Drones

How Robotic Dogs are Guarding Ag Assets

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 23:30:18 GMT

According to the National Equipment Register, $300 million to $1 billion in heavy equipment is stolen every year. Other threats such as feral hogs can rob the ag industry of $1.6 billion in a single year as well, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. However, a new four-legged, robotic companion could help solve these issues.

Taking the form of a dog, the Asylon DroneDog , a robotic and autonomous security system, is stepping up to the plate.

“They do the dull, dangerous, dirty tasks that humans don’t like to do and don’t do as well when they get mundane and repetitive,” says Dennis Crowley , chief growth officer for Asylon Robotics .

Monitoring Farms and Fields from the Palm of Your Hand

Instead of owning the robots, farmers purchase Asylon Robotics services. To put into action, the company will manually patrol a route. Once the route is established, the robot dog will autonomously monitor the area. It can also be controlled from a remote location.

Farmers have live access to whatever the dog is seeing and detecting, such as intruders, a wild animal and even damage to fences via a phone or other device. Asylon’s command center receives the same view.

“DroneDog takes advantage of the things that a traditional human can do and adds to that the capabilities of a machine,” Crowley explains. “It still requires a human in the loop on the back end who is monitoring, working and getting the information to have situational awareness and make a good decision.”

Apart from security, Crowley says the technology could potentially be used for other areas in agriculture in the future. Collaborating with farmers, he sees potential for equipment and pressure gauge inspections.

Why the Four-Legged Design Conquers Tough Terrain

Crowley explains constructing the robot in the shape of the four-legged animal has plenty of advantages. It can handle various terrain and ground materials with stability. With legs instead of wheels, it can go places where the latter cannot.

“If it does fall over, it’s able to right itself and get back up. It doesn’t need anyone to go out and help it,” he explains.

He also adds that aerial drones might not be able to get you into tight corners and spaces like the DroneDog.

How Bayer Uses DroneDog for Security Detail

Bayer Global has used DroneDogs for about two years to guard seed corn fields and equipment in Hawaii and California from human, animal and natural threats, including thieves, vandals, feral hogs, deer, flooding and wildfires.

Matthew Paschoal, corporate security lead for the western U.S. and the Pacific regions of Bayer, says the technology has been a “game-changer” as he tries to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to security.

“These dogs checked all the boxes,” he says.

One of Bayer’s sites spans 387 acres, and the DroneDog and humans split the security detail.

“It’s not a replacement; I look at it as a supplementation. It’s a force multiplier for our teams,” Paschoal explains.

This extra reinforcement allows the company to raise its patrol frequency and footprint. The DroneDog takes the graveyard shift patrolling fields in Kihei, Hawaii, after the day shift goes home, and can work 16-hour days.

Security staff can be difficult to keep because of the schedule and work itself, Paschoal shares. However, with this new technology the company does not have to worry as much when they are down employees.

“We’re able to gain efficiency by not having to rehire anybody because we have the dog,” Paschoal explains.

US Bars Imports of New Models of DJI, All Other Foreign Drones

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 15:37:42 GMT

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Monday it is barring imports of all new models of foreign-made drones and critical components including from China’s DJI and Autel, saying they pose unacceptable risks to U.S. national security.

The addition to the FCC’s “Covered List” means that DJI, Autel and other foreign drone companies will not be able to obtain the necessary FCC approval to sell new models of drones or critical components in the U.S.

In December 2024 Congress had ordered DJI and Autel added to the list within one year unless a security review deemed it appropriate to continue sales.

The move is a significant escalation in Washington’s battles to crack down on Chinese-made drones in recent years. In September, the Commerce Department said it plans to issue rules to restrict Chinese drone imports that could go beyond the FCC action.

The FCC designation does not prohibit import, sale or use of any existing device models the telecom regulator previously authorized, and does not impact any previously purchased drones, the FCC said. It added that consumers can continue to use any drones they previously purchased legally.

DJI, the world’s largest dronemaker, said it was disappointed by the decision to add foreign-made drones to the Covered List. “While DJI was not singled out, no information has been released regarding what information was used by the Executive Branch in reaching its determination,” the company said.

DJI previously said that being added to the Covered List would effectively ban it from offering new drone models in the United States. The company sells more than half of U.S. commercial drones.

China Condemns the Move

Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Tuesday that China opposed the U.S.’ “overly broad interpretation of the concept of national security” and the setting up of “discriminatory” lists. He urged Washington to “correct its wrong practices” and provide a fair environment for Chinese companies.

A spokesperson for China’s Commerce ministry also expressed “strong opposition” on Tuesday, saying in a statement that China will take “necessary measures” to safeguard the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises if the U.S. insists on its way.

The FCC said it received the results of a White House-convened, executive-branch interagency review of the risks of foreign drones on Sunday, which found that imported drones and components pose security risks “given the threats from unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data exfiltration, supply chain vulnerabilities, and other potential threats to the homeland.”

The review said the Pentagon could make future determinations that specific drones or classes of drone do not pose risks and remove them from the restrictions.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June that aims to reduce U.S. reliance on Chinese drone companies.

Sebastian Gorka, senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council, said the action was part of ensuring that drones are made in the United States. “Drones are a large part of America’s future security. They must be made in the USA,” he wrote on X on Monday.

DJI said earlier this month that “more than 80% of the nation’s 1,800+ state and local law enforcement and emergency response agencies that operate drone programs use DJI technology; these programs will be at immediate risk if they no longer have access to the most cost effective and efficient drone technology available.”

Trump and the FCC both cited the upcoming Olympics and the World Cup and concerns about drone misuse.

Republican Representative Rick Crawford praised the decision, saying “the use of Chinese-made drones, with widespread access over the U.S. airspace, has been a counterintelligence nightmare for years ... we cannot compromise our national security in exchange for cheap goods intended to flood the U.S. market.”

Chinese manufacturer Hikvision filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this month, challenging the FCC decision to block new approvals for devices with parts from companies on its Covered List and let the agency bar previously approved equipment in some instances.

In September, a U.S. judge rejected a bid by DJI to be removed from the U.S. Defense Department’s list of companies allegedly working with Beijing’s military.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Chris Reese, Matthew Lewis, Kate Mayberry and Frances Kerry)

Is China a National Security Threat to U.S. Agriculture?

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 22:13:00 GMT

It’s been more than a decade since China made very public, very large investments in its future to feed its own people and gain greater control over international agribusiness.

In 2013, WH Group (then known as Shuanghui International) purchased Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion, which was a U.S. company with 25 U.S. plants, 460 farms, and contracts with 2,100 producers in 12 states. A year later in back-to-back months, COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation) bought two major agricultural trading companies: Noble Agri and Nidera. Then in 2017, ChemChina acquired Swiss-based Syngenta for $46 billion.

These acquisitions highlight the production and power China has amassed, and it’s being called into question by policy thinktank America First Policy Institute (AFPI).

“We know that many of these state-owned enterprises have an obligation to the CCP, and that is to report in and turn in all of the intellectual property they collect around the world or trade secrets and turn it in the Chinese Communist Party, giving them an edge and their ability to offshore a lot of our production from the United States,” says Ambassador Kip Tom, Indiana farmer and AFPI expert.

In a recent report, AFPI spotlighted the following vulnerabilities for U.S. farmers and consumers:

Smithfield controls 23% of U.S. pork processing
The U.S. market accounts for 23% of The Syngenta Group’s revenues
DJI drones are used by U.S. farmers to collect field data

One policy recommendation from AFPI is for Syngenta and Smithfield Foods to “divest to a domestic company or, at a minimum, a company not principally managed by an adversary of the United States.”

“Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party pose a threat to American farmers and U.S. food security,” says Congressman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. “They’re engaged in economic aggression against the United States. We must protect our farms, feed mills, processing plants, and slaughterhouses. The CCP strategy is two-fold, undermine U.S. food security while siege-proofing their own.”

The full report is available here.

Ambassador Tom says in addition to direct or majority ownership by the CCP, global supply chains have evolved over recent decades resulting in U.S. farmers being more susceptible to negative impacts.

“We’re going to need to do everything we can do in our regulatory regime to make sure we can bring back these supply chains,” Tom says. “With the amount of sourcing that we’ve done in chemistries around the world, our fertilizer production, computer chips that run our tractors, everything, we are very vulnerable.”

Another aspect of Chinese ownership that has come into focus is foreign owned land in the U.S. The most recent reports peg a minimum of 35 million acres of farmland (3.4% of all U.S. ag land) is foreign owned, with Chinese companies owning around 350,000 acres. Of that, Brazos Highland owns 102,345 acres, and Smithfield owns 97,975 acres. The topic garnered attention at the state level with more than a handful of states passing legislation limiting foreign farmland ownership.

“Farmland is critical in the United States,” Tom says. “We know that the Fufang Group tried to place a [corn milling] plant up near Grand Forks, North Dakota, near an Air Force base, that was a strategic problem. That same group came to Indiana, and we stood up and said the same thing, ‘no, this shouldn’t be allowed.’ So it comes back to the states to get involved and make sure we put the measures in place to not allow this to happen.”

AFPI applies a skeptical eye on DJI drones, a Chinese company currently the largest manufacturer of drones worldwide.

“I would be very supportive, and I hope many of us farmers would be, to see the DJI drones go away. We should never underestimate the Chinese ability to use any information that they gather from the United States,” Tom says. “But we need to make sure that we shore up the production of drones here in the United States with American parts and information that’s processed here in the United States.”

In addition to their agribusiness investments, China has ramped up its public-funded research . Since 2008, China has outspent the U.S. in comparable public sector spending for agricultural research, and furthermore, since 2019, China has spent twice as much, or double, as the U.S.

“This is all part of the BRICS initiative, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. And we know that actually the Brazil has fast forward their agriculture development in their nation,” Tom says. “We know that now they are leading suppliers and a lot of the commodities that are produced in the world today, whether it’s corn, soybeans, wheat, beef, hogs, and they’re getting into the biofuels. Because of the theft of some of these intellectual property products that we had here in the United States, namely genetics, corn genetics, we know that China in a few years here will probably be self -sufficient on corn.”

From Best Buy Toy to Pro Spray Drone: A Father-Son Duo Takes Flight In Missouri Cattle Country

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 19:41:27 GMT

Iowa State University freshman Rhett Keaton and his father, Vance, are launching a drone spraying side hustle.

The father-son duo started out just having some fun several years ago, buzzing around the house with a $20 drone from Best Buy that “drove mom crazy”. But now, they are getting serious about turning entertainment to revenue.

Vance, who runs 5K Cattle Company out of Anderson, Mo., ran out and purchased a DJI Agras T20P spray drone this spring, and both Keatons secured the Part 107 Commercial Pilot Certificate needed to operate on a farm. Combined with the private pesticide applicator’s license 5K Cattle Co. already held, the guys can now apply restricted-use pesticides to their own pasture ground.

University of Missouri Extension experts recently weighed in on the promise of drone usage in farming, and more specifically, in cattle operations. Field specialist Caleb O’Neal likens the technologies’ versatility and practicality to that of a UTV.

“Back in the 1980s, it would have been rare to see a UTV being used on a farm,” he says. “Visiting farms today, I’m hard-pressed to find an operation larger than 20 acres that doesn’t have some type of UTV that they utilize on a regular basis.”

And while the Keaton’s are banking on custom application services with a spray drone as their next play in ag, you don’t have to spray crops or weeds to use drones for the benefit of your farm or ranch, according to O’Neal.

Use of drones in agriculture is increasing as row crop and livestock producers find new ways to improve efficiency and productivity.

(Photo courtesy of Caleb O’Neal.)

“Livestock producers can monitor fences and availability of water and can make sure animals are where they should be without even opening a gate,” O’Neal explains. “Drone technology lets cattlemen quickly check estrus indication patches for optimized breeding timing, monitor cows during calving season, look for hidden newborn calves and look out for potential predators.

Getting back to the Keatons, the next step is for Rhett, who is majoring in ag systems technology in Ames this fall, to secure his Missouri commercial pesticide applicators license.

Once that happens, the pair can start marketing drone spraying services to neighboring farms. Their plan is to start locally with pasture and grassland applications before seeking out work on row crop farms to the north once foliar fungicide season hits.

