AgPro demonstrates drones for farmers

With a crowd of farmers looking on, a drone piloted by Tanner Spires lifted into the air, spraying water into a nearby grass field. Then, after the drone had navigated the full plot, it returned to its original take off spot and landed without issue.

The event was organized by AgPro Solutions, who provide retail products like sprays and insecticides to famers. The demonstration was the first step for AgPro and their new business partner in Miller Aerial Solutions to introduce drones to potential local customers.

Seed manager for AgPro Dane Wardenburg described the two companies as “a natural partnership” in working together. “We’re very much trying to work hand-in-hand. It’s really hard to do it all under one house and take care of everything.”

Alongside Wardenburg is Adam Leith, who works with the spray side of the company, combing through the available products on the market for farmers. Leith is familiar with the farming landscape and hopes to help farmers get a reliable deal.

“My opinion that’s going to get guys to look at us first is price,” said Leith. “Once they see the price, they know we’re competitive, then we can start establishing a relationship. Might not be that year, might be next year. Get that going and I think we’ll grow.”

The drones on deck for the company are a two-year-old DJI T30 and a brand-new DJI T50, which was used for the demonstration flight on Friday. Both drones can spray up to 52 acres an hour.

Drones being introduced to farmers as a service gives them a less expensive option than buying their own drones if they are interested. AgriSpray, the company which manufactures the DJI line of drones, lists the price of a new T50 at $17,999. For many farmers, the service option will be more affordable.

New technology being introduced to farmers typically aligns with what farmers desire most out of new equipment: higher yield and better crops.

“Every year, you get better and better at planting your seed, protecting your seed, protecting your crops,” said Wardenburg. “The better you can do at that, that’s what produces yield.”

The biggest advantage the company has is something which takes time to build - experience. Cauy Miller, the owner and CEO of Miller Aerial Solutions, has been working with drones for three years, gaining experience as a pilot while drones improved in the time since.

“Efficiency is going to be big,” said Miller. “Being able to cover all of these acres and having the experience when things go wrong, in certain situations. We’re hoping to be the one-stop-shop in Union County for drones.”

Miller also said, after his experiences working in Lenox, he’d like to focus with farmers with smaller areas of land, helping out as many people as possible rather than the large-scale operation of some farmers.

“If a guy comes in and wants me to spray 35,000 acres, that’s my year, that’s it,” said Miller. “Everybody else gets hung out to dry.”

AgPro’s adoption of drones and effort to introduce them to the Creston and Union County market signifies an industry move toward precision agriculture, with less sweeping spraying but instead using precise spray to care for individual spaces of crop.

Other forms of spray in agriculture involved large blanket methods like plane spray, ground rig spray and helicopter spray was typically too expensive and too broad to fit the needs of most farmers. As the vehicles for spray become smaller, more precise, inexpensive and pilotless, the appeal becomes greater.

With the competitive field of agriculture, the goal for AgPro is to find their own stake in the market while still prioritizing what the farmers need.

“There’s a big opportunity for us to get our own cut of the market,” said Wardenburg. “How we’re going to do that is to find ways to make it more farmer-first oriented and not so profit-oriented where we’re cutting profit margins on our guys.”