stream.”
Like with anything new, Harrell says practice improves application results over time.
“We’ve wrecked several drones, found a lot of glitches, tried multiple brands and multiple models, and overall they’ve been really helpful to us,” says Harrell, who’s used them on his farm for four years.
He delves more into the topic with AgriTalk host Chip Flory on Tuesday’s program here.
There are between 30,000 and 40,000 agricultural drones used in the U.S. currently, according to Arthur Erickson, CEO and co-founder of Hylio. The Texas-based company designs, manufactures and offers autonomous drone systems.
Along with product applications, drones equipped with sensors can provide farmers with valuable data on crop health, soil conditions, and other factors, enhancing precision agriculture, according to Erickson.
More Durable Today, Better Performance
Harrell notes that manufacturers have improved the quality and performance of drones over the years.
“And they’ve gotten bigger. When we started out with drones, it was with a 30-liter tank and spray tips that stopped up with every pass,” he recalls, laughing. “Now we’ve got bigger atomizers, and we’re up to a 50-liter tank and a bigger pump, so spraying goes a lot faster. We can open that canopy up and really get down in there with a product.”
For spray volume, Harrell says he usually goes with 3 gallons per acre. “We run some pretty heavy mixes, so we’ve got to have a little bit of water,” he says. “If we’re just spraying one or two things, I’ll run 2 gallons (per acre) all day long and not think about it. But normally we need a bit more carrier there to mix stuff. I rarely ever go above 3 gallons.”
Beyond product applications Harrell uses drones to desiccate soybeans once they reach maturity. While he sometimes uses a single-pass approach for that purpose, he prefers using a two-pass method.
“I’ll go spray and burn the tops of the plants first, then wait 48 hours and spray a second time to penetrate down further in the soybeans,” he says. “I’m not putting more product on, I’m just cutting it in half and spraying twice.”
The ultimate benefit from desiccating soybeans, Harrell says, is the practice allows him to get into fields earlier for harvest, helping him maintain test weights and preserve yields in the process.
More Jobs To Do On The Farm
Hula teasingly asked Harrell whether he had recently learned how to employ drones to do a new job on his farm.
“Yeah, I don’t know if we need to talk about that, but we sure did,” Harrell says. He laughs and then proceeds to tell Hula the full story – something about a grain bin with a 120-foot elevator, a broken gearbox and how using a drone to install the new gearbox made more sense to him and cost less than renting a crane.
Get the full story, and enjoy the many laughs between Harrell, Hula and Wolters here.
You’ll also want to hear Hula, Harrell and Waters discuss how precision singulation can increase soybean yields and the pivotal role of soil biology in corn yields. Plus, the three farmers share practical insights from crop tours across multiple states and innovative grain storage solutions like grain bags for improved farm profitability and resilience.
You can also watch the Breaking Barriers with R&D podcast at Farm Journal TV - Agriculture video on demand.
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