Related - The Scoop Podcast: What’s Next For Ag Drone Application?

Even though the T20P is one of the smaller spray drones offered by DJI, Keaton says it’s proven to be the perfect fit so far. He also rents a neighbor’s spray drone, paying a per-acre fee, when he needs more than one bird to cover more ground.

“We do a lot of flying in and out of trees and stuff like that,” Keaton says. “Having that smaller drone with less capacity and a more efficient battery, I get about double the battery life as [the bigger drones] do. But I also have about half the tank.”

The reservoir on the T20P holds about 5.5 to 6 gallons of tank mix, so Keaton will usually need to land and refill his tank after about five or six minutes of spraying. He averages 23 acres per hour when everything is set up for a quick land-refill-takeoff cycle.

Keaton says Corteva’s DuraCor herbicide, an aerial application-approved formulation containing two Group 4 AIs, is the main product he’s been spraying from the drone thus far. The product label calls for 2 to 3 gallons of active ingredients (mixed with carrier water) applied per acre with coarse droplets.

A fellow rancher kicks the tires on Vance and Rhett Kaiser’s spray drone trailer at a field day event. The Kaisers operate 5K Cattle Company out of Anderson, Mo., and have plans to launch a spray drone custom application business in the near future.

(Rhett Keaton )

Keaton and Vance also picked up a nicely appointed spray drone trailer off — of all places — Facebook Marketplace. The whole setup – drone, trailer, extra batteries, etc. – cost about $30,000 all-in, Keaton says.

“We found one that was cheaper to buy than it was to build our own, especially with the generator — that is probably the most expensive part of that trailer,” he explains. “It already had the generator, pumps, the mix tanks and a thousand-gallon freshwater tank, and everything was lined up.”

With the spray drone in the air and the nice, shiny trailer parked edge-of-field as Keaton makes his passes, cleaning up weed escapes in fields that he says are “pretty clean” already, neighboring farmers often take notice and stop by to ask if he and his dad can come by and spray some of their ground, too. Their plan is to find the sweet spot between a $12 to $20 per acre fee to charge for their drone spraying services.

Speaking of sweet spots, O’Neal feels that spot spraying, guided by aerial imagery or even first-hand producer knowledge of where weed problems are significant and need to be addressed, is a good target for drone service providers like the Keatons.

“A pasture with a rash of blackberry weeds in isolated areas has great potential for a prescription herbicide application where only the problematic areas receive treatment via a spray drone, as opposed to a broadcast application where the entirety of the field is treated whether it needs it or not,” he says.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity [for it] around us. There’s a lot of guys with hay fields, and they do a lot of burn down applications. That’s one thing we are planning on hitting on,” Keaton says. “I think some guys would be interested in that. Especially if we have a wet spring and guys can’t get in the field.”

Missouri Extension field specialist O’Neal agrees with that assertion.

“In my neck of the woods in southwestern Missouri, the topography can be quite unforgiving, with some areas too harsh to allow access by ground spray rig or even an ATV,” O’Neal says. “With an aerial piece of equipment like a utility drone, landowners can now get herbicide applications on these problematic areas and put them into useful forage production.”

With a pilot year of flying his family’s acres fastened securely under his belt, Keaton says the arrow looks to be pointing up on spray drone technology in agriculture.

“Hopefully we can expand and get maybe another trailer or a bigger drone, it just depends kind of on what’s calling for us,” he says. “I’ve got to see exactly how much work is out there in this business and from there just make it all work out. Our foot is just in the door [right now].”

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The Scoop Podcast: What’s Next For Ag Drone Application?

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 19:29:43 GMT

In the past five years, Lukas Koch says we’ve seen an evolution in technology, capabilities and opportunities with drones used in agriculture. And he doesn’t think it’s going to slow down.

“It’s been quite a crazy ride,” says Koch, who is CEO of Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems “In fact, I think the following five years will be even more crazy. With the maturity of some of the systems we’re beginning to see now, growers are going to have as equipment on their farm or ag retailers could have as a tool in their tool kit. We have products that have matured with obstacle avoidance, longer flight times, better spray patterns… so I think drones are certainly here to stay.”

Koch says what was a few curious early adopters has exploded into more than 20,000 spray drones.

Kelly Hills spun out of Heinen Brothers AgriServices last year after being an internal project for more than four years. Today, Kelly Hills works with OEMs to get their product ready for market, with universities on research and with FAA regulators.

“I often say there’s more acres out there right now than the airplanes and helicopters can cover already, so the introduction of the drone is just going to keep allowing us to cover more acres,” he says. “We think it’s a good hand-in-hand relationship between the airplanes and the drones.”

Koch reflects that the early days of drone application in agriculture were focused on specialty crops, but with product innovation and technology development, the footprint and possibilities have greatly expanded. He cites the recent unveiling of the Pyka drone with 80-gal. capacity and 38’ wingspan as an example.

“In our real-world testing, we were getting around 200 acres per hour with that drone, which is a pretty, shocking number,” he says.

As for beyond application, Koch says drones being used for equipment setup, such as on a grain elevator left, used for carrying agricultural cargo/materials, and more.

“I often liken it to the adoption of the tractor. They started early on, were really slow and quite dangerous, really. They were made with boilers, and they would explode, and then we got small internal combustible engines, thanks to people like Henry Ford. And people wanted these tractors, but they still had a team of horses, and they were thinking to themselves, I don’t know if this slow machine that only does plowing is going make it,” he says.

“But slow adoption happened. Could you imagine standing in 1903, looking at a tractor, and imagining what tractors do for us today? I say no way, there’s no way I could have imagined it. So I feel like we’re in 1903 right now with spray drones. Right now, we’re just concerned about spraying. Allow it to do one thing well first, but I think long-term, this just turns into an asset that does a lot of heavy lifting for farmers.”

Hear more of Koch’s insights and predictions on The Scoop podcast.

Kelly Hills Pushes the AgTech R&D Envelope with Driverless Tractor Pilot, Fungicide Spray Timing Tool

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 19:05:56 GMT

Emerging from its annual summer field day , Kelly Hills Unmanned announces the launch of two interesting endeavors that will surely move the needle forward on smart farming technology R&D:

The outfit is co-launching what it is calling the Rural Autonomous Mobility Program (RAMP), a pioneering public-private initiative to bring autonomous farm equipment onto public roads for the first time in the U.S.
Kelly Hills is also launching SpraySense, an AI-powered, autonomous application intelligence product developed through the company’s accelerator program, The Forge.

We’ll start with RAMP

Sabanto, founded in 2018, is working to allow farmers and ag retailers to convert any make and model into an autonomous tractor through an equipment retrofit kit.

(Sabanto)

RAMP, or the Rural Autonomous Mobility Program, was born from the vision of Kelly Hills CEO Lukas Koch and was made possible by the Kansas Department of Transportation’s (KDOT) Innovative Technology Program.

RAMP’s mission is to enable autonomous tractors and farm machinery to safely and legally operate on rural public roads, solving logistical bottlenecks and revitalizing rural economies.

Initial RAMP collaborators include:

Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems (Program Manager)
Sabanto (Autonomous Tractor Manufacturer)
Nemaha County in Kansas (Local Partner)
KDOT
Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA)
Kansas State University (K-State)

According to a press release, the partners aim to develop policy, infrastructure and safety protocols to allow fully autonomous tractors to move between fields and operational bases without human drivers.

RAMP will operate within a pilot phase in Kansas through 2026, collecting data on autonomous road operations, engaging with local communities and working with regulators to build a scalable model for other states and agricultural regions.

Let’s learn about SpraySense

(Heinen Brothers)

The inaugural 2025 cohort of The Forge, which we wrote about back in June, brought together ag tech and drone technology companies like Yamaha Precision Agriculture, Pyka, Precision AI, Scanit Technologies, Heinen Brothers Agra Services, and Taranis to co-develop solutions that address one of farming’s most persistent questions: When is the right time to apply fungicide?

According to Koch, the group was originally focused on optimizing fungicide application for corn and soybean growers, but the collaborative efforts exceeded expectations, resulting in the creation of SpraySense.

The platform, an end-to-end AI-driven recommendation and application system, brings together aerial imagery, weather and environmental conditions, disease risk models and traditional agronomy data sets to deliver real-time recommendations on whether, when, where and how to spray.

While its debut application targets fungicide optimization, SpraySense is designed as a modular, flexible platform. Kelly Hills plans to adapt the technology to other crop inputs including fertilizer, biologicals, herbicides and insecticides.

There’s a lot of cool, innovative stuff happening in those gently rolling, emerald green north Kansas hills. Check out KellyHills.us to learn more.

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Farm Drone News: AgEagle Multispectral Sensor, GPS Satellite Launched and Rantizo Spins Off Software

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 18:08:05 GMT

AgEagle Aerial Systems Unveils New RedEdge-P Green Camera

(AgEagle Aerial Systems)

AgEagle Aerial Systems announces the launch of its new RedEdge-P Green, a multispectral camera designed to enable precision agriculture from planting to harvest.

AgEagle says farmers that use the new sensor payload can achieve higher yields through quicker interventions both early on and late in the crop cycle. Operators can reduce fertilizer and irrigation inputs and engage in smart harvesting techniques using optimized indices and targeted indices like the Plant Senescence Reflectance Index (PSRI).

Available as a standalone camera or in paired configurations with the original RedEdge-P and the RedEdge-P Blue, users can leverage up to 15 noise-resistant, data-rich spectral bands essential for large-area precision agriculture.

The RedEdge-P Green camera is NDAA-compliant and integrates with multiple drone platforms. Each camera kit includes a Calibrated Reflectance Panel (CRP) and a Downwelling Light Sensor (DLS2) for radiometric calibration.

Production of the RedEdge-P Green camera is underway, and the first units are expected to ship this week. For more information about the RedEdge-P Green visit ageagle.com.

Dutch Startup Launches Largest GPS Network for Drones, Tractors

(Lindsey Pound, iStock)

FreshMiners, a Netherlands-based IOT firm, launched a GPS service that enables accurate positioning for agriculture, construction and drone navigation, according to AgriMarketing.com.

AgriMarketing.com writes that the Dutch company is launching a service for extra-accurate GPS. It is intended for drone pilots, farmers and others. With this new technology, users can correct their GPS positions down to the centimeter. Real-time correction signals are sent to the user’s GPS receiver via a global network of base stations. This correction is essential for applications in agriculture, land surveying and drone navigation, among other things.

A subscription gives users access to the GEODNET network, which, with more than 19,000 base stations in over 140 countries, is now reportedly the largest RTK network in the world.

Read more at AgriMarketing.com.

Missouri Doctoral Student Says Drones Are Fine Tool for Crop Scouting

(Photo by Abbie Lankitus)

Researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered a mix of drones and AI can help farmers measure the health of their corn more efficiently.

Instead of relying on handheld devices, which are slow and impractical for larger fields, the researchers surveyed corn fields in mid-Missouri using drones equipped with special cameras to capture images and data.

After combining the drone images with soil data, the Mizzou researchers used a type of AI known as machine learning to quickly predict the chlorophyll content in the corn leaves of the entire field with great accuracy.

The study was led by Fengkai Tian (pictured above), a Mizzou doctoral student who works in the lab of Jianfeng Zhou, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

Read more from the University of Missouri here.

Rantizo Spin-Off American Autonomy Inc. Says It Can Close the Spray Drone Data Loop

Rantizo is now connected with the John Deere Operations Center through John Deere API services.

(Rantizo)

Ground rig as-applied data has been around for decades, and it comes in handy when you’re tabulating your end of year scorecard to find out which treatments boosted yields and where a spray might have fallen short.

Yet even though spray drones treated over 10 million crop acres in 2024 alone, there’s still a gap that exists in capturing that data and integrating it into your farm management software.

Former Rantizo CEO Mariah Scott, who is now the CEO of a spinoff operation dubbed American Autonomy Inc., says her new outfit’s AcreConnect platform can help close that gap with API connections into John Deere’s Operations Center and more major FMIS platforms.

“We talk to farmers about getting that complete view of your field management, by closing the loop so you understand what’s effective or what’s not,” Scott says. “Most of the farmers we talk to use spray drones and a ground sprayer, and that (as-applied) data from the sprayer goes right into their FMIS account, but with the spray drone it doesn’t always work like that.”

