The buzz over Canadian farmland isn’t just from insects – it’s from drones changing the way some farmers manage crops.
Once limited to aerial photos and hobby use, drones are increasingly being adopted by farmers for tasks ranging from crop monitoring to seeding cover crops to spraying shade paint on greenhouses.
Aaron McQueen, Agronomist and Owner of AA Crop Co. in Fisherville, says drones can provide a perspective that ground scouting can’t.
“It is intriguing to get up and get a 360 of your crop. Sometimes it looks a lot different from above than you think standing on the edge of that field,” he said.
McQueen has used drones for stitching together field images and applying filters that highlight weak spots.
“We can actually count corn plants when they’re very small at the seeding stage. You could fly a 100-acre field and get a count every acre in 15 minutes,” he explained.
Still, McQueen noted that technology is no substitute for old-fashioned fieldwork.
“If it’s poor, you still have to go out and determine why. That hasn’t changed,” he said.
For Ron Haverkamp, partner in Windward Drones, the technology’s applications extend well beyond scouting. His company provides services like cover cropping, spreading fertilizer, and whitewashing greenhouse roofs.
“The biggest part of our company is in the greenhouse industry, so whitewashing greenhouse roofs in the spring,” Haverkamp explained. In this application, drones spray a chalk-based product that reflects heat but not light, protecting plants from sunburn, and later apply a remover so the coating washes away.
Haverkamp says there are also biological options in drone work.
“We have drones that can spread beneficial insects throughout some of the high value crops for integrated pest management,” he noted as one example. These kinds of applications, along with fertilizer spreading and cover crop seeding, are fully legal in Canada.
Where things stall is chemical spraying.
McQueen pointed out that Canada requires separate approvals for drone applications, unlike the United States where drones were simply recognized as another aerial platform.
“For all intents and purposes, spraying crop protection products is not allowed in Canada at this point, and that’s a stark contrast to the US,” he said.
Haverkamp echoed that frustration, noting the impact of regulation: “If the bureaucracy would get caught up to the technology, it would absolutely explode,” he said.
Both men agree that drones could be especially useful when fields are too wet for ground sprayers or when tall corn makes traditional spraying impractical.
McQueen highlighted tar spot, a new foliar disease in Ontario corn, which often requires spraying during tasselling when plants can be three metres high.
“Lots of interest with drone spraying,” he said, “but so far the technology has not been able to demonstrate the same efficacy with the products we use.”
Despite the hurdles, innovation continues. Windward Drones is preparing for larger-capacity models.
“There’s a larger drone being released (any day) here in Canada that’s going to double the capacity of the current ones on the market,” said Haverkamp. He added that multi-drone operations are also on the horizon, where one pilot in a control room could direct four or five units at once.
For farmers, cost is another factor. Haverkamp pointed out that a commercial drone might cost $40,000 to $50,000, which is significantly less compared to $800,000 for a land-based sprayer. And unlike heavy machinery, drones don’t trample crops when operating.
McQueen believes adoption is only a matter of time.
“I do think it’s probably within the five-year time frame. You’re going to start to see drones become very popular,” he said, noting how the technology already dominates some international markets.
