One of the great misconceptions of farmers is that when they all get together, conversation is dominated by talk of the weather.
Sure, farmers talk about the weather. They talk about it plenty. But that's because their livelihood depends on it.
What farmers really want to talk about it is whether or not to buy a drone.
The farm belt is positively awash in conversations about ag drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) similar to ones used by hobbyists, wanna-be pilots, and tourists who damage national treasures.
Not since the rise of GPS systems and precision agriculture have American farmers been so excited about a technology and its possible effects on crop output and profit.
But at least for now, the benefits of ag drones are only potential, not proven. Here are four things worth knowing about ag drones.
1. They're sort of illegal
As UAVs have grown more popular, largely as a result of falling prices and a slew of new manufacturers, loads of people started playing with them. Just a few years ago, UAVs were more of a formal hobby. They required a bit of cash and a bit of a commitment, and many localities set aside space for the hobbyists to fly their drones. Today's UAV scene is one of drones in parks and drones at the beach and drones in the driveway — everywhere you can imagine.
And as the drones themselves became more prevalent, it became clear to many that the little aircraft had business applications. Realtors started using them to take videos of homes. Oil companies started using them to check on their pipelines. Utility companies used them to check on their power lines. And farmers started using them to survey crops.
Then, just a few weeks ago, the Federal Aviation Administration decided it was time to do something. And what it did, to the surprise of many, was to ban the commercial use of drones. It was fine to fly UAVs for fun, the regulators said, but you can't use them to make money.
That's left farmers in legal limbo. They can buy drones, and they can fly drones. But it's not clear if they can use them for things like inspecting crops and making decisions about fertilizers.
2. Flying a drone is going to get expensive
The reality is that no one, not even the FAA, actually wants to ban the commercial use of drones forever. And many businesses ignore the FAA rules for just that reason.
The assumption is that regulators are just buying time until they finalize a new set of rules. And those rules are going to cost farmers money.
Brendan Schulman, a New York lawyer, is becoming the leading expert in the emerging field of UAV law. He represents loads of commercial users of drones who have been pushing the FAA to open the skies to business. Schulman believes that the FAA will, sometime quite soon, come up with a process by which farmers and others can get legal permission to use drones for their businesses. And that process, Schulman predicts, will involve paying a substantial fee for a new type of pilot license.
3. Drones may not be able to do what farmers want them to do
What Schulman is to drone law, Rory Paul is to drone farming. Paul is the CEO of Volt Aerial Robotics in Chesterfield, MO, and he works as a consultant to farmers who want to understand drone technology.
Paul may know more about what drones can (and can't) do as part of a precision-agriculture system than anyone else on earth. He blogs about the technology, and has been quite open about the shortcomings of UAVs.
Paul says that the small, rotary wing craft that dominate the field today are simply not appropriate for large-scale crop mapping, and flying machines that can be used effectively to spray crops are still about five years away.
4. Activists are using drones to circumvent ag-gag laws
In recent years consumers have been exposed to the brutal reality that is modern agriculture. In particular, animal-rights activists have taken, and then distributed, graphic videos of the way some animals are treated during farming operations.
The agriculture industry and its political supporters have responded with a series of laws dubbed "ag gags," which criminalize the taking of undercover videos on farming operations. The severity of the ag gag laws vary greatly among the states that have adopted them. But each of them has one thing in common — they are aimed at making it legally risky to film farm operations.
Drones, however, may make it both easier and safer for activists and journalists to report on farmers, CAFOs, and the burial grounds of diseased animals.
Would you like to see more food news like this in your inbox on a daily basis? Subscribe to our Food Dive email newsletter. You may also want to read Food Dive's look at growing food in places where it should be impossible.