Drones in agriculture

Anonymous-0 · Jun 30, 2014

According to people in the know, agriculture will be the second biggest users of drones in the near future.
I can see many uses, as farms get bigger and more spread oot, the farmer can look his fields over in the comfort of his living room.
Cattle producers can gaze at his herd, maybe find out who or what is causing the mutilation of his animals.
Sheep herders can check on his flock from the comfort of his shepherds vagon.
The list could go on and on, but technically on the farm is here to stay. Yust think, it hasn"t been too many years back that GPS was the new wave.

NY 986 · Jun 30, 2014

I am afraid man has more technology than he can handle. For all the good uses the drones will be applied to there will be quite a number of uses that will good for no one. We are trying to deal with the ages old problem of hired help or more specifically hired help can be a pain in the tail. We like the fact that machines do not curse or talk back but are prone to break down. The government statistics people can spin the data any way they choose but we have more and more people sitting idly because they can not find work. Idle masses are not the way to keep society together long term.

Fergienewbee · Jun 30, 2014

Well said. I read somewhere that "We have become educated beyond our intelligence." Can you imagine the regulations for owning drones? The bureaucrats must be absolutely orgas*ic!

Larry

Drill · Jun 30, 2014

The agricultural drones their talking about are not the flying ones, but more like remote controlled tractors and driver less self propelled machinery.

Cas · Jun 30, 2014

The government will probably be using drones to collect information on farmers. Today the government maintains a gps location for every farm in the country. How the data is collected and used may not be so good for the farmer. Will
data be shared to help or hurt and antagonize the farmer?

JF in MI · Jun 30, 2014

Funny you should say that. Due to so many reports from airliners sighting drones in airport traffic patterns I just read that the FAA is just starting new rule making regarding drones and model aircraft. Examples may be 'no unlicensed commercial use' (very popular with realtors for taking pictures of client's property). No flying within 5 miles of an airport. Altitude restrictions, etc. This doesn't even scratch the surface of privacy concerns. Police will need a warrant to look at you on your property (remember thermal imaging technology when it grew faster than survailence laws?).

acken fromwisc · Jun 30, 2014

talking about no jobs, some people are too da**
lazzy to work!!!!!!!!!
drones will not replace them.

centralilbaler · Jun 30, 2014

My daughter is working for the local CIH dealer has been flying a drone for several months now. Its an amazing tool

rrlund · Jun 30, 2014

Here's one my son in law took of my place on Easter. Pretty good shot if he figures out how to get the fish eye out of it.

ss55 · Jun 30, 2014

Mechanization, expansion, incorporation (business), chemicals, genetics, computerization and now automation are part of today's agriculture. Just like other businesses and large industries, agriculture has been steadily changing since mechanization began in the 1840's. I don't think the industry will or even can stop progressing. If we returned to only using only horses, oxen and manual labor the world might soon starve.

RayP(MI) · Jun 30, 2014

Government doesn't need drones to pry into every corner of your farming operation. They already have sattelite data. Last spring I used a garden tractor and a pull behind fertilizer spreader to fertilize a small (4 acres) field of oats. Was playing with mapquest satellite view a few weeks later, and I could see every track that I made with that tractor. Back at the farmstead I could see details as small as the foot square roof vents on the cargo trailer and the 2x4 board I threw up on the roof of the sheep shelter. And this is just what they release for the consumer market. Nope, they already have all the data they need. Guess I'm going to have to be extra vigelent to see the drug dealers don't start piggybacking their crops in mine!

NY 986 · Jun 30, 2014

There are always going to be people too lazy to work but don't be fooled by what else is going on in this country. A recent online article said for somebody graduating college (22 years old) that they will need 7 million dollars in their retirement account by age 70 to live comfortably. I would assume the definition of comfortable does not mean two vacation homes plus a condo plus primary residence plus SUV at each location plus eating out 3 times a day 7 days a week. There is no way I see short of ramping up the printing presses for money that a majority of that age group is going to have 5, 6, or 7 million dollars in a retirement account by age 70. They are also hollering that at least on third of the people that will be of retirement age in the next couple of decades will have no significant savings for retirement. I can believe this as whether you wrench at the local auto garage or drive a dump truck your employer most likely funds nothing and your paycheck pretty much goes to the here and now. The you know what is going to hit the fan soon in this country and it will get very ugly very quick.

