A roundup from the world of ag about cutting-edge technology in agriculture.
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News on drones for agriculture, from spray and seeding drones to scouting, mapping and livestock checks. Each headline links to the original publisher, with a short summary written by Agribot News.
Venezuela is easing the restrictions that have limited farm drone use since 2025, opening the door to more spraying and crop monitoring from the air. Growers say the bigger hurdle is money: fertilizer and herbicide prices well above world levels and scarce bank credit make it hard to buy drones and the products they apply. (Article in Spanish.)
Embrapa researchers flew a drone 15 meters over Nelore steers in a Mato Grosso do Sul feedlot and used AI to compare each animal's width to its length as it filled out. Over a 112-day trial the system spotted when weight gain was leveling off about a week earlier than usual management, saving feed money without running cattle through the chute.
Estonian law now allows crop-protection products to be applied from the air under strict conditions, and farmers got hands-on drone training at a rural knowledge center open day. Spot-spraying a thistle patch instead of a whole field is one draw, but only a short list of products is approved for aerial use so far.
At a UC drone workshop at the Kearney center in California, specialists walked growers through what farm drones can do, from scanning about 2,000 acres in a day to spraying and releasing beneficial insects, and what can go wrong. They also explained the FCC limits on certain foreign drones: existing aircraft can keep flying, but parts, upgrades and new models may get harder to find.
Paraná has put 11 spray drones on the school farms of its state agricultural high schools, giving about 4,800 students hands-on training in flight planning, mapping and spot applications of crop inputs on soybeans, corn, wheat, beans and pasture. The roughly R$1.6 million purchase was funded largely by Audi do Brasil through a state incentive program. (Article in Portuguese.)
At a farm expo in General Belgrano, an Argentine drone dealer said roughly 3,000 ag drones were working the country's fields in March and the market could eventually reach 30,000. He warned that anyone can buy one and start custom spraying, so pilot training, ANAC certification and working alongside a licensed agronomist matter. (Article in Spanish.)