Jeffery Kostuik (centre), diversification specialist with Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation, demonstrated his SenseFly eBee fixed-wing drone at the Westman Agriculture Diversification Organization’s (WADO) field day in Melita on July 21.

Taking flight on crop surveillance

Drones offer farmers a number of options in monitoring fields 
but it still doesn’t beat boots on the ground

Far more complex than yesterday’s remote-control planes, the modern-day drone has a lot to offer today’s producer. “As far as data collection, these are really useful. We are figuring that we can make use of them for a number of things, including determining crop health and monitoring maturity,” said Jeffery Kostuik, diversification specialist with Parkland

Grounded

It is easy to see why drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are without a doubt the hottest new technology to hit the Farm Belt. They offer a relatively inexpensive option for comprehensive field scouting, allowing farmers to easily pinpoint troubled spots in their fields for closer inspection. We suspect that over time


flying field drone (UAV)

It’s a bird, a plane — no, it’s the farmer’s new eye in the sky

Drones can give you the big picture of a field, a small one of seed row spacing, or even check on the cows

Want a bird’s-eye view of your crop, find stray steers, or safely monitor a cow calving on pasture? It’s getting easier and cheaper to do with a wide array of drones on the market, says Rejean Picard, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development’s (MAFRD) farm production adviser in Somerset. Once almost exclusively used by soldiers