CenTex Farmall · Jun 30, 2014

Right on!

Decades ago they could read a newspaper from a satellite.

CenTex Farmall · Jun 30, 2014

Ultimately the drone thing will be limited in use. The FAA is still working on regs for these things and when they're done there's not going to be much latitude.

I predict there will be a few NMAC's with commercial flights and the FAA will clamp down even more. Also a single incident that even looks like a terrorist attack will mean game over.

Drone operators will get some expensive lessons about weather as I think weather is going to eat quite a few as operations expand.

Right now all the excitement reminds me of the pre-sell frenzy that happens with fad livestock such as Emus and Alpacas. Some businesses will be sold on it and then find out that aviation is an expensive game to play.

Probably anything that's electric powered (and thus limited in range and capability) will be pretty easy to operate (as far as regs are concerned). Anything with a combustion engine is going to be a different story.

Don't get me wrong; they do have a lot of practical applications. However, what's in the media now reminds me of 50's magazine articles about flying cars and house cleaning robots.

notjustair · Jun 30, 2014

Those things and satellites can be a pain. Earlier in the spring I was burning pasture. I had been told by the nice folks on the phone that the quail break needed to be burned. It didn't want to burn for anything but I had to try in several spots so their satellite image would show that I had made a good faith effort. Annoying.

Ron in NS · Jun 30, 2014

First drone I see over my place will become a victim of anti-drone aircraft buckshot if within range.

Wile E · Jun 30, 2014

Any Gubbermint intrusion is bad.
The drones may be a help to the farmer, but wait until one crashes into a house, or causes a car wreck.

Traditional Farmer · Jun 30, 2014

Every thief in the country worth his salt will have one to spot things to steal.

mkirsch · Jun 30, 2014

I just can't get my head wrapped around why people are in such a panic about these overgrown TOYS. It's just media hype.

The technology is not there yet for many of the applications that they hype in the news, and may never be. Some of the problem is battery capacity. The current battery technology can keep one of these things aloft for maybe 30 minutes, if it is heavily loaded with batteries AND flown conservatively. You quickly reach the point of diminishing returns where more battery weight does not result in more range.

Delivering packages? Maybe from the truck at the road to the house 100' up the driveway. It would be quicker and cheaper for the driver to jump out and walk the package up himself. Even if they somehow manage to make it work, how is it less expensive or more efficient delivering one package at a time than it is to load a big truck up with hundreds of packages and run a route? Yeah we offer drone delivery. How much money you got? Give us all of it.

Billy NY · Jun 30, 2014

You can get one off amazon, I flew one yesterday, it was fun, does take nice video too, but between battery life, wind and ones ability to master the controls and conditions, there is a lot to it. I'm going to order a beginners model, its $70 and a challenge to fly. These are interesting and not a bad little hobby if you have a field nearby, but of course people will try and use them for bad things. You won't learn to fly one of these things overnight, just add some wind, trees or similar, and if you fly it over your neighbors pool, backyard or similar, it does deserve to get shot down !

50'-75' is fine, of course others will ruin it for hobbyists, just an electric kite with much better controls, camera and memory card. Be a lot of fun to ID trespassers on ATV's no need to chase after them, or maybe chase the darned geese out of the crops LOL !

old bc · Jun 30, 2014

The local Case/IH dealer is selling them. I soldered a new control board in his demonstrator model Friday. They said it was $17,000.00 for the complete unit with software.

Pitch · Jul 1, 2014

BTO up the road uses one of those four prop helo platforms over his fields. Says it saves him a ton of walking when he can fly over and see what is going on in every area of a field.

Drones in agriculture

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