IamA 17 year-old farm kid from Southwest Kansas. I have lived and worked on our family farm my whole life. Currently I am bringing our farm into the 21st century through the use of drones! AMA!

What is the cost of the drones you use (initial and upkeep)? Would it be cost-effective for use on a smaller scale?

The AgEagle is $12,500. That cost includes some spare parts and all of the software and equipment needed. There is essentially no upkeep unless you were to crash one into an obstacle causing damage(this is rare as they are incredibly durable). Then you would have to use some gorilla glue to fix the dent. It can be cost effective on a smaller scale, however, it would depend on the acreage and the type of crop(some are worth more than others).

Have you been using it long enough to get an idea of how much it saves you per year? How long do you expect it to take to pay for itself?

We haven't used it much lately as I just got back and we've been very busy on the farm. However, It could pay for itself in savings of chemicals with one field. I would guess that it could save us at least $100,000 in chemicals as well as gaining us $50,000 in yields but I have no real basis for those numbers besides discussions I've had with my dad.

what kind of chemicals do you refer to? You mean pesticides? I had no idea they were 100k!

All chemicals pesticides as well as nitrogen fertilizer. And over 8000 acres they cost far more that 100k

It takes a farmer to understand how much someone pays in fertilizer per year. 100K? Thats lowballing by a huge amount!

Does this mean you guys do soil zone analysis based on your images? Do you do soil nutrient analysis to judge specific areas, then generalize slightly to soil types? What do you use to distinguish between the soil types? How do you determine organic matter, and other nutrients besides just assuming, or do you just use the aerial images to make the zones you then sample independently?

Your last question is the closest to correct. Currently we can only find where the "bad" spots are. We then go into the field and ground truth them. Then we analyze those areas to determine what is causing the lack in health.

So how much effort does using it require? Because it obviously isn't nominal since you need to sacrifice it's use to maintain a farm with just familial+employed efforts. And I expect much of your familial contributions are unpaid.

It requires very little effort. However, if you want current images of your fields its best to get someone that can devote their time to it(like a crop scout) which we are working on getting.

What's the range on that thing?

It can go out about 3 miles before losing signal.

What do you do for fun in the middle of Kansas?

Lurk on Reddit

Have you ever got lost in a corn field?

No. If you ever find yourself in the middle of a corn field simply follow a row until you get out.

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Thank you! I know that what I do in the aerospace industry will directly benefit agriculture(I may even be part of the integration).

I live in Wichita - the biggest city in Kansas (not saying much) - and this is pretty much what we do for fun here too.

Hey I will have you know I am both lurking on reddit AND watching the Chiefs.

AND the Royals!

And Sporting!

Sporting KC all the way!

I hear the meteor showers out there are out of this world.

They are amazing! I am always checking to see when the next meteor shower will be so I can watch the show!

Do you believe in the future this will be the most popular farming method?

I do believe that it will become a very popular method of monitoring crops for farmers all over the world. I also believe that UAVs will eventually be used for small chemical applications. Eventually tractors, combines, and chemical applicators will all be completely autonomous. So yes it will eventually become the most popular farming method because it will allow one farmer to cover a much larger amount of land.

Or, hear me out big Agricultural companies will fire all of their farmers and instead get more IT guys and Robotic Engineers.

This is a major concern for farmers. It is why we will hold onto our land an d continue to pass it down from generation to generation while upholding family values for as long as possible.

So where you're from, is it fairly commonplace for young farmers like yourself to "take over the family business"? I am a 19 year old in Nebraska who is planning on continuing the family tradition but it seems like there are far more farmers retiring than those entering the profession. It's kinda my fear that company based farms are going to become much more common as fewer and fewer new farmers get started.

I had this discussion with my grandpa many times before he passed away (earlier this year). We determined that it would be nearly impossible for a person to just decide to be a farmer and go buy the stuff necessary these days. The cost of land alone in MN would take 10 years of 175 bushels an acre (at current price) to pay off assuming your other costs were $0. Then factor in seed, fuel, equipment, interest on loans, etc. He said you would be scraping by until you were old and gray before you got ahead.

