Drones: The Ag Industry’s Swiss Army Knife

Some in the Ag Industry refer to drones as the Swiss Army knife of Agriculture.  It's an analogy that Virginia Cooperative Extension's Dan Swafford​ believes is more than appropriate.

"I firmly believe that you can take a drone and use it for many different things on the farm in one day."

He acknowledged much of the about unmanned aerial vehicles as a tool has focused on the crop side of agriculture.

"You can go over there and check for insects and check for blight and disease, check and see what parts of the field are suffering from too much water, what needs more water."

Although Swafford's primary expertise with drones comes from the perspective of raising livestock.

"As a child I grew up on a farm in Missouri and we had to go out and check on the cows, check on the sheep, check on the water. Now you've got a tool that can do that for you."

Swafford said more importantly, UAVs are adding potential technological capabilities every day, like recording animal temperature, or spot seeding and spraying crops.

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