Drones are taking Ontario agriculture to new heights

Aug 22, 2016

Technology allows farmers to see more

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Drones are helping farmers in Ontario take agriculture to new heights.

Dr. Mary Ruth McDonald from the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph, said drones have become an important tool in a farmer’s toolbox in the last decade.

"Even before that, people were interested in satellite images to assess crops. In the last 10 years, the whole area has really exploded to include things like using drones to spray areas that are difficult to access, and using drones for things like counting apples in an orchard," McDonald told CBC.

There are many advantages of using drones, including accessing different landscapes, and more detailed imagery than the human eye is capable of.

Drone

“The images provided by the drone and counting the pixels are a finer and more accurate assessment of the amount of disease in a plot or a treatment,” McDonald told CBC.

Another benefit for farmers, and maybe the most important one, is that using drones can help them save money.

Farmers are able to scout an entire field and make informed decisions on what their crops need.

A farmer contemplated adding nitrogen to his entire wheat field over the winter. After having a drone do a flyover, the farmer's support group came up with a different decision.

"My recommendation was not to apply nitrogen where there wasn't enough wheat,” Felix Weber, who operates Ag Business & Crop in Palmerston, Ontario, told CBC. “That was a cost savings to the farmer and 80 per cent of nitrogen was added rather than 100 per cent.”

Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.