I've thought about this many times. Impossible. You'd need someone with foresight to take a loss on the land to avoid passing into massive agricorps.

The sad thing is, even if you own the land you make almost as much money renting it then you would farming it with no risk/work. My grandpa was getting like $375/acre for his land and he was giving the guy a deal because he was a good friend. He could have easily gotten $425 around there.

Tell me where I need to buy the land, and the cost per acre. I think I have found my early retirement.

Here irrigated land is about $3000 acre.

Do you actually enjoy working in the agriculture business and do you plan to pursue it in college? It seems like you were born into the lifestyle instead of choosing it.

I enjoy some aspects of working in agriculture, however, I do not intend on pursuing farming as a career. I plan on majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I was born into this lifestyle and I'm very grateful that I was, it has taught me great work ethic as well as real world problem solving skills that I couldn't learn in a classroom. My parents have always supported me in everything I do and for that I am grateful.

I grew up helping on my grandparents farm in southeast Kansas.. You are spot on my friend. Where are you planning to attend college?

I would like to attend MIT but if I don't get in there I will most likely go to Georgia Tech

Kansas State University has a very good college of engineering.

You spelled University of Kansas wrong

Yep, KU has one of the better Aerospace Engineering programs in the country, plus in state tuition.

I plan on applying to KU if only to have a backup close to home.

are these the droids you are looking for?

Yes

How often do you use your drone to spy on the local ladies?

Never. The local ladies don't look very good in infrared.

A lot of Mennonite girls I'd imagine.

Yes! In fact I grew up near a Holdeman Mennonite community. So all of my babysitters and many of my friends growing up were Mennonite.

I'm out of the Dodge area and work for a home improvement store. A lot of our sub contractors are Mennonites from the Sublette area. Good people!

Forgive my stupidity, but what's a Mennonite?

They are like very strict Christians. They try to be as un-worldly as possible(but not to the extent that amish are) they do not have tvs or radios. They have fun together and are a very tightly knit community. Women where black caps and wear dresses and men typically grow large beards. Edit: I'm talking about Holdeman Mennonites not Mennonites in general

How to the infrared images help you to determine crop health?

What does a "sick" crop look like compared to a "healthy" crop under the infrared camera? Can you post an example?

Here is an example. The darker spots are weaker plants and the greener spots are stronger. Basically what is happening is the infrared camera is registering the amount of reflection off of the leaves at different wavelengths. These images are then stitched together by a program and made into one large picture of the field which is then fed into a program which runs algorithms to determine the amount of chlorophyll the plant contains, the higher the chorophyll level the stronger the plant.

How many acres is that piece of land?

It looks like about 80 acres. A whole section is 640 and this appears to be half of a quarter section.

Can this also help you figure out things like the moisture of the soil? The patterns look like that.

It can. Essentially it says there is a problem in this spot now go figure out what it is.

Do you think, given the speed of developments in drone and other technology, that the farming process could become almost fully automated within the next 50 or so years?

Absolutely!

Garden City? Dodge City? Liberal? Which city?

You don't have to answer, I'm in SW Kansas and I was curious

I live outside of Sublette which is in the middle of those three cities. Where do you live? If you don't mind me asking.

My family farms outside sublette. :) around road 240

Then you know me:)

NOW KISS

http://i.imgur.com/3PXvAJN.jpg

Hehe

Well, my cousin prob does.

Yes. Yes he does

Worked in our Ulysses field office for a little bit this summer. SW Kansas doesn't have a whole lot going on once you get out of the bigger cities, but it is sure peaceful out there. Miles and miles of crops, cattle, and go folks just trying to make a living.

I was able to drive all over, from Kearny county down to Stevens county. I heard that most farmers are thinking about switching to dry crops due to the drought. Do you think they will be able to spend the time and money on learning how to operate this UAVs?

The AgEagle is incredibly simple to operate. It is very farmer friendly in that aspect. I helped train several farmers from all over the world and they picked it up pretty fast.

Cool. I drive out there a couple times a month for work. I go through Sublette sometimes when I've got to make deliveries around Ulysses and Satanta.

