Drone technology becoming more common on farms

Whether producers like it or not, drones are continuing to make their way into the farming industry.

At this year’s Western Canadian Crop Production Show in Saskatoon, the fancy pieces of equipment were once again on display and were drawing a lot of eyeballs.

Markus Weber, president of Landview Drones based out of Camrose, Alta., suggested the technology has significantly grown in the last three years.

“We’ve been selling drones for 10 years and for most of that time it was imaging drones. Then about three years ago is when we started selling spraying drones and that is really the inflection point where the interest went higher,” Weber explained. “Farmers are more interested in spraying or spreading with a drone than they are in imaging.”

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Within the last half-decade, Weber said drones have gone from spraying small areas to entire fields.

“It’s really picked up in the last two years especially and part of it is the capacity of the drones. Previous models were too small for North American field scale use and they’ve gotten big enough that it’s becoming practical and that’s where the interest is coming from,” he added.

“There’s a few major changes. Having more redundancy in the aircraft itself so it’s reliable – eight props instead of four has made a big change. Then the atomizer – the way of creating the droplets has been customized for drones – rather than using flat fan nozzles and high pressure, it uses a little spinning disc, and that’s changed the nature of the droplet deposition,” he explained. “And then lastly, just larger drones – you’re able to fly drones that weigh 100 kilograms.”

Weber mentioned he’s surprised to see just how much the drone industry has grown in the farming community.

“Three years ago, I was quoted as saying, ‘We will never spray quarter sections by drone.’ And I’m the drone guy. I’m supposed to be championing drones,” he said.

Looking ahead, Weber thinks we’re not far away from seeing every farm using a drone to help with its operations.

“I think we will see spraying drones on every farm once regulatory issues are settled. Right now, we can’t legally apply herbicides, fungicides or insecticides on farms. Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) will change that rule eventually and at that point – I suspect every farm will have a drone. The large ones may still be doing herbicide application with other other equipment, but for things like fungicide and desiccant, it is a no-brainer – every rancher will want to use one of these.

Weber said the rules facing drones on farms here are specifically for Canada and is something other countries don’t have to put up with.

Weber is hopeful the Canadian government will back down on its rules.

“Other countries have rules too, but our biggest trading partner down in the U.S., they can apply at aerial rates as if it was another aircraft and it is an aircraft,” he said. “I wish that we would get the similar type of rules here.”

Weber thinks farmers will get their way.

“There’s so many people spraying off label now that the federal regulators are going to have to find a way to make this an acceptable tool,” he added.