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sstterry said:
It is illegal to spray with drones? What about spreading fertilizer, is that illegal too?
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Spreading fertilizer, seeding, some fungicides and such are legal. Apparently Canada hasn't completed their own testing of drone application of herbicides yet, therefore because it's not on label it is not legal.
 
A spray guy I met this spring said he went through a year's worth of paper work to get approval from the FAA to have a licensed drone sprayer.
 
Drones seem the way to go for cattle pastures that aren't wide open. I'm sure cost will come down as more people get them. They still use Big A's here and they require allot of maintenance and up keep. Especially bouncing around on cattle pastures. I can also see where drones will be better in wet pastures. A heavy summer rain won't shut you down for a day or two.
 
I was driving along the Mississippi River Delta yesterday and day before and saw a couple of crop dusters. It’s amazing at how many acres they spray using those probably more like millions of acres.

At one time the Mississippi Delta was know to have the most millionaires living there than anywhere else in the U.S. That was back when Cotton was king and slavery was prevalent.

I drove I would guess 300 miles along the Mississippi and could only think mind blowing it was to think how many men and mules, draft horses it must have taken to farm all of that land.

From what I could see Cotton is still king there now. I don’t know how many hp those 8 wheel John deer tractors are they was going strong everywhere you looked but they had to be in the neighborhood of 500 + hp and that might be bad on the low side.
Amazing at the equipment and most looking brand new. Saw something that looked like 5 + acres of I might have been corn seed that was piled 50 + foot high and covered with what looked like canvas. They had a peace of machinery that looked like track hole with maybe a 5 to 10 yard bucket to load whatever it was that was piled under that canvas.

But I might be entirely wrong in my assumption of what I seen and am describing because it was I would guess have been easily two miles away from me when I was driving by it.

And the Mississippi River !!! I have driven across it several times in Memphis Tennessee but it seems to be a lot wider and massive the further South and the closer to New Orleans it gets. Adding a whole new meaning to it being referred to as the GREAT ! Mississippi River !!!

That is really something to see or was to me.
 
I'd like to go on one of the Mississippi River boat cruises. Just relax and spend 3 or 4 days seeing the sights. We used to go bird hunting at a lodge and one of the regulars was an old tug boat captain. He had some interesting stories for sure. He brought a recliner to leave at the lodge house and when he passed his daughter sent the owner his shotguns. He was quite the character.

They still spray with crop dusters down our road and also farm with the big tractors. It amazes me how much they get done in a day. We also have the custom harvesters come through that follow crops across the country.
 
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Do have river boat cruises on the Mississippi River ? I bet that would be something. The Mississippi River is probably 3 or 4 times wider than the Arkansas river. And I bet the Mississippi has Flathead Catfish that would weigh well over a 100 lbs.

I was in that area a few years ago driving along on the highway when all of a sudden I happened to look over out over the cotton field next to me and saw a crop duster buzz past me in the field it was spraying. It didn’t look like it was 40 foot off the ground.

I didn’t realize there was that much farmland on each side of the Mississippi River. And those tractors and implements they pull behind them are the biggest I have ever seen. And to see so many of them working, those pulling disc creating dust clouds. You don’t have to look far to see dust clouds at all. Then you see these power houses pulling grading implements. Am guessing it would be like something you would see in West Kansas or other plains states.

I haven’t seen cotton growing in years. They have it growing everywhere along that Mississippi River. And they round bail it now. The last time I saw cotton harvested. They had a machine that looked like a combine that dumped the cotton into cotton wagons.

I don’t know how the separate the cotton from the plant to round bale it ? It was cotton wrapped in orange plastic looking wrap into huge round bales. I guess that’s what I as looking at ? If it was I like to see how it’s done. Because the fields that these orange wrapped cotton bales I saw were sitting clean cut fields that didn’t have any stubble or other type of debris left in the fields.
 
Lucky said:
I was quoted $12 an acre application rate this year. The ground rigs are charging $6.50 application rate. Kind of hard to go with the drone at those rates. Both rates are without chemical cost.
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I was looking at it for some rough areas where hogs get in and some where the brush was taller than the spray rigs like to run over.

