Friday, September 2nd 2016
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are no longer toys. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finally let them out of the box. Now, they are officially tools. After several years of delay, the FAA issued regulations that give farmers a clear path to commercial use of autonomous flying vehicles. The new regulations went into effect Aug. 29. Prior to the regs, many farmers played with UASs (also called drones and UAVs). Some farmers used them in the regulatory shadows; and some even gained an official exemption from the FAA to use them commercially. But now that rules are on the table, UASs are legally available to a broad customer base for scouting, mapping and decision-making. The systems come with rotors; they come with wings. They have video cameras, still cameras and cameras that see the world through a near-infrared filter. Some UASs can send images to the cloud even as they fly over fields. Others rely on memory sticks to bring back images of fields that can be stitched together and the data analyzed to help with management decisions. Ranchers can use them to locate roaming cattle. Irrigators can use UASs to pinpoint problem areas in a rig. Crop-insurance adjusters can use them to make assessments of crop damage. Although many farmers could jump into the UAS arena with both feet, some will hesitate. They might not see sufficient value in the data a drone can generate. Or, some farmers will find the process of flying, collecting data and turning it into useful information to be too time-consuming.