Abby Brown: Over the last 100 years, farmers have
tried lots of different strategies and tools and
technologies to make sure every single seed that
they plant grows to be strong and healthy.
Once upon a time, the best way for farmers to take
care of their crops was to walk up and down every row
of crops and tend to every plant one at a time by
hand.
Like walking beans, farmers would walk up and
down every row of soybeans and pull weeds, chop down
stray stalks of corn and spray each plant with a
special chemical to keep pests like weeds and bugs
away.
Abby: Those chemicals are called pesticides.
Today, technology has led to a brand new way for
farmers to spray their crops, with drones!
♪♪
Abby: This is my friend Mike and he
and his team invented this drone.
Mike, can you tell us about this?
Mike Ott: Sure, this is an octocopter that sprays in
fields.
Octocopter meaning eight, eight propellers going
around.
Abby: And are these just like helicopters?
Mike: Exactly.
And it can go any direction, up, down,
sideways, left, right, you name it.
And it will spray 20 feet wide in the field exactly
where you want it to go.
And the cool thing is it flies itself, you don't
have to actually pilot it.
♪♪
Abby: How did farmers do this job before
there were drones?
Mike: Before they used tractors which go slowly
through the field or they have planes which fly
above and they're not very accurate.
So what we can do is fly right in the field exactly
where you want to be.
Abby: Okay.
So we put the pesticide in here and then it goes
through these tubes?
Mike: Yeah, it goes through the tubes and then
out all these nozzles and the nozzles spray really
evenly all the way across the field.
♪♪
Abby: How does it know where to go?
Mike: We program that in there so you get a map of
your field and you can spray the whole field or
you can just go to little spots where your insects
or your weeds are and spray right there.
♪♪
Abby: So tell me how you fly this thing.
Beau Brown: We take it out to the field and we fill
it with either stuff to put on the farm --
Abby: Pesticides.
Beau: Pesticides, herbicides.
This one is actually set up to spread seed.
♪♪
Abby: Now, this looks a whole lot fancier
than any of the remote controls that I've seen
before.
So tell me about this.
Beau: Yeah, so it is a lot more fancy actually.
So this drone is designed to do a job so it has to
have very good connection.
And to do that we have these large antenna which
can reach out to the drone up to about 2 miles.
(drone sounds)
Abby: Now, there's two ways to drive
this, right?
And one is you tell it everything to do and we
call that manual, right?
Beau: That's correct.
Abby: Okay.
And tell me about the other way to drive it.
Beau: Yeah, the other way is the fun way which is
where you basically create a map and then you send
the drone off into that map and it flies by
itself.
Abby: So then what do we need you for?
(laughter)
Beau: Good question.
(laughter)
♪♪
Beau: This stick will take the
drone up and down and it will turn the drone left
and right.
This stick will take the drone forward and backward
and move the drone left and right.
And also I have a camera on the drone that allows
me to see what I'm doing.
It's kind of like a video game.
But don't tell your mom.
♪♪
Abby: So, Emily, tell us what advantages do
drones give to Iowa farmers?
Emily Carlson: Drones give so many advantages to Iowa
farmers.
One of the biggest advantages that I think is
when it comes to cost to maintain your field.
With a drone you can use less pesticides or
chemicals, whatever treatment you're using and
as a result it costs less money.
So think of it kind of big pictures, you might have
an entire field but only a certain area needs
treated.
With a drone you can just fly out and apply what
needs to be used right there.
Abby: To the exact spot instead of doing the
entire field, which would cost a lot.
Emily: Exactly.
Yep.
♪♪
Abby: Maybe you live on a farm.
What tools or techniques does your family use to do
the same job that the drone does?
Were your grandparents farmers?
How did they do that job?
Or maybe you've never even been to a farm.
Find out where you can visit so you can check out
how they take care of their crops.
You could even visit your county fair or the Iowa
State Fair to see all kinds of agricultural
tools and equipment.
Maybe you'll even get to see drones like this!
♪♪
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