The deal to divest the spray drone operations side of the business was quietly announced on Aug. 1. The Rantizo name, the startup is a pioneering spray drone service provider, still lives on, but now there’s a clean break between the spraying operations and the software on the back end that enables it.

Learn more about the Rantizo-American Autonomy Spinoff over at PRNewswire.

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Spray Drone Season Hits Full Throttle: 3 Service Providers Flying Acres and Boosting Yields

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 18:15:49 GMT

Nebraska native Andy Kreikemeier’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing all week, and it won’t go silent anytime soon.

That’s because his former hobby and volunteer side hustle, flying drones for the county emergency response team, transformed into a full-time gig as a spray drone operator. Kreikemeier is one-third of a team of spray drone pilots with business partners Brett Scheiding and Brad Eisenhauer. Together, the three local volunteer firefighters started Infinity Precision Ag, a custom drone application service provider in southeast Nebraska.

The Infinity team is in the crunch of the summer plant health application season, and farmers without access to a Hagie high-clearance sprayer or an aerial application service need the timely sprays these certified drone pilots provide to get their crop across the finish line and in good shape for fall harvest.

The trio is in their sophomore season offering per-acre spray drone application services to farmers, and the group learned “a ton” from last year’s rookie campaign.

“Spray drones are definitely a good tool because they can do a lot of specialized things, and it’s fun to see the old farmers come out and watch these things. They’ll tell me ‘Never in my day would I have thought this was something I’d be using’,” Kreikemeier says. “It’s a fun change, and it works. You can get more precise with your applications, and you get the stuff where you want it at all times.”

The team at Infinity exclusively flies Hylio spray drones, which are manufactured in Texas. Hylio was among the first U.S. service providers – Iowa-based Rantizo being one of the others – to receive FAA approval to swarm , or operate in concert, multiple spray drones in one flight mission. Swarming is exactly how Kreikemeier and his team prefer to operate the mostly automated quadcopters. By operating multiple spray drones together in a fleet, Infinity can cover more acres per hour.

Related: Trump Issues Executive Order Making Ag Drones More Efficient

Kreikemeier says the service requests from farmers this summer are “about 50-50” fungicide on corn applications and insecticide or foliar-applied biological sprays. There hasn’t been a lot of Tar Spot disease pressure in his area yet, but Gray Leaf Spot in corn is something farmers need to proactively spray for.

(Lindsey Pound)

While he won’t go as far as saying the drones are a superior application tool to a large ground rig or aerial application plane, he does see some advantages to using the technology.

“The drones can definitely get the products deeper into the plant canopy — at least that’s what I’m seeing right now,” Kreikemeier says, adding he’s also seeing improved application quality on end-rows and sensitive areas near buffers, streams and rural housing developments. An aerial applicator would usually have to pull up and gain altitude to avoid those obstacles, potentially leaving some spray to drift off-target. But an unmanned drone can stay low and keep blasting active ingredients directly into the canopy.

“Guys are definitely telling me they can see a difference between what the drones have done and what the planes have done,” he says.

From Photographer to Pilot-In-Charge

Drone shots of a drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

Over on the East Coast, Joshua Berry got his start in the drone world along the same lines as many early adopters: he built up a custom photography and videography business for years before making the decision to integrate aerial photography to stay relevant.

The first drone he purchased is widely considered one of the “OGs” in the drone world: DJI’s Phantom 1. Berry recalls his aerial photography service didn’t take off right away, but he always knew ag was an industry he wanted to join. The realization came fast and hard that he was facing an uphill battle to make that dream a reality, as his family didn’t own land or have a legacy in farming.

Berry’s big breakthrough came when he started using drones equipped with thermal cameras to help deer hunters locate fallen prey deep in the woods. The service gave him a foot in the door with local farmers – many of whom are avid hunters or at the very least friends with hunters – along Maryland’s specialty ag-rich Eastern Shore.

refilling drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

“A guy out in Ohio saw what I was doing and wanted to get into the deer recovery stuff, so he befriended me, and I helped teach him a couple things,” Berry says. “One day he calls me up and he’s like, ‘Yo, have you seen these agricultural drones?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I have my eye on it.’ And he tells me it’s going to be the next big thing.”

Berry started doing research and soon enough he agreed with his buddy in Ohio that spray drones would be his ticket to a career in farming. He ordered a pair of DJI Agras T-40 models and started working on getting licensed to legally apply chemicals.

That took him a few months (today the FAA licensing process has been streamlined), and he was able to start flying and applying midway through the 2024 growing season.

“I did a lot of research and networking before I flew a single acre, so I felt like I set myself up for success (early on),” Berry says. “Even though it was a dry year – dry and hot means there’s not a lot of pressure on farmers to spray – I ended the season with between 2,500 and 3,000 acres. For a guy in his first half of a season, I was happy with that.

Related: How Spray Drones Revolutionize Corn Farming, Make Farmers More Efficient and Sustainable

This year, Berry’s acreage will double to about 6,000-7,000. That’s an impressive figure, considering how fields are laid out on the East Coast. This isn’t Iowa, Berry says, where a drone operator can park at an intersection and knock out 300 acres of flat, continuous fields without having to move the truck and tender trailer.

As far as the job mix this summer, he is putting on a lot of single pass fungicide-insecticide-liquid fertilizer applications across a diverse mix of crops. Berry is also hearing some farmers in his area are buying drones themselves and skipping the whole FAA licensing process to spray their crops themselves.

“That’s going to hurt us as an industry, big time. And also, it’s going to hurt the farmers eventually. Even though the enforcement wing of the FAA is almost nonexistent, there is enforcement out there,” he says. “They may not have the manpower (now), but if that changes, you’re going to see these unlicensed guys really start to get dinged.”

Tendering for Spray Drones

The Mitten State is a good proving ground for spray drone applications, says Leon Thelen, agricultural drone application specialist, On Point Application Group (Battle Creek, Mich.).

For one, there aren’t many options for custom aerial application services available to growers like there are in the western Corn Belt. And Michigan farms are often broken into collections of smaller, oddly shaped fields with power lines, tree stands and residential developments nearby. That makes plane applications dicey.

And finally, the state has a diverse crop mix that features a lot of high-value, specialty crops like cranberries, cherries, potatoes and sugar beets. There are a lot of farmers looking to make applications without running over expensive plants with a ground rig.

Related: 7 Expert Tips To Maximize Spray Drone Efficiency

Thelen says On Point Application Group is doing a lot of field border insecticide applications, spot spraying tough weed escapes like water hemp, and putting out full field broadcast applications of fungicides with its XAG P140 spray drones.

One critical aspect of the business Thelen and his team have sorted out over the past few months is tendering. He says the giant, bi-level prefab drone tender trailers you see around the Midwest are good for most operations, but a smaller footprint tender that can fit in the back of an extended pickup is ideal for the type of work he’s doing in Michigan.

“Being that I’ve backed a trailer into a lot of fields, I like lightweight equipment that’s nimble,” he says. “We’ve got a trailer with 1,000 gallons of water and a mix tank that we can leave at the field edge and unhook. Then we have this 200-gallon hot tank with our charging equipment , batteries and everything we can take into the field. This setup works well when you’re working off (irrigation) pivot lanes or back in behind the woods. I like to be close to the field.”

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Yellow Soybeans? Why Weather and Carbon Penalties Are Stressing Midwest Farmers

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:33:11 GMT

A Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) in Michigan says a confluence of weather conditions resulted in a roller coaster ride for soybeans over the first two months of the growing season.

The good news is the plants still have time to catch up and recover on the back-end (if timely rains are consistent), but the early season issue is still causing a lot of growers to hang their heads in utter disgust when they head out in the morning and see large areas of small, yellow soybean plants in fields.

How did this happen?
In southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwest Ohio, most soybean farmers opted to plant early. That means the beans were in by end of April. The region then had the coolest average night temperatures in May of the past 14 years, followed by the warmest average night temperatures in June of the past 14 years.

A roller coaster ride indeed.

Missy Bauer with B&M Crop Consulting says that two-month yo-yo spell left the region’s soybean farmers battling the “largest carbon penalty the area has seen in 14 years.”

What is the carbon penalty in farming?

(Darrell Smith)

The carbon penalty Bauer refers to is the process where microbes in the soil come alive as soil temps gradually warm and start breaking down last year’s crop residue. The nutrients are then naturally converted to plant-available nutrients through mineralization.

Bauer says the warm-up occurred so quickly it created a sort of massive explosion of microbial activity in the soil. While that sounds like a good thing, she says it actually resulted in some essential early-season nutrients getting “locked up” in the soil, thus unavailable for plant uptake.

“How many calls did we take this year from farmers saying, ‘My beans aren’t growing right, why?’” says Bauer who also serves as a Farm Journal field agronomist. “We’re seeing the biggest carbon penalty we’ve had in 14 years, and this is a hard carbon penalty. It locked up the beans, and that added stress.”

How can I overcome the carbon penalty?
If you have liquid fertilizer technology on your bean planter, Bauer thinks it might pay off this year by offsetting the carbon penalty and helping beans battle that early season stress.

July is currently trending above average for growing degree days (GDD) in the Lake Erie region, which will help shift vegetative growth a gear or two higher and set beans on a course for canopy close and pod fill.

“Basically, we’re back on track (with beans),” Bauer says. “Maybe we’re just a little bit behind last year, but we had better heat units in May last year, too. Now, we’ve made-up for that GDD deficit heat unit-wise, we’re not quite all the way there, we’re still a little behind, but we’re knocking on average.”

Spray drone treatment for nutrient deficiency in soybeans an option, too
Recently, Kameron Barrow, field operations manager, teamed up with B&M owner and CCA Bill Bauer to address some nutrient deficient yellow spots in the operation’s test plots near Coldwater, Mich.

After tissue sampling the affected plants and finding out the culprit was most likely a manganese deficiency, Bauer and Barrow called up a local spray drone service provider and hired it to spot spray a 5% manganese liquid fertilizer over the canopy of the yellow soybean plants. The drone applied a rate of half a pound per acre of manganese.

“We came in and sprayed on July 10 and on July 15 we scouted and immediately those yellow spots are gone, and that’s only after five days,” says Barrow, adding they also left a nearby section of yellow plants untreated as a check. “This just shows we have access to spray drones now, and we can use the technology to use things we’ve never used to better manage the crop.”

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Precision Spray Drones: The Future of Invasive Species Control

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 15:32:35 GMT

While addressing weed control and pressing agronomic issues is a farmers’ priority during the growing season, ensuring adjacent wetlands and riparian buffer zones within crop fields are healthy and free of invasive species is imperative, too.

Today, there is novel research from the University of Waterloo showing a single, targeted herbicide application from a spray drone can suppress common invasive reed species with more than 99% effectiveness. The outcome is among many research findings recently published online in a Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) research journal.

If you’d really like to get into the weeds, you can review the full scientific study results here.

“The 99% reduction in live common reed stems observed with drone-based herbicide application demonstrates its capacity to suppress invasive common reed effectively,” says Rebecca Rooney, Ph.D., the University of Waterloo. Rooney is also a professor in the school’s biology department and the study’s corresponding author.

Rooney says the drone application method “matched or exceeded the efficacy of conventional helicopter and backpack applications.”

That’s a key aspect of the study findings because, as any farmer knows, managing invasive weeds in wetlands or buffer strips can pose significant challenges, due to limited access via hand weeding crews and ground rigs.

Spray drone applications allow for smaller spray widths and lower flight heights compared to manned helicopters, Rooney says, and the study results also show a reduction in off-target impacts and spray drift.

“This approach also holds promise for accelerating ecological recovery in wetland habitats,” says Rooney, adding that future research efforts around spray drone application in wetland settings should focus on long-term native vegetation recovery and quantify the accuracy of herbicide applications to minimize off-target damage to native vegetation in wetlands.”

Here’s a video from nuWay Ag showing the process of spray drone application in an Ohio wetland:

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Flying High and Digging Deep — Precision Ag from the Sky to the Soil

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:48:24 GMT

Josiah Garber found tar spot lurking in one of his cornfields the last week of June. The southeast Pennsylvania corn grower says that was a first for his farm.

