Drones tested for farming

Commercial drone flight could be legal in as soon as a year, and agriculture appears likely to be the first to see the most significant impact. It’s a lot simpler and safer to fly a drone over a soybean field than to deliver a package in a crowded city.

Questions remain over when and where flying drones is of value. Drone services company Measure is doing tests over cornfields in Raleigh, N.C., in partnership with PrecisionHawk and the American Farm Bureau, to find answers. Measure plans to release a report of its findings later this year. It will also develop an online tool — a return-on-investment calculator — to help farmers understand if drones make sense for them.

“There are cases where it may not make sense,” said Measure President Justin Oberman. “So everybody needs to put a toe in the water and say let’s do some analysis and figure out if we really ought to use this tool.”

The American Farm Bureau wants to quantify what sort of return farmers can expect when using drones.

“Generally, we’re convinced that it’s a technology that has a great deal of promise.” said Will Rodger, the American Farm Bureau’s director of policy communications. “The question is when and where is this going to be something that farmers should use.”

Measure is testing with equipment from PrecisionHawk, which provides drones and data analysis.

PrecisionHawk believes its services can minimize the inputs a farmer has to use by as much as 20 percent, the company’s communications director, Lia Reich, said.

Drones could also help farmers monitor their crops in real-time and provide more nuanced treatments to fields under stress.