Drone company, German-based company among Innovation Award winners

A total of four gold award winners and 10 silver award winners were honoured.

 

“Ag in Motion is built around sharing ideas and bringing the industry together to see what’s possible,” says show director Rob O’Connor in a news release. “The Innovations Program gives farmers an early look at new solutions and technologies, made possible through strong collaboration with our industry partners.”

 

LandView Drones, based in Camrose, Alberta, was one of the gold winners for its SwathView Technology.

 

"This was the game-changing year here in Canada because the stars really aligned," said Markus Weber, the President and CEO of LandView Drones, referring to new federal regulations, combined with very wet fields in parts of eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba, have led more farmers to use drones to apply fungicides.

 

"Everybody wanted to get started with drones this year, Weber said. "The only problem is we can't get the supply in to meet that demand, but definitely it is changing the nature of the drone industry."

 

The early adopters are busy spraying fungicide, Weber said, and expects a lot of activity in August when desiccants will be used in advance of harvest.

 

Newer model drones can cover 50 to 70 acres per hour per drone, Weber notes, but the biggest challenge is the time required to refill the drones.

 

" You have to treat your refill time as a Formula One pit stop, and currently that's still humans doing the refilling, or at the very least changing a battery." he said.

 

It takes roughly five to six minutes to empty the tank and about one minute to refill it, depending on water rate and type of equipment you're running, he said.

 

Should a farmer be interested in acquiring a drone, Weber recommends getting aviation certification first.

 

They offer training with the next session happening July 29 and 30 in Davidson.

 

 

 

The Canada Manager for NEXAT, Luca Lang, explained the idea of the machine is to "have one self-propelled machine for the whole year, so you can attach a combine, a sprayer, a planter, a seeder, or a fertilizer spreader."

 

In other words, you're basically working on the same track, all the time, he said.

 

Simplicity, reducing investment costs, and "having a big, very powerful unit out there in the fields…with 1100 horsepower" are some of the advantages farmers would have with the machine, Lang said.

 

Since it's their first year at Ag in Motion, he says people can see the machine at booth 509, located along 5th Street near Manitoba Drive.

 

Below are other winners of the Innovation Awards.