“I’d never found it in July before, much less the end of June. I think the pressure this year is going to be intense with all the moisture around,” predicts Garber, who’s based in Lancaster County, Pa.

Tar spot commonly overwinters as spores in plant residue. During the subsequent growing season, rain and high humidity can promote spores which can be splashed onto corn plants and then develop into what is often called homegrown tar spot.

Tar spot spores can also become air-borne in a field and blow into new fields.

How significant tar spot infections become in any given season depends on the disease triangle – the interplay between a susceptible host, a pathogen and the environment.

A Two-Pass Program Is In Place

Garber’s plan to address tar spot – along with any other disease pressure that’s present – is to make two fungicide applications 21 days apart. This year, the first one went on the crop with a ground rig just before tassel and the second application will be made right after tassel, which was underway last week.

“This is the first time we went with a fungicide application this early, but I’m glad we did since we found the tar spot,” Garber says.

For the past five-plus years, he has been investing in two fungicide applications annually, with both made post-tassel.

“We found that that pays, and once we saw that it would pay, it just became part of our program,” Garber told David Hula and Randy Dowdy during their latest Breaking Barriers with R&D podcast, available now on Farm Journal TV. This episode offers farmers some serious actionable insights to help improve ROI.

To achieve good coverage with the ground rig, Garber says he applies a fungicide/water tank mix at 20 to 25 gallons per acre.

“We’ve been working really hard on our applications, trying to cover below the ear leaf to get optimum performance,” he says. “That’s our goal.”

Droplet Size Impacts Coverage And Efficacy

The goal of getting fungicide placed in the crop where plants can readily use it is what Matt Crabbe shoots to achieve with aerial applications. He typically uses 2 gallons of water per acre as the carrier, depending on the products being sprayed.

“I hear a lot of times people talking water, water, water, but a lot of water can go to the ground and take the product with it if you’re not careful,” cautions Crabbe, owner of Crabbe Aviation, with locations in North Carolina and Virginia.

“Because you’ve got bigger droplets with the plane, you’re putting out a little more volume, and it’s not going to necessarily stay with the plant like I found it does with the lower volumes,” he tells Dowdy and Hula.

To help ensure product stays on plant leaves, Crabbe usually applies products like foliar fungicides at 3’ to 8’ above the crop canopy, maintaining a consistent speed of between 150 and 160 miles per hour.

“I try to keep the application in that range, because our test results show that sets up the droplets at the right size for optimum coverage,” he says.

Get As-Applied Maps For Your Records

Dowdy asked Crabbe whether he provides customers with as-applied maps for their reference and records, post product applications.

“You know, there’s a lot of people that want to overlay yield maps, and then some people just want to trust but verify the good old Ronald Reagan way,” Dowdy says.

Crabbe says modern technology is making as-applied maps easier to provide to growers than in previous years.

“If you place an order on my website, I can press ‘done’ when I finish spraying a field and the system will give you a look at the as-applied map,” he explains.

Crabbe recommends farmers ask their aerial applicator directly about their mapping system as many now have digital platforms where you can get a password to access your specific maps and view application details immediately after completion.

Hear more about getting the biggest bang out of your fungicide buck from Dowdy and Hula on YouTube at Breaking Barriers With R&D: Flying High and Digging Deep — Precision Ag from the Sky to the Soil and on AgriTalk, with Host Chip Flory:

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Meet The Forge: Kelly Hills Unmanned Puts New Spin on Ag Tech Field Testing

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:53:55 GMT

Over the weekend, Kelly Hills Unmanned, a company that says it is dedicated to accelerating multimodal technologies in agriculture and autonomy, announced the launch of The Forge.

It’s being described as a deployment-centered program designed to meld best-in-class ag technologies into new tools that farmers, ranchers and service providers can trust and use for decades to come, according to a press release from the group.

The Forge’s inaugural cohort hopes to bring together a “powerhouse group” of innovators and operators from across the ag technology landscape into a coordinated, systems approach to help growers identify and overcome agronomic issues before they become yield robbers.

The cohort members, or pillars, are:

Precision AI: Developers of real-time drone-based precision spraying systems that reduce chemical inputs and deliver hyper-targeted agronomic action.
Pyka: Builders of autonomous electric aircraft designed for aerial applications, logistics and mission-critical crop operations.
ScanIt Technologies: Experts in using early detection of airborne pathogens to maximize yields and minimize costs.
Heinen Brothers Agra Services: One of the nation’s largest aerial applicators and ag services companies, offering deployment scale and deep field expertise.
Yamaha Precision Agriculture: Pioneers of robotic and aerial technology for small scale, high-efficiency farming.
Drop Flight: Providers of droplet characterization and aircraft calibration tools to optimize spray accuracy and compliance in real-world operations.
Taranis: Global leaders in ultra-high-resolution aerial scouting, delivering precise field-level insights to boost agronomic decision-making.

For more information, head to www.kellyhills.us/the-forge .

Farm Journal reached out to Lukas Koch to pick his brain about this new, novel entrant to the ag tech ecosystem. We first met Koch last year during the Kelly Hills Unmanned summer field day near Seneca, Kan., where his group unveiled the Pyka Pelican Spray drone — at the time the largest, highest-capacity ag spray drone on the market (280-liter capacity). This year Kelly Hills is integrating the Pelican 2 (300-liter capacity, up to 222 acres per hour at 60-foot swath rate) into its aerial application arsenal.

Farm Journal: Would you call this an ag tech incubator or accelerator type of program, and if not, what’s makes The Forge different?

Lukas Koch (LK): “(The Forge) is neither of those, because we’re not taking a cash influx to create an R&D program. What we’re doing is creating new tools with existing technology — if they’re part of plug and play that’s fine, but we don’t care about that. We want to know if the tech has merit and does it fit on the acre, but maybe something with it is not fully there just yet? So, what are we supposed to do with it then? You have a technology and, for example, it can take high-res pictures and identify areas of your fields that need attention, but today the most likely options are using a ground rig or hiring an airplane to manage that in a meaningful way. For that example, we think there’s an opportunity to do that with a small spray drone, but then again the logistics are tough; you have to come back and land and swap out a battery or refill the tank so often. We’re going to take a bunch of existing technologies that already exist, ask them to change nothing and put them to the test — and we’ll push the bounds of what they can do, to make these all work together in a system.”

FJ: How will this all kind of come together and take shape this summer as the program rolls out?

LK: “We have a few drone companies (in the cohort), and there’s a droplet analysis program involved — I thought that was an important piece in analyzing the spray coverage we get. Right now, we have the in-field sensors out in the field to help us ground truth the data we get from overhead. And then the remote sensing piece gives us situational awareness; it tells us where we should be focusing our efforts. And overall, I think, OK, that’s great, but now you still have to make a treatment with either a ground rig or hire an airplane.

(www.KellyHills.us)

“But with our FAA test range (pictured above) that we were approved for last summer within Kelly Hills, now we can autonomously fly to those spots with a drone, either in line of sight or Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), and we can make those treatments autonomously. This year, the tool we’re focusing on is true spot spraying BVLOS in corn and soybeans, and then next year hopefully we can make more tools or take that technology that already exists and make it into a tool for a grower, who can sign up for this subscription and buy one of these drones, and now I have a full encompassing suite of tools and I can know for sure what works and what does not work.”

FJ: How can farmers in Kansas learn more and possibly sign up to work with you guys?

LK: “There’s really two ways right now. For anything specific they might want to do, maybe there are some projects they are thinking about, go ahead and ping us on the website , and we’ll get back to you. And the other way is, once we’re done with a set tool or we wrap up our summer series of projects, we plan to make the results and findings available online, kind of like Beck’s Hybrids does with its farm applied research studies. We want people to see what we’re doing and to reach out with their ideas on how we can make better tools inside of The Forge and showcase some of these technologies together in one new product, and growers are very interested in this and would love to understand if they can package these technologies together and make an ROI.”

FJ: You already have this inaugural cohort in place, but are you already thinking about what’s next?

LK: “I have a couple companies that I need to further engage with now that they can see what The Forge is all about. A couple of those are involved in year-over-year (data) modeling technology that can say, OK, help me start to determine this is my pattern, and this is what I did last year; now can you tell me what to do next year and how to create more ROI? And then I think soil is a huge key right now, too. I don’t have any any soil type products in there, and soil sampling is great, but there are some neat companies that are focusing on soil-sensing technology that I think would be interesting to package in there, too. You know, in due time I think we’ll get there.”

Koch says the plan is to unveil many of the insights and results from The Forge at this summer’s Kelly Hills Unmanned Field Day. That event is set for Aug. 19, and you can get registered for it here.

And, just for fun, here’s a video breakdown of the Pyka Pelican 2:

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American Dominance: Trump Issues Executive Order Making Ag Drones More Efficient

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 18:32:06 GMT

President Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order (EO) his administration claims will “ensure continued American leadership in the development, commercialization and export of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)”.

The order mentions precision agriculture as one of several industries where drones are “enhancing U.S. productivity, creating high-skilled jobs and reshaping the future of aviation.”

Related: Soaring Yields and Lower Costs: 7 Expert Tips To Maximize Spray Drone Efficiency

Two areas of emphasis within the EO itself will have direct benefits to many farm drone use-cases:

The expansion of approved autonomous Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.
A new electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) integration pilot program.

By directing the FAA to continue on its current trajectory of streamlining the approval of autonomous BVLOS flights in areas where public safety is not at risk (i.e. in unrestricted Class G airspace), crop scouting and spray drones will be able to cover more acres in a more efficient manner.

And establishing a pilot program to further the advancement of eVTOLs is good news for many emerging spray drone technologies like Guardian.ag’s SC1 , which is now FAA-approved and field testing with growers in Salinas, Calif., this summer.

Related: What’s New With Agriculture Drones?

The order also directs the FAA administrator to deploy artificial intelligence tools to streamline and expedite UAS waiver reviews, meaning farm users with all the licensing and approval ducks-in-a-row will be approved faster for time-critical missions like in-season insecticide and fungicide applications.

Many in the drone industry expected an outright ban of Chinese and foreign drone technology in the U.S., but that does not appear to be the case with this EO. The order does instruct federal agencies using drones to “prioritize U.S.-manufactured UAS” and to “secure our supply chains and promote American leadership in production, certification and export.”

Domestic Drone Maker Reacts

Smart-Farming-Drone-Arthur-Erickson.jpg

(Hylio/Lori Hays)

Hylio is an American spray drone manufacturer based in Richmond, Texas. The company is building a new 40,000 square foot facility that CEO Arthur Erickson says will increase its drone production capacity by about 500%.

Erickson gave the following statement to Farm Journal after Trump’s EO was announced:

“Since 2015, Hylio has been on the front lines of the drone industry, fighting an uphill battle as one of the few US-based drone manufacturers. Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed Chinese companies employ increasingly aggressive, non-competitive practices, such as price dumping and strategic subsidizing, in an attempt to monopolize the market and eliminate American competition.

“We believe American self-reliance in drone manufacturing and component sourcing is an existential necessity; drone technology has proven to be incredibly important in private industry as well as civil and military government sectors. The executive orders issued by the Trump administration, which promote US manufacturers like Hylio while simultaneously curbing the anti-competitive practices of Chinese manufacturers, are a powerful step toward establishing a robust and secure American drone industrial base in the near future. We fully support the administration’s efforts and applaud them for their decisive action.”

To learn more about the EO, check out this fact sheet from the White House or dig deep and read the full EO, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance”, here.