The guy mentioned they do a lot of drainage ditches and other places not easily accessible, or accessible at all, to spray rigs.
 
I have a pond covered in duckweed and been trying to find a drone guy to spray it. In this area I think that would be a pretty good business.
 
SmokinM said:
I have a pond covered in duckweed and been trying to find a drone guy to spray it. In this area I think that would be a pretty good business.
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I have pond I let get away from me. The duckweed was so dense that grass and even willow shoots started growing on top of it.
I tried spraying per instructions and gave up.

Ended up draining the pond with a syphon and keeping it down a few months so I could spray, mow, and burn. I want to do some tree removal and bankside work before I let it fill back up.

The small willow in the first picture fell over after I drained it.
When it’s full is about 2.5 surface acres and 14’ in deepest spot. It took four days to syphon drain it down about six feet below static. Haven’t noticed any dead fish and grandkids say it’s like fishing in a barrel.
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Ouachita said:
I have pond I let get away from me. The duckweed was so dense that grass and even willow shoots started growing on top of it.
I tried spraying per instructions and gave up.

Ended up draining the pond with a syphon and keeping it down a few months so I could spray, mow, and burn. I want to do some tree removal and bankside work before I let it fill back up.

The small willow in the first picture fell over after I drained it.
When it’s full is about 2.5 surface acres and 14’ in deepest spot. It took four days to syphon drain it down about six feet below static. Haven’t noticed any dead fish and grandkids say it’s like fishing in a barrel.
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The only thing I have found that will touch it is a product called Knockdown Defense from the Pond Guy. Does a good job but has to be sprayed about every 3-4 weeks and is $100 a bottle. Mine is about 1 1/2 acres and only 4-5 deep. It is loaded with fish though. Going to try their Muck Away product next year along with it and see if that helps. Got several customers that swear by it.
 
BC said:
Read the label. Not to be directly applied to water. I have seen shade trees in lawns killed because the roots reached the water of a pond treated with Karmex.
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That’s just one of the reasons why I decided to drain the pond and then mechanically remove and burn the vegetation. After the water level had been down for a few weeks, I did use some herbicide for a grand finale and it has worked well, best I can tell (just bankside, never sprayed any on the water).

I haven’t lost any fish yet, but I’m keeping it drained down until we’ve had a few good nights below freezing, before I start letting it refill from regular rainfall. This means a couple more months in our area if weather is “normal”.

It’s a special pond to us because my wife agreed to build the pond before we built the house 28 years ago. We figured it would give the kids something to do while we worked on the house. They would fulfill their desire for entertainment while we worked on the house.

Now we have grandkids, so we’re trying to clean it up so they can have better fishing access. We have some monsters in there. We’ve caught a few 10+ lb largemouth bass and 12-15 lb catfish. Lots of really nice crappie and bluegill. I’d hate to do something wrong and kill the inhabitants of the pond while I’m just trying to do bankside management. So far I’ve been successful, I think…..?……..but this has been a months-long process. I won’t know the end result until next spring. Patience helps. Not something I’m accustomed to, but have been recently learning about.

Hard to find someone else to ask for advice. Even ag extension is less than confident, so I’m slow stepping it. Whahooo! Keeps life interesting, and fun!
 
I've been fascinated by the concept of drone spraying grazing pastures, especially the technical aspects of the chemical application. Reading about the nozzle and pump development specifically for drone spraying is wild vs. spraying technologies currently on the market.

I listened to a guy talking about someone he knew purchased 2 DJI drones to spray mesquite / huisache in pastures. I don't know if that'd be faster than me on a 4 wheeler. I can cover 40-50 acres on a hot summer day fairly easily. I'd imagine if I was paying someone to do it though it may save $$ on labor and perhaps chemical since you can just hover over each plant for a few second and move to the next. I'm not sure if the software is capable of ID'ing targets for IP foliar spraying mesquite/huisache though.

I'd love to have one to spray a few hundred acres that are being swallowed up by vines, nightshade, and dove weed (goat weed) rather than bounce aross rough ass pastures on a tractor with hog damage and grubber divots everywhere.
 
