One of the newest tools in crop production is not on the ground, but just above it.

Before sunrise, spray drones can be found flying low over vegetable fields in the Salinas Valley. This is the ideal time of day, with little to no wind, staying clear of crews and other field workers not yet in the field. Elliot Dorenbaum, National UAS Operations Manager for Wilbur-Ellis, and his team met me out in Gonzales in the early morning to watch their spray drone fly out over a celery field and talk about the future of spray technology for California ag.

As we gawked at the spry, tiny-helicopter-like contraption shoot up and out into the field, Elliot filled me in on drone technology and opportunities to improve safety, strengthen application quality and provide growers an effective tool for crop production. He explained, “drones really help us on three fronts … safety, economics and product use efficiency.”

Safety First

Drones operate in conditions and timeframes that can reduce exposure for pilots, applicators and field crews, while staying low and close to the crop canopy, one of the clearest safety benefits of unmanned aircraft systems. “There is no one in the cockpit,” Dorenbaum said. “You can fly at night, and you can keep things low and close to the canopy, which mitigates exposure outside the production area.”

Costs of Production

The economics are also changing the conversation. “A new spray drone costs about 10 percent of what a spray helicopter or a tractor does, so your overhead is lower and your labor is consolidated with a lot of the automation associated with the drone,” he said.

Speed is another advantage. “It will take maybe an hour to do 10 acres with a tractor, and it will probably take us about 20 minutes to do it with the drone,” Dorenbaum said.

With consistent flight paths and the capability to spray up to the edge of a field, drones can also support more targeted applications. “The drones do a really good job [applying products]. They have very specific millimeter-level GPS tracking that reduces overlap, and the atomizers allow for a really good quality application across the entirety of the field.”

Efficacy for Efficiency

Application quality is especially important as more growers incorporate biological products and other tools that depend on consistent coverage. “These drones have rotary atomizers, which chop up the spray solutions into very fine mist,” he said. “In biological product applications, you need to really focus on getting a really good application quality.”

Using the drones, in addition to satisfying the spray requirements, the drones bring in a lot of data,” Dorenbaum said. That information can help teams analyze field behavior, reduce inputs, improve timing and build “a deeper understanding of what is actually going on.”

As growers continue balancing productivity, safety and stewardship, tools like drones are needed to move the industry forward. “The integration of new technologies in ag can seem scary, but the drones are receiving a really warm welcome and a ton of adoption and very quickly, because a lack of supply of aerial spray options,” Dorenbaum said.

“These things really are a no-brainer in terms of the quality that they produce, the low overhead and how they benefit growers in terms of giving them flexibility on application timing, which is key to mitigating over-application of chemicals, which everyone wants across the board.”