Your Next Read: Drones Help Soybean Grower Hit the Bull’s Eye of Efficiency

Drones Help Soybean Grower Hit the Bull's Eye of Efficiency

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 10:38:16 GMT

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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John Deere-Sentera Tie Up: Here’s What We Know So Far

Fri, 23 May 2025 21:07:32 GMT

John Deere has announced its acquisition of Minnesota-based aerial optics innovator Sentera. Although specific details are few and far between this early in the process, here’s what we know so far:

The two companies have a long history. John Deere was the first enterprise customer Sentera signed onto its system over a decade ago, and the two companies have had an API link in place between Sentera’s drone management software and John Deere’s Operations Center since 2016.
Financial details are not being disclosed. We do know the deal is not subject to any further regulatory or shareholder approvals.
In a similar fashion to the Blue River Technologies and Bear Flag Robotics acquisitions, Sentera will maintain its independence as a free-standing business unit. Once fully integrated into the Deere family, Sentera will operate under the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) framework. Sentera leadership will remain at its St. Paul, Minn., headquarters.
For the time being, no major changes are planned for either company as we head into the heart of the summer crop scouting and spraying season. The two companies anticipate having more details to share about the nuts and bolts of the acquisition this fall.
The two groups are a natural fit. Sentera is aggressively marketing its SmartScripts drone weed mapping program, and the technology is complimentary to John Deere’s Operations Center and its See & Spray and ExactApply application technologies. One driving force behind this deal, Farm Journal is told, is Deere’s motivation to integrate more real-time agronomic data into its Operations Center platform, and Sentera’s aerial data capture capabilities can help make that happen.

(John Deere)

A deal to lift both boats. John Deere has built up a deep bench of artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous technology expertise within ISG, and Sentera has a long track record of aerial sensing and camera payload innovation. Considering how many cameras and sensors are included from the factory on new John Deere machines and within its Precision Upgrades retrofit kits, there should be a healthy cross pollination of sensor and camera innovation between Urbandale, Iowa, (where ISG is based) and St. Paul, Minn.
Sentera can help make See & Spray even better. SmartScripts uses drone-based imaging to scan a field and build a weed pressure map which is then loaded onto the sprayer’s in-cab computer. Now the sprayer operator can see exactly where weeds are in the field and focus their spraying efforts there first. There’s also a logistical and planning aspect to SmartScripts: by knowing exactly how many weeds are present in the field, and even what type of weeds are there, an adept operator can have the right active ingredients premixed and the exact amount needed loaded into the tank or staged nearby in a tender truck to keep that sprayer running all day long.

“Farming is becoming a very sensor and data-centric business, and in our opinion, there isn’t anyone doing it at broad scale today better than John Deere,” says Eric Taipale, chief technology officer, Sentera. “The way we can bring these data-driven insights and improve grower outcomes — it’s just what we’ve always been about. It’s what John Deere is all about. There’s such a great mesh between the two cultures, the objectives and the mission of the two organizations.”

Joseph Liefer, global technology marketing lead at John Deere, adds, “We’re excited about how this complements our existing portfolio with See & Spray, and then not just that (product). Now a farmer with an individual nozzle-controlled sprayer from any manufacturer can also leverage this technology. A drone can fly their field, generate a weed map, turn it into a prescription in Operations Center and the machine can go execute the plan. From an ag retailer standpoint, that might have a mixed fleet, and this gives them more tools in the toolbox to do targeted application for growers and help them save on herbicide. We view this deal as complementary to our overall tech strategy.”

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How Spray Drones Revolutionize Corn Farming, Make Farmers More Efficient and Sustainable

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:51:21 GMT

In its newly released Agricultural Drone Industry Insight Report, industry leader DJI says agricultural drones have provided superior solutions for crop protection applications, liberated more productivity and paved the way for more environmentally friendly and sustainable agricultural practices.

Here’s five key takeaways from the annual report:

In 2024, DJI says 400,000 agricultural drones (spray and crop scouting drones) operated on farm fields around the world — a 33% increase from 2023. The company claims drones have helped save 222 million tons of water and reduced carbon emissions by removing nearly 31 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere. DJI spray drones are used to apply products to 300 different crop types in over 100 countries worldwide, the study notes.
FAA has streamlined spray drone regulations for agricultural operations , making it easier for farmers to legally use spray drones. Part 137 applicants can now submit their documents online by filling out forms. This change has saved farmers a significant amount of application time and reduced compliance costs considerably, DJI says. Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) exemptions have also been streamlined, making it easier for farmers and agronomists to capture complete field level insights more efficiently.
In 2024, DJI collaborated with various partners globally to carry out drift tests for different drone models and nozzle configurations. The company says spray drones cause less drift than traditional aircraft (crop dusters and spray helicopters) but cause more drift than backpack spraying or small, pull-behind sprayers. Spray drones and large, ground-based sprayers are about equal, the study found, when it comes to spray drift.
By shifting some acres from ground-based applications to drone-based applications, DJI says spray drones are “revolutionizing corn farming in major production regions like the U.S., China, and Brazil.” The company has data that says using spray drones versus large ground sprayers can increase a farmer’s income by $45 to $60 per hectare due to less crop damage and yield loss, and farmers have reduced annual herbicide usage by 25% through spray drones.
In an industry where available skilled labor is often scarce and expensive, DJI says spray drones only require one or two paid operators while ground-rig applications typically need two to five. There’s also less fuel needed (93% less, according to DJI) and spray drones can cover 50-80 hectares in one day , while ground sprayers can cover 25-30 hectares in a typical working day.

Check out the full report below.

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Drone and Smart Sprayer Combo Targets, Brings The Boom Down On Weeds

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 13:01:00 GMT

Deploying camera drones and sprayers outfitted with the latest application technology onboard in a systems approach could end up being a key management strategy in helping farmers eradicate weeds.

That’s exactly what Sentera is hoping to achieve with its SmartScripts Weeds program (formerly Aerial WeedScout), which is heading into year two of commercial trials. The tech-enabled crop protection workflow combines drone scouting flights, AI-based image processing, and selective spraying technologies to help farmers “get to the answers faster” in their spray programs.

Here’s how it works: A farmer or agronomist requests early-season drone scans. A certified drone pilot then flies the fields using a drone equipped with Sentera’s specialized payload, featuring a 130MP camera array and high-precision geolocation tools. This imaging system, combined with AI-powered analysis in Sentera’s FieldAgent platform, bypasses the slow, traditional workflows of image stitching and data processing— Sentera says it delivers insights faster and more efficiently.

The product that comes out is a georeferenced, digital weed map and prescription that identifies which weeds are present in your fields (today the system can ID 5 weed species and grasses at ¼ of an inch in size), how tall those weeds are, and GPS coordinates for where the weed pressure is greatest. The system delivers a targeted spray prescription (usually within 24 hours of the flight) based on the weed types present.

The digital weed map is then uploaded into a sprayer’s in-cab computer as a shape file. Now the sprayer knows where it needs to start spraying for weeds and putting on higher rates. The system recommends different application rates based on weed height.

“It’s a ‘know-before-you-go’ approach to weed management,” says Joe Walsh, chief growth officer, Sentera. “Now the farmer can know exactly which fields to go to first and prioritize for spraying, and the retailer will know how much herbicide the farmer’s going to need and where to send it.”

Last summer, Sentera ran field trials on 13,000 soybean acres throughout the Midwest. Overall, it saw an average of 70% in savings on post emergence weed management programs. But 13,000 acres is not a significant sample size, so this summer the company is working with farmers to use the system across more production acres, including in corn fields.

While many in ag have criticized drone technology for lacking a practical application within row crop farming, Sentera founder and CTO Eric Taipale says this new workflow is potentially the technologies’ perfect fit.

“A drone is a great way to know more, to know faster and to know completely what is going on in a field, it’s a great immediate data tool,” he says.

While it’s still too early to know what the final, commercialized version will look like, Taipale did share a few details from his perspective:

The drones Sentera will use for the program will feature Sentera’s 130-megapixel, multispectral sensing payload.
The workflow is showing promise in combination with ground-rig selective spraying technologies like John Deere’s See & Spray and CNH’s recently announced IntelliSense platform, although the sprayer doesn’t require those technologies to use the workflow. It does need to have section or nozzle control.
Pricing is still being worked out, but it looks like the program will charge a per-acre fee that will land somewhere in the ballpark of $6 to $9 per acre. Taipale says this TBD pricing proposal came about as the result of direct farmer feedback from last year’s trials.

“The days of just spraying glyphosate across an entire field and it takes care of all the weeds are unfortunately over,” Taipale says. “We’re really excited about SmartScripts and using drones and AI to help farmers get to the answer faster. Nobody likes weeds and we certainly don’t either.”

Adds Walsh: “Farmers are who we must provide value to, so the primary market for this will be the Corn Belt. When we look at the market overall, 400 million acres across the U.S. had herbicide applied over them last year. That’s a lot of room for opportunity and to help farmers save some money on their crop protection program.”

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Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:59:00 GMT

Yamaha is a Japanese legacy automotive and motor sports giant known the world over, but many aren’t aware that the company also has a long and storied history in ag tech.

Yamaha’s R-Max gas-powered spray helicopter launched in Japan in the 1990s, making it one of the first unmanned aerial application vehicles on the market for applying crop protection products to growing crops. FAZER-R was its next iteration of spray drones, and the company says it has over 2,800 units of both R-MAX and FAZER remote controlled spray helicopters deployed today with farmers around the world.

In late January, the manufacturer announced the launch of Yamaha Agriculture , a new U.S.-based company that will focus on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions. The company came together as a single business unit as a result of strategic acquisitions of robotics and AI focused startups Robotics Plus and The Yield.

We recently connected with Nolan Paul, who was named CEO of the relatively-new ag tech division, to learn more about the venture as it gets a footing established on the West Coast. Previously Paul was Head of R&D Strategy and Emerging Technology for Driscoll’s, the global market leader in production of fresh berries.

Farm Journal (FJ): How long of a timeline do you anticipate until commercialized robotics solutions are available for growers to purchase?

Nolan Paul (NP): Robotics Plus’ Prospr vehicles are already deployed with customers and distributors in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

FJ: What type of specific use cases do you envision bringing to market that will leverage advanced data analytics and AI?

NP: A multitude of use cases with time to market based on the degree of technical difficulty. We already offer weather-driven predictions to customers in the form of yield forecasts and harvest and spray timing. The next set of use cases will be variable rate spray applications based on real-time sensing on the vehicle (e.g., spray volumes based on canopy density).

(Yamaha Agriculture)

FJ: How do you envision Yamaha’s robotic solutions being marketed/sold to growers?

NP: Robotics Plus already has distributor partners in the U.S. and Australia/New Zealand. However, it’s important for Yamaha to maintain direct relationships with growers, especially our larger customers, to optimize customer success and develop our product roadmap. Regarding our monetization approach, we believe growers should purchase our hardware solutions the same way they prefer to purchase the rest of their machinery. Some prefer to buy outright. Others prefer a financing or lease option. We remain open to alternative monetization options if it makes life easier for the grower.

FJ: Where will the new division Yamaha Agriculture be based? How many employees will make up the division?

NP: Yamaha Agriculture is a U.S.-incorporated business with subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand. Our headquarters is in the Bay Area as it provides easy access to Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland. We also have local offices in Napa, Calif., and Wenatchee, Wash., along with team members based up and down the West Coast. Currently, Yamaha Agriculture has approximately 175 employees.

FJ: Ag technologies that solve a specific problem for the farmer seem to be the solutions that are adopted by American farmers. Are there any specific issues that your technology will be able to solve for growers?

NP: Currently spraying and weed control with our Prospr vehicle. However, it’s a modular platform, so the product roadmap includes several implements such as mowing and under-row cultivation. Our goal isn’t to develop implements from scratch. We are partnering with implement companies to integrate their tools on Prospr.

Separately, we also offer yield predictions and crop recommendations through our acquisition of The Yield. These two capabilities lay the foundation for increased closed-loop opportunities (actionable insights) with a focus on reducing block-level variability.

FJ: Do you have any concerns with the new U.S. administration’s trade policies considering Yamaha Agriculture is targeting the U.S. as a primary market for your technology?

NP: Yamaha sells a lot of products in the United States, ranging from motorcycles to outboard motors, ATVs and golf cars. As a result, we will take guidance from our broader organization and implement a strategy that is most effective for Yamaha Agriculture and our customers.

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Soaring Yields and Lower Costs: 7 Expert Tips To Maximize Spray Drone Efficiency

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 18:30:00 GMT

The application of drone technology started with question marks, but two viable use cases have emerged: using consumer-grade RGB camera drones for stand counts and scouting, and using spray drones when weather or timing restrict a ground rig.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation advances in flight planning software have made getting stand count and directed scouting data extremely user-friendly. However, there are likely things you could be doing to get more out of your spray drone.

