Resources
Useful Information for Central Alberta Farmers Thinking About Drone Technology.
October 21, 2026
Saline Patches and Unresponsive Acres: When the Right Prescription Is Less Product
Why saline patches, salt rings, and severely eroded knolls do not respond to fertilizer, how to tell an unresponsive acre apart from a hungry one before you write the prescription, why these zones are stable enough to be worth mapping once and reusing for years, and what a reduced or zero rate zone actually looks like on a drone spreading pass. Includes the honest limits: the savings on a few acres rarely pay for mapping on their own, and no prescription fixes salinity.
Read moreOctober 14, 2026
Drone Field Mapping vs Satellite Imagery
An honest comparison of drone field mapping against satellite imagery for Alberta farms. Covers resolution and the mixed-pixel problem, revisit interval versus flying on demand, cloud cover, turnaround, what each one can and cannot measure, elevation data, and the practical workflow of screening whole-farm from orbit and diagnosing individual fields from the air.
Read moreOctober 14, 2026
Documenting a Hail, Frost, or Flood Claim With Drone Imagery
How to use drone imagery to document hail, frost, or flood damage on an Alberta field: when to fly after the event, why extent measured off a georeferenced orthomosaic beats an estimate, what an adjuster conversation actually needs, how the three damage types differ in what they leave behind, and the honest limits of what imagery can prove.
Read moreOctober 7, 2026
Top-Dressing Hay and Pasture Ground by Drone in Central Alberta
Why perennial forage stands in central Alberta go under-fertilized, what a granular top-dress actually needs to accomplish on a grass stand versus an alfalfa stand, where the timing windows sit around cuts and grazing rotations, and why a drone suits ground that is permanently rough, treed, stony, or fenced rather than just temporarily wet. Includes the honest cases where a ground spreader is still the cheaper answer.
Read moreSeptember 30, 2026
Getting Field Boundaries and Prescription Files to a Drone Operator
What an Alberta drone operator actually needs from you before a variable-rate granular pass: field boundaries and prescription files in a format the aircraft accepts, with the coordinate system declared, the rate units stated, and the geometry clean. Covers shapefiles and their required parts, GeoJSON and KML, Alberta projections, the errors that stop a job at the gate, and who owns the data afterward.
Read moreSeptember 30, 2026
Drone Granular Spreading vs a Custom Aerial Applicator
An honest comparison of drone granular spreading against hiring a custom aerial applicator with a fixed-wing plane or helicopter in Alberta. Covers throughput, staging and ferry distance, field size and shape, obstacles, minimum acres, prescription resolution, scheduling, and the cases where custom air is clearly the right call.
Read moreSeptember 23, 2026
What a Drone Granular Spreading Quote Should Actually Include
How to read a custom drone granular spreading quote in Alberta: the application rate and acre count it assumes, mobilization and staging, prescription and as-applied handling, calibration, weather and rescheduling terms, and the SFOC and pilot certification proof every dispensing operation needs. With a checklist for comparing two numbers that look the same.
Read moreSeptember 16, 2026
Getting a Field Ready for a Drone Application Day
What a grower needs sorted before a drone granular spreading or seeding crew arrives: how the field is reached, where product and batteries get staged, what is standing in the air above the crop, who is available to keep product moving, and who makes the go or no-go call. The ground-side list, with no cost figures attached.
Read moreSeptember 16, 2026
Drone Multispectral Scouting vs Walking the Field
Multispectral drone scouting maps the whole quarter and shows where a problem is and how big it is. Walking the field is the only method that identifies what the problem actually is. This compares them on coverage, bias, timing, diagnosis, and repeatability, and sets out the order to run them in.
Read moreSeptember 2, 2026
Hire a Drone Spreading Service vs Buy a DJI Agras T50
Should an Alberta farm hire custom drone granular spreading or buy its own DJI Agras T50? This works through the break-even the way the UAV AG ROI calculator does — after-rebate capital amortized over three years and spread across annual acres, plus about $4.50 per acre operating cost, against the $10 to $15 per acre band typical of Alberta custom application — and is honest about what the ownership column leaves out.
Read moreAugust 17, 2026
The DJI Agras T100 Is Back in Stock in Alberta
The DJI Agras T100 is available again through UAV AG. This covers what the 100 L flagship actually does on an Alberta farm right now — high-rate granular spreading and cover-crop seeding — what changes when drone pesticide application clears Canadian approval, how the OFCAF rebate applies, and why the ordering window matters more than the price.
