hometownsource. com / heartland / Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, April 19, 2026 Page 23
North is able to do in the future. He hopes to be able to provide services related to forestry, prescribed fire, aquatics, drone repair, aviation, invasive species management and support to local government units.
Moving into the benefits of using drones for image scanning and reconstruction, Behrens showed a graphic of how satellite images are created. A satellite in Earth’ s orbit will use a photomechanical scanner to scan the planet’ s surface, then transmit the visual data it has picked up to a receiving station that will finally construct an image with that data.
Behrens said there can be many useful applications of satellite imagery for agriculture, but that it has some limitations compared to drone imagery. When the image has to be captured from so far away, traveling through the atmosphere, ozone layer, dust particles and water vapor can all distort the final image to make it less useful. Even worse, if there are clouds above a field when the satellite scans it, the image is essentially useless. By contrast, drone imagery is taken much closer to the surface being captured, resulting in a more accurate, more detailed image that isn’ t as affected by these distortions.
Moving onto the benefits and pitfalls of different types of drone usage for agriculture, Behrens said the biggest benefits of aerial pesticide application included cost savings when used correctly, high precision, reduced crop damage, crop rescue applications, yield optimization, integrated pest management, soil health and significant water savings. However, some pitfalls included drones not being optimized for pesticide precision application, limitations in the make and model of some drones, strict regulations compared to crop dusting and the continued problem of
wind disrupting applications, regardless of whether crop dusters or drones are used.
Behrens said drones can also be useful for aerial fungicide application. Some listed benefits of this include stronger stalks that are more resilient to wind, stronger ear nodes of corn that don’ t fall off as easily and larger ears for increased yield.
Next discussing the benefits of obtaining detailed images of fields from aerial photographs taken by drones, Behrens said drones can map where rocks and weeds are in a field. From there, this data can be used to determine where they need to be removed. Most drones aren’ t quite yet capable of efficiently removing most rocks, but for weeds, a target spray prescription can be generated that gives the drone operator instructions for where to spray, how much to spray and what mix of chemicals to spray. In this way, the farmer can use the“ smallest effective dose” for the health of their fields the same way a physician aims to prescribe the smallest effective dose of medication to a patient.
Behrens said aerial mosquito treatment can be useful on farm sites as well as on lake property, work sites, wetlands and roadsides. Beyond being a nuisance, mosquito bites carry many diseases that can disrupt, incapacitate or even kill animals and humans alike. Although some are more common around Minnesota than others, mosquitos have been known to transmit the Zika virus, West Nile virus, chikungunya virus, dengue fever, malaria, Lyme disease, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, Southern tick-associated rash illness, tick-borne relapsing fever, tularemia and alpha-gal syndrome. Spraying for mosquitos helps control the population and therefore reduce the chances of any of these transmissions reaching livestock or the humans tending them.
As drone usage is highly regulated, Behrens said it’ s essential to ensure that anyone hired to fly drones for agricultural purposes is in full compliance with the law. This includes checking the operator’ s FAA certifications, pesticide applicators license, insurance, standard operating procedure, experience with the job, full cost of services, how they clean and maintain their equipment and what equipment they use. In addition, asking about an operator’ s spray techniques, including the model of aircraft, swath width, droplet size of chemicals, how they mitigate for drift and any additional equipment they use will give a better understanding of if the operator is qualified for the job at hand and is in compliance with regulations to be able to do so.
Behrens encouraged anyone hiring a custom applicator to treat them as they would a crop duster, ask if they’ ll need water due to the mobility of operation, ensure that they aren’ t in a restricted flying area, not wait until the last minute to hire anyone, always use a chemical representative and not let an applicator decide what chemicals to use unless they are also a chemical representative, ask about pre-mixing and tell the applicator about any site conditions or obstructions. The long list of questions may be exhaustive, but Behrens said this will also ensure that the applicator has the resources and equipment they need to do their job right.
Acknowledging that specific anecdotes are sometimes just as if not more effective than raw statistics and information in communicating the value of a service, Behrens shared a few success stories of how his services had helped
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