Drones In Agriculture

By Pat Cauley, Juneau County

Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs); also known as drones are a new topic in the world of agriculture. They allow farmers, agronomists, and other agriculture related people to manage their properties, crops, and animals using this flying object. Agriculture is not the only field in which these devices are used. Many UAVs are also used in the military.

The uses of these devices may vary. They are very convenient for agronomists and farmers to use. They allow you to see things from a “bird’s eye view”. They are a big tool in crop management. With the use of a UAV, an agronomist can look at fields and look at the lay of the land and the overall crop stand. Using infra-red imaging, agronomists and the land owner can look at a field and diagnose healthy from unhealthy plants. The healthy plants will reflect back more infra-red radiation than an unhealthy plant. Many plants that contain a fungal infection will not reflect back a lot of radiation.

Many farmers wou ld also appreciate the UAV because it could save them money and increase yield potential. An example of this would be if a farmer had a big field and wanted to know whether to spray it or not, he or she could then get imaging from the UAV and only spot spray the weedy areas rather than spray the whole field. Another thing you could do with the pictures from the UAV is look at them and see what the problem is or predict what the future holds for that crop, saving the grower a lot of money.

The UAVs can be equipped with many different features. One I already talked about would be the infra-red imaging technology. Another would be a mapping feature. You can take the card out of the UAV and plug it into a computer and use a special mapping program in which you can ma rk out the fields and field borders that you want the UAV to image. There is also a feature in the control panel that allows the operator to command the UAV to return home. This will prevent the UAV from getting lost or the operator losing it. Currently, the biggest problem UAVs are facing is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not yet regulated them. They are going to regulate them, but this may not be until 2016 or 2017.

Source:uwex.edu