Read moreAugust 11, 2026
When to Fly Cover-Crop Seed On: Timing, Rates and the Records That Matter
Drone cover-crop seeding has two real windows in Central Alberta: into a standing crop before harvest, and straight onto stubble after it. They are not interchangeable. This walks through how to pick the window, why surface-broadcast seed needs a different rate conversation than drilled seed, and what records to keep if the acres are going into an OFCAF claim.
Read moreAugust 11, 2026
Variable-Rate Granular From an NDVI Map: What Is Real and What Is Hype
NDVI shows you where a crop is growing well and where it is not. It does not tell you why, and it does not tell you how much fertilizer to put down. This is the honest chain from imagery to a variable-rate granular pass — what each step can actually support, where ground truth is non-negotiable, and when a flat rate beats a bad prescription.
Read moreJuly 8, 2026
Spring vs Fall Granular Fertilizer Timing on Alberta Grain — and Where a Drone Fits
A plain-language look at fall vs spring granular fertilizer timing on Alberta grain — what each window does well, the loss and logistics trade-offs, and where drone spreading fits when a ground rig cannot get on in time.
Read moreJuly 1, 2026
Top-Dressing a Crop the Floater Can’t Reach
In-season granular top-dressing by drone is the legal, available drone service in Canada today. This is the case for it: the acres and timing windows where a ground floater physically cannot go — wet ground it would rut, and a crop grown too tall to drive through — and why a top-dress that lands on time beats one that lands cheap.
Read moreJuly 1, 2026
Drone Granular Spreading vs a Ground Floater in Alberta
Drone spreading and a ground floater are the two ways to broadcast dry granular product on an Alberta field. This compares them honestly on per-acre cost, compaction, timing and field access, and standing-crop reach — and is clear about when the floater wins outright.
Read moreJune 25, 2026
What Drone Fertilizer Spreading Actually Costs Per Acre in Alberta
Granular fertilizer spreading by drone is the legal, available service in Canada today. Here is what sets the per-acre cost, a worked example with the assumptions shown, and the field conditions where a drone beats a floater.
Read moreJune 25, 2026
Drone Elevation Mapping for Field Drainage and Tile Planning
A drone RTK survey produces a digital elevation model accurate to the centimetre, then a drainage analysis on top of it shows where water sits, where it wants to go, and where tile or surface drainage will pay. Here is what the survey captures, what the deliverable looks like, and how it feeds a tile contractor or a surface-drainage plan in Central Alberta.
Read moreJune 25, 2026
Drone Cover-Crop Seeding vs Broadcast-and-Harrow in Alberta
Drone seeding and broadcast-and-harrow are the two practical no-drill ways to establish a cover crop. This compares them on establishment, timing, soil disturbance, standing-crop access, and cost — and is honest about when the ground rig is the better tool.
Read moreJune 17, 2026
Spray Drones Just Moved a Big Step Closer in Canada
Health Canada's PMRA has issued a Letter of No Objection that opens an interim pathway for applying certain aerial-registered pesticides by drone, ahead of the final PRO2026-01 rule. It is not blanket approval, but it is the clearest signal yet that legal drone spraying in Canada is close.
Read moreJune 1, 2026
Identifying Canola Diseases Early With Drone NDVI on Alberta Farms
Multispectral NDVI from a drone pass surfaces canola disease pressure two to three weeks before visible symptoms. This guide walks through which canola diseases show up on NDVI, the typical Central Alberta scout cadence, and how to translate the map into a fungicide or rogueing decision.
Read moreMay 29, 2026
How to Apply for OFCAF 2026 in Alberta — Step by Step
A plain-language walk-through of the 2026 OFCAF application for an Alberta drone purchase — what to do before you open the ARGO portal, what RDAR wants in the Best Management Practice Action Plan, and how to sequence the agronomist + invoice + cover-crop pass to land the full $20,000 rebate.
Read moreMay 23, 2026
Health Canada Just Proposed Letting Drones Spray Any Aerial-Registered Pesticide
Health Canada's PMRA proposed a class change that would let drones legally apply any pesticide currently registered for conventional aerial application. Consultation closed March 25, 2026. Final rule expected this summer.
Read moreMay 21, 2026
DJI Agras T100 vs T50 vs T25 — Which Drone Fits Your Alberta Farm
The T100, T50, and T25 each suit a different operation profile. This guide compares spray tank, acres per hour, price after OFCAF, and which farm sizes each platform fits.
Read moreApril 20, 2026
Alberta Is Covering Half the Cost of Seeding Drones in 2026
The On-Farm Climate Action Fund now covers 50% of drone purchases tied to cover-crop seeding — up to $20,000 back. Applications open April 10, 2026.
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