There have been few technologies in waiting with as much pent-up interest as agricultural drones.
The unmanned flying machines started out as data gatherers, scouting crops and sensing from above, a tool of agronomists, farmers and researchers and they remain in regular use.
But the most impactful use of drones will be as an applicator of fertilizer, seed and eventually pesticides.
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I was suspicious along with many that small drones would be capable of efficiently carrying the heavy loads of seed, fertilizer and sprays (dissolved in water) to compete with the exceptional efficiency of large capacity sprayers, spreader and drills.
I watched several years ago at the Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show site while the first cargo-carrying drones lifted off and floated up and down a demonstration plot.
But here we are, with more and more drone application businesses popping up across North America each week. That tells me that there’s already significant work being done with legal uses of the drones in applying seed for cover crops and fertilizers in growing crops.
There is yet only one herbicide approved for spraying in Canada. Garlon XRT was recently approved for drone spraying for industrial weed control applications.
Here’s hoping that there aren’t farmers around running out starting to spray before approvals are granted. It won’t be the applicators or the chemical companies in trouble, it will be the farmers.
There is a lot of work going on around the world to try to get more pesticides that will work well for spraying by drone approved, and companies like Drone Spray Canada, based in Chatham-Kent, are doing yeoman’s work with some of these projects around the world.
Government and company researchers are working to understand drone spray drift and coverage issues. It’s different from planes and ground sprayers, but I don’t doubt that it will work for many products.
It will get there. Have some patience, but here’s hoping that Canada will be able to keep up with the speed of approvals and other parts of the world, which, in general, can be a challenge.
Drone technology has come a long way, especially around battery life and automation of refueling and restocking. Trusting it to refuel and restock by itself will be a major turning point in the technology’s evolution.
There will be a drone demonstration again at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show daily from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the West Demo Field if you want to keep up with this fast-developing area of farm technology.
