For the last few years, a big talking point among farmers across all industries has been the validity of drones in farming. Today, we talk with two precision farming experts and get to the bottom of the technical and practical use of drones on blueberry farms.

“When I first started [flying drones], it became pretty apparent to me that the value of the perspective you get from seeing the fields from the air.” - T.J. Hafner

Hosts Kasey Cronquist (President of the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council and the North American Blueberry Council) and Rod Cook (industry veteran and the Chair of the Blueberry Technology and Innovation Committee) are joined by T.J. Hafner, Lead Agronomist for AgriCare and Jason Meyer, Operations and Technology Manager for Peerbolt Crop Management.

Precision drone technology can provide growers with hyperspectral data to manage their farm. Jason has helped T.J. implement drones on their operation, identifying issues such as disease and water stress. As with any new technology, there are pros and cons to using drones, but there’s no doubt that drones are helping farmers pinpoint potential issues on their farms.

This episode features a conversation with Jason and T.J. and their experiences with drones in the field. Topics include:

●    The beginnings of drone use in agriculture

●    Data captured by drones

●    How the data informs management decisions

●    Cost savings with drone use

●    Pros and cons of data collected

●    Future uses of drone technology

Crop Report - August 19, 2020

The Blueberry Crop Report is an update on crop conditions and markets throughout North America. Today, you’ll hear from Bryan Sakuma in Washington, Rex Schultz in Michigan, Doug Krahmer in Oregon, and Luis Vegas with a report from Peru. This report was recorded on August 19, 2020.