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(NewsDakota.com)  The first of six testing sites for commercial drones is officially operational.  Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that the North Dakota State University’s Carrington Research Extension Center has been certified to begin tests with the Draganflyer X4ES, a roughly 3-foot-wide, 5-pound quadcopter that comes equipped with a camera.  In the long term, the site will help the FAA develop rules for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which Congress has said must be in place by 2015.

UAVs may be the next tool to improve precision agriculture.  Despite their use by law enforcement, privacy concerns may limit UAVs use in urban areas.  Because agriculture is based in rural areas and covers a large surface, many companies are pushing hard for the development of UAV applications that will change how farms are managed.

Test site operators in Carrington will be putting the drone to work in the NDSU’s agriculture research division, where they hope to prove it can effectively check soil quality and the status of crops.  As the year progresses, other test sites will be coming online in Alaska, New York, Nevada, Virginia, and Texas.  The diverse locations mean that drones will be tested in a variety of climates and environments, with support from universities and private industry groups.

Corn is one of many crops that will benefit from UAVs.  The present sampling recommendation for corn is one plant per 1,000 plants in the field.  This may cause an error on the estimate of the crop condition and may lead to producers making wrong decisions.

Today, nitrogen applications after crop emergence are based on the average of the sample within an area of a field.  This means that too much nitrogen will be applied to half of the crop and too little to the other half.  With the existing variable-rate applicators, it is possible to better adjust nitrogen levels, which will increase yields and reduce costs.  Even more, it is possible to reduce fall and spring nitrogen applications by increasing the precision in an after- emergence application.  This will reduce the total amount of nitrogen applied and nitrogen losses.

Be listening this Friday, April 25th about 9:20am on AM 1600 KDAK and newsdakota.com, we will be talking with Director/Agronomist Blaine Schatz of the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center about UAVs.

The above article has been edited with information from NDSU & theverge.com.  (feature picture courtesy Draganfly)

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