Jason Hellbusch poses with one of his two drones that he uses to spray area crops with. He began his company, Aerial Crop Solutions, last year and is prepping for a second season of skimming local fields.

Drones give another spraying option to growers

by Nathan Arneal
Published 3/20/24

At one time not so long ago, a farmer’s most potent weapon against weeds was a corn knife in the hands of a teenager.
Technology has come a long way since then.

Like so many fields, drones have now entered the conversation, buzzing unmanned flights above crops to deliver products onto the plants below.

Jason Hellbusch has started a company named Aerial Crop Solutions to bring this relatively new technology to area farmers.

Hellbusch had been discussing starting such a venture with a cousin. When the cousin had to back out, Hellbusch decided to take the plunge himself in addition to the flooring business he owns, which will continue.

“It seemed interesting to me and seemed like an up-and-coming thing,” Hellbusch said. “I don’t know. I’m tired of crawling all the time, I guess.”

He bought two large drones, measuring about 7 feet wide including the propeller braces. Most of the work he does is spraying fungicide on crops in the late summer, but he also does some herbicide spraying, spraying for noxious weeds and pasture spraying. The drones can also be outfitted with dry applicators to spread cover crop seed.

Applying spray from the air is nothing new. Crop dusting airplanes and helicopters have been used for decades. While the cost of applying by drone is similar to those other options, Hellbusch said, drones do have certain advantages.

For one, it’s easier to get complete coverage over a field. Planes may have to pull up to avoid trees or power lines near fields, while a drone can stay at its normal height to make turns and apply along the edges of a field. It can also apply product to more mature crops that might be damaged by driving a highboy sprayer through. Hellbusch said some growers will do an earlier application themselves with a highboy sprayer and then have Hellbusch do a later application.

“It’s giving growers options of different ways to attack things,” he said.

Hellbusch said some people will hire him to do work near town so people aren’t annoyed by a plane flying back and forth at low altitude all day. The drones also see less spray drift compared to other aerial options.

One drone sprayer covers a 30-foot wide swath, flying about 10 feet above the crop. The propellers that keep the drone aloft also help push the spray down onto the plant, helping the spray penetrate the top canopy and reach more of the plant.

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