Vermilion farmers and ag workers will have a chance to learn how they can add drone technology to their farming operations.

Landview Drones is coming to Vermilion on August 5th and 6th with a training course showing farmers what kind of help drones can provide on their farms. In addition, the two-day course familiarizes people with the technical know-how of drone flight and laws about flying drones in public air spaces, which were introduced by Transportation Minister Marc Garneau in early 2019.   This program will help ready people for their basic drone test, which passing allows for the flight of drones over 250 grams.

Landview co-founder Markus Weber says there are several uses for drones on the farm, which this course will help people utilize.

“We actually have a second called ‘101 Uses For Drones’ and there are 101 uses for drones on a farm, and then some. A big part of it is [the] mapping of crops, or locating cattle, or checking cattle.”

The program’s Vermilion visit will have some changes to work around COVID-19. People will be invited to attend physically, but if they’ve been outside the country in the last 14 days or are sick, they are asked not to attend this session. Landview will also enable physical distancing in the course and sanitize remote controllers between users. They’re also bringing extra training drones so people don’t need to touch the same equipment.

Once people are done the course, they’ll be able to take a small drone home with them to get extra practice in and see how it fits on their farm. Weber adds that drones can make lighter work for farmers.

“If you want to check canola at the far end of the canola, you’re walking through hip-deep crop for about half an hour, or you can fly for about 30 seconds with a drone. So the time saving there is incredible, plus it helps you see problems you didn’t know you had. Crop [can] look remarkable poor from overhead when sometimes from the side you don’t even know there’s a problem.”

The class costs $590, which includes the price of the drone, and can be booked online. If people cannot attend this session, Landview will be holding another in Lloydminster, which is slated for sometime in fall 2020.