Where is the best place to make a pit stop in Sublette? Some pit stops can't be done on a dirt road.

Probably the country corner

Do you use Monsanto seeds?

Yes

Is there a way to relay the infared data to the tractor's gps?

Well we can use the data to create a prescription map which is loaded into our chemical applicator then you can drive through the field and it will trigger the booms so that you only cover the damaged or weak areas of the field instead of wasting chemicals on strong crops.

That's fuckin' dope!

Noice!

Noice

Considering its recent actions, has the FAA given you any trouble?

The FAA has not given us trouble as this is technically not a commercial usage because we own it and we only use it over our own land. We do not hire it out.

I work in the ag industry as well! The FAA actually stated on July 3rd that "commercial use" takes place as soon as you sell the crop that you take pictures of. Growers can take pictures as a hobbyist, but as soon as they sell the crop, they're breaking the "law."

Source

I have read this article or one similar. That is why if an FAA agent were to approach me I am flying as a hobby. This statement is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned because flying a hobby aircraft is much more dangerous than a commercial UAV. A UAV will hold a path at a certain altitude and has several failsafes to prevent people from being hurt. Whereas a hobby aircraft can easily go out of control and hurt someone.

If you ever get contacted or investigated by the FAA, be sure to contact the EFF. They aren't exactly happy with the FAA right now and could possibly help with legal advice or representation.

https://www.eff.org/

Great! Thanks for the advice.

Hi mate! I've read all your comments and stopped being an account-less lurker to comment on this thread.

1. How long can the drones be up in the air before coming down for recharging?
2. What's the area covered in that time?
3. Do they fly via GPS or are they controlled by a land pilot?
4. Can the camera be replaced or is it embbeded? (ie if I want to use a normal or UV camera)
6. I read the price per drone is ~12.5k USD does that include infrared camera, software, controls and extras?
7. What's the breaking point for this technology being worth the money? for example >100 acres or >500 acres? (that is, the benefits pay for the costs and break even)

I have many more questions, but I don't wanna overwhelm you haha

1. 30-45 minutes depending on wind
2. An entire section (640 acres) can be covered.
3. GPS
4. You can use any kind of sensor that you want
5. The price includes all of that.
6. I'd say currently for this size of drone at this price about 1500 acres or more.

Thanks for answering all the questions, you are great! Ok, some more!!

1. How do you deal with the stops after the battery is depleted. Does the drone know that it's battery is running low and then goes back to your position?
2. Also, I assume you have spare batteries already charged, but how long does it take you to fully charge one? Also, does the drone pick it up from where he left off before coming back for power?
3. What happens if the drone goes down for whatever reason, do you have a GPS locator to know where it went down?
4. Does this only work in sunny no wind conditions?
5. If you spend a whole day doing this, how many acres do you think you could cover? (let's assume it's sunny and wind is low)
6. Will one pass of the drone be enough or do you sometimes need to do re runs? And if you do, do you realise this at the time of tacking the pictures or when you are back at your computer compiling?

Thanks again for answering all of these. I think this technology is amazing and I can't wait for it to grow even more

1. It constantly monitors battery life. If it determines that it doesn't have enough power to finish the mission it will come home.
2. It takes about 45 minutes. I don't believe it does that currently.
3. If it goes down we can look at the longitude and latitude on the computer and enter it into our phone and find it. Or you can use the handheld to find it by seeing the change in signal.
4. No it works in cloudy conditions and handles wind better than any small UAV in existence. This is key for us as southwest kansas is literally the most windy area in the U.S. It can handle winds as high as 35 miles per hour.
5. At the most around 6000 acres.
6. The UAV can be set to run varying distances betweening passes. The narrower the better the end result. However, there always has to be some amount of overlap for the images to be stitched together. You realize it when the computer can't stitch them all together. Thanks for the questions! Glad I could help!

I've been looking at getting into this in Canada, have a couple questions since we're likely looking at the same crops.

What type of drone are you using for corn and soybeans?

