A student in LandView Drone's course (photo courtesy Derek Brade)

By Teagan Rasche

Farmers, ranchers learning to fly drones

Technology in agriculture is reaching new heights

Mar 15, 2022 | 4:50 PM

BOW ISLAND, AB – Patrick Fabian is quickly picking up a new skill.

The seed farmer plans to start using drones to monitor his 1,250 irrigated acres.

“On our farm, it will be mostly for crop surveillance to check the middle of the fields and the things we can’t normally see properly without walking every single square foot of the farm,” Fabian said.

He is taking part in drone school, instructed by LandView Drones. The company puts on courses across western Canada teaching farmers, ranchers and the public how to fly remote aerial vehicles.

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“They can use them to monitor their crops, a lot of farmers use it to monitor their cattle help to find them when they’re maybe hiding in the bush, check calving pens and check for weeds, just basically scouting their crops with a drone rather than walking around their fields,” head instructor Robin Harrison said.

After two days, students leave the course with their basic pilot certificate.

Harrison first noticed drones becoming more popular in agriculture in 2015. The technology has drastically changed in a short time and he can’t even picture where it’s going to go.

“Things that we are doing now we never dreamt of five years ago so the technology is moving so fast I think a lot of the things we’ll be using them for five years from now we haven’t even thought of yet,” Harrison said.

Fabian, who runs the farm with his two sons, has never had technology of this caliber before.

They’re also excited about the future of technology in agriculture.

“We always try and keep up with what’s practical and what’s applicable to our farm but this is something that’s going to open up a whole new dimension of opportunities and things I can’t even think of right now that we’ll be using the drone for that will just give us much more efficiency on our operation,” Fabian said.