Farmers, ranchers left waiting for ban to drop before they can use unmanned aircraft

While North Dakota faces the full onslaught of winter, farmers’ minds are already on spring planting and perhaps how that and other farm operations could one day be aided with unmanned aircraft technology. Commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems is currently banned by the Federal Aviation Administration, which means farmers and ranchers can’t use the devices just yet. “From the FAA’s point of view, farmers can’t do this over their own land if it’s a commercial farm,” said John Nowatzki, agricultural machine systems specialist at NDSU. That is, unless they like paperwork. Bob Becklund, executive director of North Dakota’s Northern Plains UAS Test Site, says there are options, but most involve operating an unmanned device for research and not commercial gain. Hobbyists can operate unmanned aircraft for recreational purposes, which Becklund says the FAA defines as something that doesn’t relate to one’s profession, leaving out farmers. For now, most will watch from the sidelines as researchers in North Dakota, such as Nowatzki, begin putting theory into practice and testing out aircraft and agronomy. The research Nowatzki and others conduct at NDSU’s research center just outside of Carrington, N.D., includes the types of everyday tasks farmers and ranchers may use UAS for. “We had a number of objectives, one of which was to compare fixed-wing and rotocopter types of aircraft,” he said...more