Can you post any examples that we could see an assessment of a crop or field and the value it adds? If not maybe what information you provide to the farmer?

How is dealing with the FAA? I live in Canada so for me it would be Transport Canada, from what I've read I would have to submit flight plans for every field. If you're a hobbyist currently in Canada you don't need a license, I guess we're similar that way, but I know Canada might be looking at changing it.

Can you ballpark the rates you charge or what someone should charge?

Also what are your thoughts on the Yamaha RMAX?

We use the AgEagle for both corn and soybeans. In one of my comments I shared an example of an image of soybeans taken by the ageagle.

There are people that hire these out on a per acre charge of I think 30 cents per acre though I'm not sure that's just what I've heard.

According to the FAA we are not allowed to use UAVs for commercial use. Though I haven't hear of anyone in agriculture being harassed or fined.

Very cool, been browsing over your comments and playing catchup. Watching the video's now as well from AgEagle. I've talked with Aeryon before but the cost was just too much, I've checked out crop cam but wasn't impressed enough and figured I'd wait.

With the data from the AgEagle is there a way to transfer it to a sprayer to be used to spray specific spots in a field? If so what brand of sprayer are you using?

Have you ever read about the RMAX for spraying? I figure eventually they'll have one for corn and soybeans to get these mass produced.

http://rmax.yamaha-motor.com.au/

Yes we have looked into the RMAX, however, there are none anywhere near us currently. There is a way to transfer the data to a sprayer as I have mentioned in other comments. We use a John Deere.

Will you go to college or will you stay and run the farm?

I will go to college. Currently I am applying to MIT, GeorgiaTech, and Embry Riddle. I plan on majoring in Aerospace Engineering. However, if any of us farm kids want to run the farm after high school we have to go to college first and get a degree. That is our family's rule(I think its a good one).

Apply to UIUC too! We have more cornfields than any of those other schools combined.

I actually don't plan on returning to the agriculture industry. I would like to work in the private space industry.

Hey, we have a good aerospace program too!

I'll look into. Perhaps I will apply there as well

Are you the first generation of your family to go to college? If not, why did your parents decide to do agriculture?

No my grandparents on down have gone to college. Our farm is over 100 years old so my dad was born into it.

Do you think the worldwide aging farmer problem is a serious problem facing food security? Do you find that many of your farming peers want to stay in farming?

In my experience many young farmers are coming back to the family farm as there is now more money to be made in agriculture so I am not worried. Both of my brothers want to come back.

The only question relevant to all Kansans:

Wildcats or Jayhawks?

As far as sports go, Wildcats!

Care to comment on the benifits of fixed-wing vs. Multirotor uavs for the ag matket?

They both have their place in the market and can help each other. Fixed wings can cover much larger distances and are better for still images. You can then use those images to determine where there are problems in your crops and check to see what the problem is by hovering over it with a multirotor and a go pro.

How long has the farm been in your family?

Our family has been farming on the same ground since 1902!

Where did you family come from before that?

Wales.

Who is going to be taking over your family farm, considering you are not planning to?

My brothers and most likely some of my cousins.

By how much are the use of drones expected to increase crop yield?

Also, what software does the drone run on?

Here is a video explaining the benefits of UAVs for the agriculture industry. It claims that UAVs could potentially raise crop yields by 15%.

How was growing up in the farming culture? Do you want to continue it yourself, or do you see yourself moving into another field? Are most of the people in farming because of family tradition?

Growing up on a farm is a great experience, it teaches you great values and work ethic as well as real world problem solving skills that you can't learn in a classroom. I will become an aerospace engineer and not come back. Most people that farm have gotten the land from their relatives.

I have family in Arc City Caney Coffeeville and Sedan. Any of those towns anywhere never you??

Those are all in Southeast Kansas. However, they are near AgEagle which is pretty cool!

One other question. Have you used them to scout deer at all. Like a birds eye view trail cam.

Theoretically you could there is a way of mounting a gopro to the front. However, I have not used it for this purpose.

Do other farmers see the use of drones as farming tools as part of the future of agriculture or is there some who are skeptical of new technology?

