Spokane Ag Show Showcases Advancements in Drones for Farmers

Originally reported by James Hanlon for The Spokesman-Review, Feb 11, 2023.

Alongside airplane-sized tractors and combine harvesters on display inside the Spokane Convention Center this week was a smaller technology with many creative uses: drones. The Spokane Ag Expo, the Northwest’s largest agriculture trade show, was a chance for thousands of professionals to network and learn from industry experts about the latest innovations.

A couple of the vendors advertised modern methods for killing weeds. Agcopter, based in The Dalles, Oregon, specializes in mapping fallow fields for weeds. Sensors and software on Agcopter’s drones identify the weeds and create a precise map of their location. Farmers can then feed that data into existing, on-the-ground rigs to efficiently spray those weeds with herbicide.

Spot spraying lets farmers target only the weeds instead of the entire field. That can save input costs — but it also slows plants from developing herbicide resistance and reduces chemical residue in the soil.