Interseeding cover crops with a drone

By Alex Thomas and John Fulton

Farmers and custom applicators have quickly adopted agriculture drones for applying fungicides, but their use cases can be expanded to spread other materials. These drones can broadcast granular products and cover 50 or more acres per hour! They have particularly grown in importance for interseeding cover crops. Drones can get into wet or small fields surrounded by trees or structures and spread into standing cash crops, causing no crop damage. The drone’s flexibility in performing field applications, regardless of field conditions, exceeds that of ground machinery or aerial applicators to apply cover crops when needed.

Timing is important when looking for a successful cover crop stand that will maximize the crop’s benefits. Interseeding should occur before a rainfall event, which is important to ensure the success of the cover crops. If you broadcast while the corn or soybean canopy is still green, there could be some effect on the cover crop seed deposition across a field.… Continue reading