CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The drought affect in Iowa is prone to worsen. Cedar Rapids is sort of ten inches behind common, Iowa City is greater than seven inches, and is Dubuque greater than three.

An Eastern Iowa farmer stated he was utilizing a brand new piece of know-how to assist develop his crops.

John Airy, a Linn County Farmer, stated this planting season began out nice. It was dry sufficient to get the crops into the bottom, however these dry circumstances caught round.

“It has definitely been out of the ordinary,” he stated.

He stated some fields have seen lower than half of the ten-year common. This 12 months he tried one thing new, utilizing a drone to spray pesticides on a few of his fields.

“The drone is nice for small farm fields,” he stated. “It’s not as fast, you aren’t covering as many acres an hour by any stretch, but the drone works really nicely for getting into those smaller fields.”

An organization known as Hylio designs and sells drones which might be programmed to spray fields with out having to be manned.

“The drones have a third dimension, Z-axis, because they have that freedom, they can fly above the crop,” stated Hylio CEO Arthur Erickson.

Erickson stated drones use much less water, a tenth of what planes spray since drones will be extra focused. Drones enable farmers to spray their fields proper after a storm.

“Being able to use a tenth of the water is obviously great from a sustainability point, but also, for the fact of getting out there and getting crops sprayed when there isn’t as much of a resource available,” stated Erickson.

These new items of know-how are a means for farmers to proceed caring for his or her crops throughout a really robust rising season.

“Sometimes you go down to the road and stuff looks bad,” he stated. “You go down another 23 miles and you can see where it’s struggled with a lack of rain.”

Copyright 2023 KCRG. All rights reserved.