Bison rancher Robert Johnson has spent his lifetime on the land, but he’s always been equally fascinated by matters of the sky. Fortunately for him, the increasing use of agricultural drones has offered a way to combine interests. Johnson’s first drone purchase was an immediate fit for his operation and it quickly proved its worth in the rugged reality of ranch life.
“Bison don’t usually have issues when they’re calving and you pretty much just want to leave them to it,” Johnson explains. But his new drone offered a convenient, unobtrusive means of keeping an eye on things, and Johnson capitalized on the opportunity.
“When I got the drone up there, I saw that one cow had calved on the far side of a creek, away from the rest of the herd. I flew over for a closer look and saw that her calf had somehow got caught up in a badger hole.” Johnson and his wife were able to jump into action, rescue the calf and reunite it with its mother.
“That drone paid for itself that day,” he admits. Safe to say, Johnson was hooked.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones have been proving their usefulness in agriculture for decades. Initially used most often for mapping, imagery, and – as in Johnson’s experience, surveillance – beefier agricultural drones capable of handling a payload eventually hit the market. As these latest models became more cost-effective and easier to operate, Johnson saw an opportunity for his operation that he couldn’t pass up.
Exploring the possibilities
With a Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) property adjacent to his Fairlight, Sask. bison ranch, Johnson frequently ran into area DUC staff. It was during one of these happenstance meetings that he shared news of his latest acquisition. Johnson’s new “spray and spread” drone was equipped with a 40 L spray tank. But it was the 50-kg capacity seed spreader option that had Johnson and DUC plotting the possibilities: could this technology offer a viable way of seeding forage?
As a means to an end, Jodie Horvath, extension specialist with DUC’s Saskatchewan operations, spearheaded an application to the Agriculture Demonstration of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) program.
“We were seeing lots of potential for the use of drones in agriculture, and really rapid advancement of the technology,” Horvath explains. “But the use of drones to seed forage was still developing. A demonstration project seemed like a great way to gain answers to basic questions around this application, like, what kind of seeding rate is needed, how does load capacity translate to acres on the ground, what does the timing look like to get the job done?”
Together with the University of Saskatchewan’s Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE) and the Saskatchewan Forage Council (SFC), DUC and RJ Game Farm applied for and received funding to carry out a project to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of seeding forage with a drone.
Real-world application for sci-fi technology
The proposed project had appeal for both Johnson and Horvath. Johnson was at a point where he needed to reestablish and rejuvenate forage on the rough, rocky ground of his bison pasture. And Horvath hoped to identify an easier way for DUC’s producer partners to seed their marginal field acres to grass, on a schedule optimal for both farmer and forage.
DUC had been offering its Marginal Areas Program (MAP) to Saskatchewan producers since 2017, paying an incentive to seed forage in wet and saline annual crop margins, an alternative management practice shown to help improve soil health and manage weeds. Staff had seen strong growth in program uptake each year, but there were challenges, too.
Horvath explains, “We know that marginal acres are often the last to dry out in spring and this makes it difficult to get in and seed them. Meanwhile, when the acres are seeded last, that can mean missing spring rains and less optimal conditions for germination, not to mention a time crunch for the farmer”.
These issues of access and timing were impacting producers’ ability to implement the practice. And aerial seeding of forages seemed to offer a solution.
Demonstration project takes flight
The ADOPT project included treatments to explore whether upland and lowland marginal areas seeded via drone would germinate and establish. It would also investigate whether spring (May 2024) or fall (October 2024) seeding affected the success of forage establishment (with production to be assessed fall 2025).
The team selected three separate demonstration sites, DUC’s Touchwood Hills Conservation Ranch, the Southeast Research Farm near Redvers, and Johnson’s bison ranch, RJ Game Farm.
In May 2024, the project got underway with a pre-seeding chemical burn-off to prepare sites for seeding. And then, as the month rolled on – and in true Saskatchewan fashion – the winds picked up. This all became part of the learning experience. “These larger drones carrying a payload fly well in the wind, but we weren’t sure how seed broadcasting would be impacted. Between the mechanics and operation of the spreader and the weight of the seed, it turned out wind wasn’t really an issue,” Johnson says.
The three project sites were seeded by the end of May at a rate between 14 and 18 pounds per acre, following the industry rule of thumb to boost seeding rate by 20% with broadcast methods. Because seed-to-soil contact is needed for germination, all sites were harrowed or packed after seeding; thanks to timely rains, DUC staff inspecting the fields noted germination within 10 days.
By July, annual weeds had made their anticipated appearance, so sites were all mowed in mid-August to help forage plants regain competitive advantage.
Thick as the hair on a dog’s back
The demonstration project won’t be completed until next fall, but Johnson and Horvath are pleased with what they’ve seen so far. Sites seeded in May show all indications of success and the team is ready to proceed with dormant seeding additional plots in a few weeks’ time.
Early observations are already pointing to possible future areas of study, too. In some places on Johnson’s ranch, the forage has come up “thick as the hair on a dog’s back”, but in other so-called sour spots, he noted issues with foxtail barley. This raises questions about the potential gains that could be achieved by tailoring the seed mix to where it’s being applied.
“Because we were testing a seeding method through this demonstration project, we went with forage species generally known to germinate well”, Horvath explains, “but going forward, the ability to fine-tune seed mixes to specific site challenges with drones is really exciting.”
Given Johnson’s interest in all things sky-bound, ‘exciting’ is likely the word he’d use to describe the burgeoning adoption of drones and other emerging technology in agriculture, too.
“In other parts of the world, they’re two years ahead of us when it comes to using technology like this,” Johnson admits. “But we’re getting there. There are four drones within 20 miles of me now.”
Sign up for DUC's Marginal Areas Program
Have marginal field acres you’d like to seed to forage this fall and curious about drone seeding? Have marginal field acres you’d like to seed to forage this fall and curious about drone seeding?
Sign up for DUC's Marginal Areas Program