“This is the one thing farmers need to know: Just knowing how to fly a drone doesn’t get you very far,” says Steve Li, associate professor and Extension specialist, crop, soil and environmental sciences, Auburn University. “There’s a lot more you need to learn about pesticides and pesticide application.”

Li is widely recognized as one of the foremost researchers and experts in using spray drones for agriculture. He began working with drones during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it turned out to be the perfect complement to his 20-plus years in pesticide application and efficacy research.

Top Spray Drone Tips

As you gear up for spray season, consider what the experts have to say:

1. Do your homework before buying.
“Do your research and understand the opportunities and challenges with the technology because nothing is perfect. Spray drones are shiny and everyone’s excited when a new one comes out, but you have to realize the challenges associated with drones,” Li says. “You’re going to be working outside, refilling tanks and changing out batteries, you’re not in an air-conditioned tractor. It’s physically challenging. I know a farmer in Illinois who sprayed all summer and ended up losing 20 lb.”

(Auburn University)

2. Bring Your Own Trailer (BYOT). There are custom-made drone trailers you can purchase.
These will typically include an integrated generator for charging batteries, a nurse tank for refilling the spray tank, as well as anything else you’ll need to keep that drone spraying. Erickson says many farmers can save money by adapting an old trailer already on the farm and building out their own drone trailer.

3. Scout before flying. Do a thorough pre-flight planning scout of any field you want to spray.
Make sure you consider any oddly shaped fields or sections, look at weather reports and be aware of any nearby sensitive crops. It’s also important to find a clear, safe spot nearby to take off from and land the drone. If you’re doing in-season fungicide applications, you don’t want to be traipsing through chest-high corn or thick soybean canopies to refill the drone or do a battery swap.

4. Always follow the product label.
This is no different than if you were applying product using a ground sprayer. Products that are approved for drone application will have a specialized label for aerial applications. Make sure you follow that label closely because the label is the law.

5. Droplet size matters.
One of the most common and avoidable mistakes Li sees is using the wrong droplet size. He says it’s best to use small droplet sizes when spraying fungicide on corn or soybeans.

“The recommended droplet size is around 200 to 250 micrometers, which you can set on your controller,” he says. You don’t want to exceed 300 micrometers, or your droplet size will be too big, and you’ll get inconsistent coverage or streaking, he adds.

6. Mind wind speed.
Don’t try to make applications in strong winds. Ideally only apply when the wind speed is between 5 mph to 10 mph.

(Hylio, Lindsey Pound)

7. Don’t fly too fast or too high above the crops.
Drones are a nice tool to have, but the technology has limitations. Hylio founder and CEO Arthur Erickson says flying too fast or too high doesn’t get adequate penetration into the canopy. He advises you stay within 10' to 15' above the canopy and don’t fly faster than 22 mph while spraying.

“You need the downwash from the props to push that spray into the canopy and coat the leaves, even the undersides,” he explains.

What America’s First Spray Drone Company Told Us

Iowa-based Rantizo has been in the spray drone business since the very beginning. The company was the first to bring DJI spray drone airframes into the U.S. and the first to obtain an FAA exemption to swarm up to three drones at one time. Rantizo recently announced the availability of the XAG P150 drone, which the company says is currently the largest and fastest spray drone on the market in the U.S.

The company has built out a hub and spoke service model where experienced, knowledgeable crews and drone pilots are stationed around the country for hire at a per-acre structure.

But what Zach Hanner, agronomy operations lead for Rantizo, is most excited about is the continuing expansion of how spray drones can be used to cover more acreage.

(Rantizo)

“We’re seeing FAA approve exemptions for no visual observers, and we’re seeing swarming approved for night ops,” Hanner says. “We’re excited because that will expand the application window. When it’s 90° with 80% humidity, we shut down. Now, we’ll be able to get back out there at night, when the plants are starting to come out of their heat stress. Being able to accommodate those specific timings is going to be huge for us.”

While Rantizo flight-ops team members like Hanner focus on optimizing the drones in-field, CEO Mariah Scott can take a bit of a higher-level view. She’s excited to see the application of artificial intelligence come into spray drone flight planning software because it will be able to make the technology even more efficient.

(Rantizo)

“It’s a combination of the same AI that’s being used in crop scouting tools to identify areas of pressure, now we’re using AI to scan the crops and say ‘let’s only spray here, here, here and here,’” Scott explains. “We can get maps made and send the drone out to those specific areas, and now we’re not spraying all 500 acres. We’re just spraying these places where we have used the AI to identify issues.”

Drone service provider talks emerging use cases
Farmers are deploying spray drones mainly in two production scenarios: using the drones to spot apply contact herbicides in post emergence in fields with high weed pressure, and using them to apply foliar fungicides in corn.

Sam Thier, drone sales representative, Agri Spray Drones, told Farm Journal at Commodity Classic this year that farmer interest in drones is trending up and there are a handful of “niche” or emerging applications that farmers are beginning to recognize:

Liquid Application of Regenerative Ag (Biological) Products: Many farmers are just starting to utilize spray drones to apply various liquid regenerative, or biological based, products. One example is former national corn yield contest winner Russell Hedrick . In 2024 the North Carolina farmer used a drone to liquid apply biological products 13 times in a single season. That same season, Hedrick shattered the all-time record for dryland corn yields at 460 bushels per acre, according to Thier.
Rapid Response After Rain: Spray drones allow farmers to quickly return to the fields for work immediately after rain, which is a significant advantage over traditional ground rigs that will often require more time and drier ground to return to work.
Swarming to Cover More Ground: The ability to use multiple drones in a coordinated swarm can really enhance the technologies efficiency and how many acres you can cover in a day, Thier told us.

“We are seeing a lot of farms getting into these drones right now because one new spray drone is $42,500, and a brand new ground rig is going to set the farmer back anywhere from $500,000 to over a million dollars for a brand new, high clearance Hagie,” Thier says. “And you have higher expenses operating ground machines. The drone costs them next to nothing to operate. It’s 15 gallons of gas per day to run through your generator to run the drone all day.”

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Future on Wheels: 3 Smart Farming Trends, 5 Coolest Vehicles at CES

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 22:05:00 GMT

If it’s futuristic and cutting edge, it’s being shown at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

This was my second time attending the all-things-tech-Super Bowl, where farm equipment companies like John Deere, Kubota, and others have set up shop to help educate consumers on all the cool and useful technologies that our nation’s farmers are using to help them harvest and put a healthy crop in the bin each year.

RELATED: 5 Farm Tech Companies That Wowed The Masses

You can see my coverage of what most of the manufacturers focused on ag unveiled at the show at the link above. There were also several underlying themes among what was shown on the farm tech side that I’ll discuss further below:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere and its becoming what Big Data was a decade ago: While the tail end of 2024 saw a growing trend of digital platforms that use Generative AI to help farmers get general agronomic advice faster than having to ring up a local agronomist – Taranis, Syngenta, and others dropped GenAI portals specifically for farmers – a lot of the talk at CES went beyond GenAI to look at the coming wave of AI Agents and Physical AI. And consumer facing companies like Samsung and LG were making the case for the democratization of AI across all walks of like.

For ag usage specifically, most of the talk focused around hyper-focused AI Agents that aggregate billions of data points that will soon be available on-demand to help farmers make informed management decisions. One example is a farmer relying on a specific AI Agent for soil health advice, and then having another one for tank mix recommendations, and then yet another agent that helps them with seed variety selection.

Physical AI refers to the use of AI in automated driving applications – like John Deere’s Next Generation Perception Kit that automates the function of a large 9RX tractor as it pulls new John Deere tillage implements – to give farmers the option of getting field work done without a dedicated operator in the cab. Physical AI is already here in agriculture in many forms and machines, and farmers will start to see more and more of it as equipment OEMs help them tackle the labor crunch with automated machines and robotics.

Aside from AI Agents that give advice and Physical AI to control and automate machines, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang shared during his keynote speech that everyone in the near future will need what he is calling “AI Supercomputers” and that of course includes farmers. Huang also talked about AI Agents, which you can read more about here.

Digital Twins of your farm could be your next plot trial testing ground: Ag companies at the show were also talking about the coming wave of digital twins, where farmers use AI-based software to create exact digital copies of their fields and farms. They can then run a multitude of simulations revealing how various products/technologies/management practices will affect yield and the farmer’s financial bottom line. The main benefit being that it’s all done in a digital environment before the farmer fully commits to spending money on products and devoting the time and expertise that it takes to setup real world field trials. It sounds almost like having a cheat code in older Nintendo games that allowed you to skip some of the less exciting levels and go right to the final boss.

Augmented vs. Full Autonomy: Farmers that are comfortable with technology and automation are more and more comfortable handing over machine controls for some of the less-technical field tasks, like tillage work or pulling the grain cart alongside the combine during fall harvest. And there’s also something to be said for autonomous technology that helps a new, less skilled operator complete field work to the spec the farmer requires. But talk with any farmer and they’ll tell you they still enjoy driving the tractor during spring planting, or driving the combine and seeing the yield monitor data come in.

Before farming reaches full autonomy – augmented autonomy, or autonomous machines that work alongside of the farmer and make his/her workflow more efficient, is where the companies creating autonomous machines in agriculture today are seeing the most farmer interest. That holds particularly true in high value crops like berries, nuts, and other fresh produce crops, as well as in regions where manual labor is expensive and not widely available like California or overseas in England and Australia. Small, multipurpose field work bots like Kubota’s KATR and Kioti’s AI Agri Robot RT 100 are just a small sample of how multipurpose, modular “helper robots” will be relevant in specialty crop farming.

Okay, now that we have those trends fleshed out, here’s what you really want to see: the 5 coolest vehicle technologies that I saw at CES 2025.

Aptera’s Solar EV car: Its design looks like something straight out of the Jetson’s cartoon, but Aptera says its Solar EV car uses integrated solar panels on the car’s body to harness the power of the sun. The car is equipped with 700 watts of integrated solar cells, which Aptera says enables a user to drive up to 40 miles per day completely off the grid and enjoy 400 miles of range per full charge. Learn more here.

Xpeng AeroHT Land Aircraft Carrier Concept Vehicle: This was certainly one of the wildest concept vehicles on the show floor and it drew a crowd all week. A six wheeled compact van (pictuted top of page) that can store and deploy a two-person fold up eVOTL (electric vertical take-off and landing) drone. The drone automatically recharges when it is docked in the back of the van, which the company says has a 600-plus mile range. Learn more here.

Sambo Motor Group’s eVOTL Air Taxi: The South Korean automotive manufacturer unveiled a two seat, hydrogen-electric air taxi at the show. As much as I love drone technology, something tells me most of us would jump at going around in circles for five minutes in a malfunctioning Waymo ground taxi versus jumping into something like this for a quick ride-share trip back to the hotel. Learn more here.

Manta M4 Lightweight Personal eVOTL drone: the sleek $300,000 flying device uses three propellers to take off from land or water, and can fly at 65mph for up to 30 minutes using its electric battery. And get this: because it only weighs 250 pounds it is considered an “ultra light” craft under FAA regulations and therefore can be flown without a commercial pilot’s license. Manta reps said they will begin shipping units in the next month. Learn more here.

Honda Motor Company 0 SUV and Sedan: These two EVs look like something straight out of the movie Tron, but its not Sci-Fi. Both are real EVs that Honda plans to begin manufacturing in 2026 in my home state of Ohio. The sedan and SUV both feature an Asimo operating system (OS) onboard, which is based off the same AI platform that is in Honda’s Osimo robots. The cars will feature autopilot capabilities rated up to SAE Level 3 – which means they will be fully autonomous with a human in the driver’s seat but still have the option of the human taking over full control if needed. Learn more here.

Bonus Video: This fun soccer playing robot from the Hamilton Beach booth. It’s no Kevin De Bruyne or Messi, but it was fun to have a bit of footy with this little guy in between booth visits. In the words of Dani Rojas, Futbol is Life!

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Ag Tech and Machinery Trends to Track for 2025

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 17:59:11 GMT

If you had to choose one phrase to describe how to approach farm machinery and ag tech solutions in 2025, it would be “get creative.”