The issue with them is that they can be weaponized... if they're strong enough to carry a payload, that payload could be a bomb... so the FAA doesn't allow a payload any bigger than "X" (not sure what the limit is, but it's pretty small). And if you can't have a bigger payload, you're pretty limited in how much you can get done. Yes, it can do it, but the reloading time gets pretty limiting. And of course, the bigger the payload, the more energy it takes to lift and fly and apply... so more battery, more props, more structure, more... more... more...

So THAT limitation then dictates how much water you can reasonably apply per acre, which greatly limits your options for chemicals, and their effectiveness. They cut the rates, not because of how effective the chemical might be at that rate, but because of how unnacceptable it would be to have to put on more water and chemical.

Which of course contributes to the increasing evidence of chemical resistant weeds... the ones that make it with the lighter rate are the ones that are more resistant. That's what you get for a seedbank then. AND, there is evidence that not only do these resistant varieties survive, they are also ENHANCED, and make MORE seed, after application of a herbicide they have some resistance to.

Low-dose herbicide applications can accelerate resistance - WeedSmart
 
504RP said:
I was driving along the Mississippi River Delta yesterday and day before and saw a couple of crop dusters. It’s amazing at how many acres they spray using those probably more like millions of acres.

At one time the Mississippi Delta was know to have the most millionaires living there than anywhere else in the U.S. That was back when Cotton was king and slavery was prevalent.

I drove I would guess 300 miles along the Mississippi and could only think mind blowing it was to think how many men and mules, draft horses it must have taken to farm all of that land.

From what I could see Cotton is still king there now. I don’t know how many hp those 8 wheel John deer tractors are they was going strong everywhere you looked but they had to be in the neighborhood of 500 + hp and that might be bad on the low side.
Amazing at the equipment and most looking brand new. Saw something that looked like 5 + acres of I might have been corn seed that was piled 50 + foot high and covered with what looked like canvas. They had a peace of machinery that looked like track hole with maybe a 5 to 10 yard bucket to load whatever it was that was piled under that canvas.

But I might be entirely wrong in my assumption of what I seen and am describing because it was I would guess have been easily two miles away from me when I was driving by it.

And the Mississippi River !!! I have driven across it several times in Memphis Tennessee but it seems to be a lot wider and massive the further South and the closer to New Orleans it gets. Adding a whole new meaning to it being referred to as the GREAT ! Mississippi River !!!

That is really something to see or was to me.
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Biggest JD Quad is max 930 hp! Go on their website... you can order one up right there. Only 1.2M fully equipped. And don't forget to order something to pull with it... that's just the tractor. Might as well order up a new X-9 combine to go along with it... 1.5M with the heads.
 
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RDFF said:
The issue with them is that they can be weaponized... if they're strong enough to carry a payload, that payload could be a bomb... so the FAA doesn't allow a payload any bigger than "X" (not sure what the limit is, but it's pretty small). And if you can't have a bigger payload, you're pretty limited in how much you can get done. Yes, it can do it, but the reloading time gets pretty limiting. And of course, the bigger the payload, the more energy it takes to lift and fly and apply... so more battery, more props, more structure, more... more... more...

So THAT limitation then dictates how much water you can reasonably apply per acre, which greatly limits your options for chemicals, and their effectiveness. They cut the rates, not because of how effective the chemical might be at that rate, but because of how unnacceptable it would be to have to put on more water and chemical.

Which of course contributes to the increasing evidence of chemical resistant weeds... the ones that make it with the lighter rate are the ones that are more resistant. That's what you get for a seedbank then. AND, there is evidence that not only do these resistant varieties survive, they are also ENHANCED, and make MORE seed, after application of a herbicide they have some resistance to.

Low-dose herbicide applications can accelerate resistance - WeedSmart
Click to expand...
If you’re not a big time farmer a drone is by far the best option for most applications, and far more versatile than a wheeled sprayer.
Glyphosate is my go to for terminating hay stands, and it happens that 2 gpa is ideal for glyphosate. At 2 gpa I can do 300 acres a day quite easily, so for me I can do all my spraying in less than two days. Plus I have the option of spraying rough pasture ground for woody plant species that I simply couldn’t do with wheels. If I want to put 10 gpa down I just need to slow down.
 

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