I think those that know about them believe they are the future of farming. However, there are certainly people worried about it putting them out of a job. Examples are aerial applicators.

Thanks for doing this AMA!

How is the overall adaptation to precision ag? Does it involve a steep learning curve for the farmers, or can most things be managed by the companies that contract with the farmers?

It is really simple to adopt into a modern farm. It works with most current farming software such as SMS and it works with modern sprayers. It is very simple to learn. Though some companies hire out there services.

How much trouble do you have balancing school and farming? What are your plans for the future?

Both of my parents have degrees and my mother is a teacher so they both understand how important school is. So I have never had any problems balancing the two. I plan on going to college and majoring in Aerospace Engineering.

Do you use other Intelligent or autonomous Systems, for example do you have a computerized watering system combined with your drone system?

We have computerized irrigation systems. However, they do not use data from the AgEagle(yet).

Where do you think the future of machinery is going to go? I had this discussion with my Grandpa a while ago. With the rising cost of fuel I am thinking that eventually we will go to smaller drone style harvesters (I'm thinking just 2 or 3 rows) that can operate at very high speeds yet be very fuel efficient. And allow a farmer to purchase several rather then 1 big tractor so if a break down happens they aren't SOL.

What are your thoughts on this?

I'd say that that paragraph is all pretty accurate. With the creation of autonomous machinery fewer farmers will cover more land. Edit: changed less to fewer

How are these launched and retrieved? I've seen some cool wire-retrieval systems used by the military.

Here is a video of the owner of AgEagle launching one(keep in mind that this is an early version the current AgEagle and launcher are a bit more refined). It is launched using a "bow" launcher which uses rubber bungees for power.

What are you using to measure crop health, NDVI or something else? I've played around with some different indexes and had some good results with NIR band - Red band. Which crops have you been looking at?

NDVI. Corn and wheat mainly.

Do you ever spy on other people's farms to learn their techniques and secrets?

No. Farmers are very respectful of each others land in our area.

Do you know anybody in Caldwell ks?

No I was not even aware that there was a town called Caldwell in Kansas.

I hope I'm not too late. How big do you anticipate organics to be? Are you converting fields over? Where do you think organic sales will be in five years?

I don't think that organics will ever become more than a niche market. They are simply not practical on a large scale.

Can you measure yields with drones?

You could get a good estimate if you could compare different fields that you know the yields of.

What data does it give you from IR, absorption? Is the code open source? thx this is really cool.

The program that enhances the infrared is called agpixel. It is not open source.

Hey, I'm from SW KS as well: Garden City. I have a whole bunch of questions, but I guess I'm most curious what the future for this sort of thing looks like. Is ag eagle getting the proper financing? Is any of this proving to be actually profitable in the real world and not just on paper?

Yes ageagle is doing fine in financing. Yes it is proving to be profitable for both crop scouts and farmers.

Why do you use a delta wing, and not say a high wing trainer type plane?

The delta wing has a much higher lifting capacity, is more stable in high winds, and is more durable.

What's your opinion on Monsanto? Are they as evil as hipsters and middle aged women from the city make them out to be?

I think that overall Monsanto is a good thing, but sometimes they do things that could be considered bad such as suing farmers for cleaning seeds or having their crops get contaminated by other farmers. I understand that they are just protecting their patents. GMOs allow us to grow corn where we are at yields that are sustainable. If we didn't have drought-resistent crops here. We would have a much harder time financially.

What method do you use to prevent your reanimated carcasses from breaking your grasp and running amok? There is nothing more frustrating than a farm drone that goes berserk.

Are you asking what would I do if the AgEagle stopped following its flight path? Once it gets out of range of the telemetry unit its failsafe will trigger and it will return home.

KU or K-State? (Better be K-State)

Neither I'm afraid MIT hopefully.

How much (you know) do you supply to Colorado?

Well there is a dealer in Colorado. But I'm not sure about specific sales numbers.

Do you grow Monsanto's gmo crops ?

Yes

What are you going to do with all your money?

You mean the money we save? Use it to buy new equipment or land or perhaps just leave it as profit.