So far, that looks like being open to mixed fleets of equipment, looking at retrofit technology versus buying new off the factory line and even some nontraditional options coming to the North American market via Europe.

“We are seeing growing interest in avoiding being ‘captive’ to fewer brands,” says Seth Crawford, senior vice president and general manager – precision ag and digital, AGCO. “We see farmers continuing to buy machines and technology, even if they only have $15,000 to $20,000 to spend. That’s still enough for impactful improvements.”

What’s Coming from Ag Tech

On the heels of a record harvest for most key row crops, a dead cat bounce for commodity prices is not likely.

“Farmers are going to have to continue to manage seed costs and fertility costs,” Crawford says, noting precision ag technology as a key cog in helping farmers do so. “We’ve got to show where they could be losing yield and offer solutions that pay off quickly.”

There is an emerging technology many experts are excited to see hit the market in 2025: autonomous grain carts. OutRun.Ag, AGCO’s retrofit kit that enables autonomous grain cart operation, will be widely available for the first time after extensive beta testing in 2024. New Holland will also have OMNiDRIVE, its Raven grain cart automation kit, on the market this year.

Farmer interest is growing for autonomous grain cart retrofits, with multiple brands planning releases in 2025. According to Paul Welbig, New Holland director of precision technology, swarming this technology will help growers capture more ROI and value.

(New Holland, PTx Trimble)

New Holland director of precision technology Paul Welbig says swarming autonomous grain carts is where the rubber meets the road.

“If you’re running more than one machine at the same time, that’s how you capture ROI and value,” he says, noting OMNiDRIVE supports upward of six combine and tractor combinations.

Autonomous tractor retrofits such as Sabanto’s Steward and Bear Flag Republic’s kit for John Deere tractors are also seeing higher interest. John Deere itself will soon move its autonomy products beyond tractors and tillage tools into the most intense farming jobs in the production cycle: planting and harvesting.

“We will prioritize autonomy for the jobs that occur at the busiest times of the year, when farmers must contend with limited labor, lots of variables and short windows of time to get things done,” says Michael Porter, go to market manager – large tractors.

It’s all being driven by the labor crunch. The second Trump administration coming into power could portend less farmworker availability, and rural areas are experiencing reverse migration as younger generations have a preference to live closer to large cities.

“The gig economy unfortunately hasn’t hit rural America yet,” Crawford says. “With grain cart automation, we talk to farmers about being able to get the crop out early and optimizing harvest logistics so they can potentially save two or three days in that harvest window, which can dramatically change your income level.”

More Commercialization

Other emerging technologies – spray drones, smart sprayers and autonomous machines and robots – are also moving to greater commercialization.

“With margins so tight, we’re actually seeing some farmers steering away from high-clearance, self-propelled sprayers to drones,” says Arthur Erickson, CEO, Hylio. “We worked with Beck’s Hybrids on some plot trials this summer, and the drones performed better than a ground rig ROI-wise. Because of the smaller droplet sizes, you can penetrate the canopy better.”

“With margins so tight, we’re actually seeing some farmers steering away from high-clearance, self-propelled sprayers to drones.”

(Lindsey Pound)

One development that will lift all boats is progress on the ag data standards front. AgGateway and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) are continuing to work to get manufacturers and tech providers to the table to make data easier to collect and analyze across different machines and systems.

“Making it easier to share data between spray drones and ground sprayers, by having an open data exchange, would help these technologies be picked up more,” Crawford says. “If you miss a spot with your ground sprayer, it’s easier to come back in and hit it with a drone.”

What to Expect With Farm Machinery

There are a couple of notable trends that have started emerging as we head into 2025:

Increased availability of machines coming over from the European market. Fendt and Claas are probably the two biggest players to keep an eye on. Mahindra is another foreign manufacturer gaining traction.
Nimble mobile service and dealership concepts disrupt the brick-and-mortar model.

Crawford says he has watched these two trends play out within his own company: AGCO is now seeing farmers become more interested than ever in its German-built Fendt brand, and its AgRevolution mobile dealer and service tech network expanded into Ohio during the tail end of 2024 as well.

“Growers are starting to see these European machines are able to compete in the North American market, and they’re still going to get a premium tractor that can get more done in a day,” Crawford explains.

The threat of tariffs looms over the future of European machinery brands in North America - with farmers unlikely to pay higher prices to cover the expense of importing the equipment.

(John David Pittman)

A recent development that could reverse that trend is the incoming Trump administration’s ideas around tariff policy. If tariffs push prices up, farmers aren’t going to be too keen on covering those higher costs out of their own pockets.

“What we’re seeing [on the dealer side] is complementing local brick and mortar dealerships by having more service techs out in the field, showing farmers, we can do business with you where you are, and it really resonates,” Crawford says. “Having that technology in your local community with a fully equipped service truck, you can call them out to the farm, and that builds a lot of confidence.”

Remaining confident in your ability to produce a profitable crop will be crucial moving forward. Creativity will also pay dividends, Crawford agrees.

“Difficult times cause farmers to be creative because they love farming and want to do everything they can to stay with it,” he says.

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Texas-Sized Drone: Rotor Unveils Sprayhawk, Announces Retrofit Kit and 2025 Availability

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 18:32:00 GMT

Farm Journal first encountered Rotor Technologies’ Sprayhawk at the Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems Open House outside of Seneca, Kan., this summer. The impressive aircraft spent the day on the ground at that event, but last week the New Hampshire-based startup successfully demonstrated Sprayhawk’s air worthiness for a large group of ag aviation professionals at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport.

First Look: Kelly Hills Unmanned Unveils Massive Made In The USA Spray Drone

The gas-powered autonomous helicopters are equipped with a 33-foot spray boom and a 110-gal. tank. Rotor CEO Hector Xu says the autonomous choppers can cover 240 acres per hour - a vast leap forward over many of the spray drone technologies on the market today.

Comparison data on the Rotor website claims Sprayhawk costs about $2 per acre to operate and can be safely flown with a two person crew consisting of a remote pilot-in-charge and a visual observer.

FAA regulatory approval, via a 44807 Exemption for Commercial Agricultural Operations, will be included with purchase, according to Rotor. The company will also provide in-person operator training to ensure a smooth integration.

Pricing-wise, the R550 Ready to Spray package currently sits at $1,500,000. A Sprayhawk retrofit Ready to Spray kit, which converts an existing Robinson R44 chopper into a flying autonomous sprayer, would set you back $700,000.

Drone Wars: Agriculture Caught In The Middle Of Global Tension

There is also an “early adopter” discount available until December 15 if you’re sold and want one of these bad boys in your hangar asap. The press release announcing pricing and availability for 2025 does not specifically mention any financing options, but we did reach out and confirm with VP of Partnerships Nicholas Coates the startup is currently working on securing financing and insurance partners.

“With Sprayhawk, we’re bringing a new standard in agricultural UAVs, merging large payload capacity with cutting-edge autonomy to support safety, precision agriculture, and sustainability,” said CEO Hector Xu.

So far, two Sprayhawk production prototypes are undergoing flight testing ahead of joint operations with a select number of operators across the U.S. who will be participating in Rotor’s Joint Development Program this growing season.

Your Next Read: 5 Steps to Take Flight: Make Sure You’re Legal Before You Fly

Drone Wars: Agriculture Caught In The Middle Of Global Tension

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 12:00:00 GMT

If you are in agriculture and the latest high-tech drone is on your Christmas list, then you might want to ask Santa for something else before it’s too late. One of the largest consumer drone manufacturers is on the naughty list.

No, it is not Santa’s naughty list, but instead, it’s the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) naughty list.

The company in question is Chinese drone maker DJI. In 2022, the DoD added DJI to its list of Chinese military companies (CMCs). After a delisting petition from DJI in July 2023, DoD ultimately responded by redesignating the drone company as a CMC in January 2024.

This growing crackdown on Chinese technology companies stems from U.S. government agencies implementing key provisions of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress passed to help fight espionage enabled by foreign technology companies. The U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments also have DJI on their own blacklists.

The news got much worse for DJI in September as the House of Representatives passed the Countering CCP Drones Act. The legislation would essentially place a domestic ban on DJI devices by prohibiting them from operating on U.S. communications infrastructure. It is doubtful a final verdict on DJI’s fate in the U.S. will be rendered until a new Congress and administration begin work in 2025, but if passed, then it could ground all DJI drones within the U.S.

Caught in the Middle
Due to the immense market share DJI has in the U.S., the impact could be quite disruptive, especially in the short term. Several U.S. agriculture drone service companies that have been built on the backs of DJI’s technology could soon have their wings clipped if the ban becomes reality.

It has been more than a decade since commercially affordable drone technology landed on farms all across this country. The initial value proposition drones brought to the table was both intriguing and mesmerizing. Finally, you could visualize and analyze your crops, land and assets in ways that were more in-depth and instantaneous than ever before. Plus, you’ve got to admit that flying a drone around your corn field is a lot more fun than cleaning out a grain bin or bucking hay bales.

As it relates to agriculture, the drone industry has seen incredible advancements in technology and application since drones first took flight. In the early days, a modified pocket camera from Best Buy and suspect Russian imaging software were needed to make the whole process work. Today’s drones are available with all kinds of bells and whistles ranging from standard 4K resolution to thermal imaging and even lidar mapping sensors. Thousands of images from hundreds of drones are now processed in the cloud by companies such as Pix4D and DroneDeploy. Meanwhile, companies such as Rantizo and Guardian Agriculture offer specialized drone spraying services for ag retailers and producers. Progress for sure. Game-changing? Not quite.

Last Year’s Forgotten Toy
After more than a decade, it seems agricultural adoption of drone technology has hit a virtual ceiling and is stuck in a holding pattern over some corn field in Iowa. The acceptance and integration just haven’t happened at the same pace compared with how agriculture has responded to other innovations such as auto-steer, yield monitoring or variable-rate spraying.

The obvious question is: “Why aren’t drones and drone-related services further along by now?”

When answering that question, one could quickly run out of fingers to point the blame. It is easy to point first at the government, specifically the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Given its rules, you still cannot fly a drone higher than 400', it still can’t weigh more than 55 lb., and you still can’t let it out of your sight.

Foreign drone companies, especially DJI, have exploited FAA’s 55-lb. weight limit to the detriment of the industry’s advancement. By flooding the market with cheap technology, DJI was able to push out much of the manufacturing competition in this arena. In turn, and probably by design, that meant any complementary technology and software that U.S.-based companies wanted to develop had to be done with DJI setting the rules and protocols. This alone should give one pause as China isn’t afraid of simply coopting such ideas and calling them its own.

Data from Purdue University’s annual precision agriculture dealership survey lays out a damning verdict when it comes to the adoption and economic sustainability of current drone tech. The 2024 study showed only 27% of ag retailers currently offer drone services. Another 25% of retailers are “farming” this work out to other companies. Of the ag retailers that do offer such services, only 9% say the services are profitable.

Unprofitable, Impractical
The problem is this: expecting today’s class of drones to operate effectively and efficiently is like asking a 2,500-acre-farmer to go out and harvest his crop with a John Deere 45 combine from the 1950s.

The FAA needs to get out of the way and allow drones to get bigger, smarter and more capable in the field of agriculture. The agency is starting to show it can do this for other industries, such as air transportation. In October, the FAA published 880 pages of special regulations, which will allow drone transportation companies to start flying people in their “air taxis” around city skylines.

It’s time our industry recognizes drones as serious tools in the agronomic toolbox instead of just “cool” toys for farmers. And if our government is so concerned about our national security that it needs to take away our Chinese toys, then it needs to open doors to better alternatives by clearing the regulatory and economic paths to allow for bigger, faster “Made in the USA” drones and services to rule our skies and fly over our farmland.

5 Steps to Take Flight: Make Sure You’re Legal Before You Fly

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:28:53 GMT

As drone service providers spring up across rural America, offering aerial application for a per-acre fee, many farmers are taking it upon themselves to purchase drones and complete the application work themselves.

And while busting farmers who apply products without the proper certifications and documentation might not be high on FAA’s enforcement radar, that doesn’t mean field inspectors aren’t going to make sure you’re operating legally.

