麻豆传媒

YORKTON - If you read science fiction, or watch shows like NCIS, you probably have at least a certain level of apprehension regarding drones.

They have become a favoured tool for evildoers to wreck havoc.

But the drone is mainly a tool with huge potential in many roles, from search and rescue, to delivery to numerous on-farm applications.

One of the more intriguing on-farms uses will increasingly be for in-field control of pests.

Farmers often must turn to aerial application of weed and insect control products – in particular for more mature crops – and that of course adds another cost to producing the crop.

Now as it stands there are limitations to what drone applications can be, based largely on capacity to a carry product, and on label registration to apply the product via a drone.

It was surprising to read recently that Canada’s Pest Management Review Agency had approved Garlon XRT herbicide, the first industrial vegetation product with drone application on the label.

Of course the regulatory agency is going to be cautious with a new application technology such as a drone, although it is probably more about well-trained operators than the drones, which are really akin to low flying airplanes. That said a course specific to drone application of crop protection products is probably needed.

For a Prairie farmer with hundreds of acres, small drone application is likely of a rather limited usefulness. The scale of field to the size of a drone simply don’t match up well  -- although swarm drone technology might overcome that in time.

But, add some tech to the drone that allows recognition of a particular weed for direct application of a control agent, and the technology gets far more interesting.

That will be particularly true in instances of higher value crops – think market garden vegetables or fruit trees.

Therein lies some of the wonder of drone technology. It remains so new that it is hard to envision what might be achieved.

In that regard it’s a two-path road of development which needs to run parallel to each other.

On the one hand there are advancements in what a drone can do, capacity, battery life, on board sensors and the like. Each development adds potential in terms of usage.

And then there is the path of the forward thinker tread – the ones that see the practical potential the steps in tech will allow. If a drone can do ‘A’ that will allow it to do ‘B’ on the farm where it really counts.

Certainly the field of drone technology as an agricultural tool is just in its infancy.