Unhappy with the expense of spraying crops with a rig, an N.C. farmer turned to drones. Now he builds them.

Drones can spray hundreds of acres without damaging
crops. (Revolution Drones photo via Farm Journal)

As farmers search for every penny in savings, using drones to spray crops is a viable way for them to increase yields, reduce machinery wear and tear, and save on fuel costs, reports Chris Bennett of Farm Journal.

North Carolina farmer Russell Hedrick has been using drone-spraying since 2021. He started experimenting with drones to lessen the damage a rig does to his crops, and the cost of running the rig does to his budget. He now operates his own drone company, Revolution Drones, that produces drones especially built for American farmers.

"If a farmer with 6,000 acres of soybeans runs a ground rig just twice, and loses 1.5 bushels per acre in damage, the cost is $90,000," Hedrick told Bennett. If that same farmer invests in drone spraying 750 acres a day at a cost of roughly $51,000, it'll take eight days to spray the crop and prevent $90,000 in crop damage.

Hedrick explained, "That farmer paid for his drone in eight days and still had $39,000 left in savings. . . .This is a game-changer like nothing else out there, and its impact is only just starting to be realized."

Russell Hedrick is a North Carolina farmer and innovator.
(Courtesy photo via Farm Journal)

Hedrick didn't set out to build his own drones, but he kept running into the same issue -- all the drones he used were built in China and built for the way Chinese farmers work their land. He told Bennett, "They don’t know how we farm in America, and don’t understand the vastness of our fields and the necessity to cover hundreds or thousands of acres in (a) day in a timely manner."

After considering his options, Hedrick decided to build his own drones. Bennett writes, "Farm innovator to the core, Hedrick already had access to software production through co-ownership of Soil Regen. He partnered with Gteex Drones in Brazil, another farmer-led business."

"Drone utilization in agriculture is about to go nuclear, far beyond present use, Hedrick insists. Why? Simple economics," Bennett reports. "Agriculture, Hedrick believes, is at the get-go of historic technology change, echoing the breakthroughs of yesteryear, whether steel plow or mechanization."