In April, an FAA inspector visited a farmer training event and canceled a service provider’s license for a handful of paperwork and operational violations. The foremost violation cited by the inspector was flying the drone closer than 100' from a non-participating farmer. The pilot-in-charge also was unable to provide proof of FAA registration (the drone wasn’t properly marked). That service provider is now grounded, pending legal appeal.

Flying a drone for commercial purposes without the proper licensing and approvals is a felony punishable by up to three years imprisonment and some very hefty fines. Private property protections do not apply, since all airspace from the ground up is controlled (not owned) by FAA.

Luckily, the FAA recently streamlined its processes to make obtaining proper certification and the exemptions to apply product via drone easier.

1. Check Drone Approval

Before purchasing a spray drone, check the name of the manufacturer and model of drone you wish to use to ensure it is approved for FAA Part 137 operations. Also make sure the drone is FAA Remote ID compliant.

2. Register Your Drone

Once you purchase a spray drone, immediately register the drone at FAADroneZone. It costs $5 for a three-year registration, and all drones weighing over 0.55 lb. must be registered. You must legibly mark the outside of your drone with its registration number, which is the unique identification FAA issues to all aircraft upon registration, in a location that is readily visible upon inspection.

3. Obtain a Part 107 Certificate

You must be 16 years old or older, fluent in the English language, and be of sound physical and mental condition. You must also pass the initial aeronautical knowledge exam with FAA. Once you pass, you will verify your identity with FAA and submit to a background check. Print out your Part 107 certificate and keep it on you anytime you fly.

4. Get a Part 137 Exemption

FFA offers a new exemption, called Gen 3, for 55 lb. and heavier drones allowing for no visual observer, day or night flying, and the swarming of one to three drones at a time.

5. Agricultural Operator Certificate

Once you are approved and receive a Part 137 exemption, now you must file for an Agricultural Aircraft Operator Certificate by filling out FAA Form 8710-3 and emailing it to UAS137Certificates@FAA.gov.

Essentials for Operating a Spray Drone Legally

Valid Part 107 License: Required for commercial drone operation.
Part 137 Exemption: Necessary for agricultural spraying.
ATO-Issued Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA): Issued with your Part 137 exemption.
Agricultural Aircraft Operator Certificate: Complete FAA Form 8710-3.

To learn more about drone spraying exemptions, visit this online guide published by well-known drone attorney and private pilot Johnathan Rupprecht.

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Ag Tech News: Smart Farming Innovations Make Time Magazine List, Universities Advance Research

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 20:15:44 GMT

Illini looking at robotic weeders in row crops
University of Illinois writer Marianne Stein reports that agricultural robotics for mechanical weeding is an emerging technology, and a recently published study looks at the types of farmers and fields more likely to adopt weeding robots and at what stage of resistance development.

The study evaluated small, lightweight mechanical weeding robots for controlling common waterhemp in corn crops.

According to Stein, University of Illinois researchers examined the effect of two different types of weed management strategies: myopic management, which considers one year at a time, and forward-looking management, which accounts for future outcomes.

The researchers also considered weed seed density, weed resistance level, and economic thresholds that would trigger the adoption of robotic weeding.

You can read the full article here.

John Deere, Mississippi State University join forces on autonomous technology
Mississippi State Universities’ (MSU) Meg Henderson reports MSU is partnering with John Deere through a master research agreement, establishing a framework for the university’s Agricultural Autonomy Institute (AAI) to help develop technology to automate critical steps in the production of cotton and other crops.

Henderson writes that the partnership will help AAI advance its mission of attracting companies in the ag autonomy industry to Mississippi, creating options for research and startups, and developing and training a Mississippi-based ag autonomy workforce.

Read the full report here.

Monarch MKV electric tractor.

(Monarch Tractor)

Monarch MKV EV tractor drops below $30K, now EQIP eligible
Monarch’s MKV tractor, the world’s first 100% electric, driver-optional smart tractor is now available for as low as $26,200 depending on your region and EQIP eligibility, according to a recent email bulletin from the manufacturer.

The company says the now nationwide Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is currently offering over $8.4 billion over the next five years to farmers that adopt sustainable solutions to mitigate natural resource concerns. The MK-V tractor qualifies for this program, according to Monarch.

Follow this link to learn more and get in touch with Monarch to see if you’re eligible.

Three ag innovations named Time Magazine “Best Inventions of 2024”
Time Magazine publishes an annual list of products its editors deem the best technological breakthroughs of the year.

The 2024 list was released on October 30 and it highlights InnerPlant’s digital ecosystem, CropVoice , and Guardian Agriculture’s SC1 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) spray drone.

The list also honors Pivot Bio’s N-Ovator program as a top sustainability invention.

InnerPlant announced CropVoice this summer and we wrote about the startup’s $30 million Series B fund raise. The article includes a farmer perspective on why InnerPlant is such a remarkable technological breakthrough.

RELATED: Inside InnerPlant’s Farmer-Led Investment Run and Why It’s Better Than Traditional VC

CEO Shely Aronov discusssed the honor and CropVoice briefly in a recent Linkedin post. She can explain CropVoice better than we can:

“For the first time in agriculture’s 10,000-year history, CropVoice provides farmers with actionable data directly from plants, so they know exactly what crops need and when. This early detection system tied directly to plants’ physiological responses, enables farmers to take early action that will protect yields, decrease chemical use, and improve the resiliency of their farms.”

Guardian Agriculture’s SC1 is said to be the first eVTOL drone to receive FAA approval. According to the article “the fully autonomous vehicle carries up to 200 pounds of fertilizer or pesticides and uses on-board technology to precisely cover 60 acres per hour.”

Check out Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2024 list here.

New Topnet Live network service areas are available.

(Topcon Positioning Systems)

Topcon announces update to its corrections networks out west
Topcon Positioning Systems says it has made several regional additions to its reference station service, Topnet Live.

New service areas are available through expansion within California, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, and Washington, with 180 full-wave geodetic reference stations added to the network.

Network corrections offer centimeter accuracy for high-end engineering, surveying, construction and agriculture measurement and guidance systems. This service is also utilized in many other markets, such as the turf industry, for automated mowing and input applications, line marking and imaging, as well as UAV operation for mapping and delivery.

Next Gen Spotlight: Indiana Farmer Helps Grow Family Businesses

Tue, 24 Sep 2024 22:06:41 GMT

In 2019, Bri Osborne took her father, Steve Stagge, up on his offer to come back and help with the family farm and his manure business.

Together, the father and daughter manage 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans alongside 7,000 head of hogs with help from their hired hand, Alfonso, and Bri’s husband, Dustin.

They also have an impressive collection of businesses that keep their plates full year round, including a dragline manure business and a spray drone service called Osborne Ag Services. Besides their two spray drones, the business is also diving into offering Grain Weevil robots inside grain bins as a service. Bri says farmer demand for their spray drone service has exploded the past two years, doubling the acres they cover.

Q: How do you manage your time running multiple businesses?

A: In the fall and spring, it’s all hands on deck between farming and drag lining. The spray drones were a perfect fit for our schedule, with that busy season spanning from July to the end of August. In the wintertime, we build custom drone trailers, haul grain and perform equipment maintenance. It’s more of a manage by season type of time management, but it keeps us busy throughout the year.

Q: What are some of the things on the farm you’re passionate about?

A: Like the average farmer, I love harvest time. My main role during harvest is in the grain cart and helping move trucks around. Spraying in the spring time and tending to the crops is also another passion I’ve pursued. My dad handles his own crop spraying and taught me the ropes. My husband was a commercial applicator for over 15 years, so that all plays into why we started our own spraying business. I also manage the marketing and bookwork for the farm. There’s always something new to learn when it comes to grain marketing, and it’s different every year.

Q: Who have been your main mentors so far?

A: My dad has been a huge mentor. I am a fourth-generation farmer. My great-grandpa started this farm growing corn and soybeans and raising hogs on dirt. My grandpa was very knowledgeable with the crops, and he taught my dad, and my dad taught me. My dad took the farm to the next level with the commercial hog operation and the drag line business, and my husband and I hope to continue to expand. Our crop consultant and input salesman, Pete, has been a huge help in teaching me the agronomy side.

Q: How important is technology to your farm?

A: I think technology is where ag is headed, which is another reason why we were excited to be getting into the drones and be a part of the Bin Assist Network with the grain weevils. There’s a lot of knowledge and components that go into farming, and technology has played a huge part in helping farmers see what product or farming practices can help their bottom dollar. We are technology-based with all we do on the farm and related businesses.

Q: What advice would you have for others who are just getting into farming?

A: I guess my first piece of advice would be to diversify to help bring value back to the farm. The grain market is ever changing, and it’s comforting to have another stream of income when the markets jump up and down. With our ag-related businesses, it has always been important to us to treat other fields as if they were our own. If you are timely and do the job right, the business will continue to grow and be successful. Also, be a sponge for knowledge. There’s something you can learn from everybody, everybody’s had different experiences.

Your Next Read — Next Gen Spotlight: Missouri Farmer Diversifies to ‘Roll With the Punches and Grow’

First Look: Kelly Hills Unmanned Unveils Massive Made In The USA Spray Drone

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 19:06:15 GMT

Farm Journal was given the unique opportunity to participate in Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems 2024 Field Day. The event was held to give interested parties more details on Kelly Hills’ new UAS Test Range as well as showcase the world’s current largest autonomous spray drone, the Pyka Pelican Spray.

Heinen Brothers Agra Services, a provider of aerial application services throughout the Midwest, and its subsidiary Kelly Hills Unmanned Systems gained FAA approval in July for an ag drone test range spanning four states and 49,000 square miles of Class G, or unrestricted, controlled airspace.

FAA approved the unmanned aerial systems test range covering partial airspace in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. The range provides the ability to host fixed-wing, multirotor, and rotary-wing systems testing applications on ten different crops including corn, soybeans and milo. The state of Kansas itself sits at a unique intersection of agriculture and aviation technology innovation.

The aerial application service providers hosted the open house event at its home airfield near Seneca, Kansas, showcasing the first-of-its-kind in the U.S. Pelican Spray autonomous spray drone. The drone has been in development for the past seven years and originates from California. It is electric-powered and equipped with GPS and LiDAR systems to allow it to takeoff, fly, and land autonomously. It can cover 150-220 acres of cropland per hour, according to Pyka representatives at the event.

The drone is also currently being test flown in South and Central America, where regulations on spray drones are more relaxed than here in the U.S.

Pelican Spray weighs 700 pounds empty and can carry a 620 pound payload, or 74 gallons of crop protection chemical in its tank. It features a 1-2 gallon per acre application rate and it can apply while flying at speeds up to 70 mph. and as close to 9 feet above the crop canopy. It requires a runway of about 600 meters long by 30 meters wide and can land and takeoff from dirt, grass, and concrete surfaces. It reportedly costs just north of $500,000.

Pelican Spray is also capable of applying at night, although FAA regulations currently ban commercial drone night flights without an approved FAA waiver. The drone is powered by 3 swap-able large 18 KwH lithium ion batteries that are housed in the craft’s nose cone.

The fact that Pelican Spray is built in California is unique because U.S. lawmakers have been considering restrictive actions that could include an outright ban of drone technology produced in China . The legislation appears to have bipartisan support, although it has seemed to stall in recent weeks as the focus shifts to the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election. The two largest spray drone manufacturers worldwide, DJI and XAG, are both headquartered in mainland China.

Check out this quick video edit from the event to see the Pyka Pelican Spray in action. The next generation of large-scale application by drone appears to be upon us!

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Texas-Sized Drone: Rotor Unveils Sprayhawk, Announces Retrofit Kit and 2025 Availability

Drone Wars: Agriculture Caught In The Middle Of Global Tension

5 Steps to Take Flight: Make Sure You’re Legal Before You Fly

1. Check Drone Approval

2. Register Your Drone

3. Obtain a Part 107 Certificate

4. Get a Part 137 Exemption

5. Agricultural Operator Certificate

Essentials for Operating a Spray Drone Legally

Ag Tech News: Smart Farming Innovations Make Time Magazine List, Universities Advance Research

Next Gen Spotlight: Indiana Farmer Helps Grow Family Businesses

First Look: Kelly Hills Unmanned Unveils Massive Made In The USA Spray Drone