‘Digital agriculture’ on display at experiment station
PENDLETON, Ore. — The Yamaha RMAX Type II drone growled like a motorcycle just before takeoff Monday at the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center.
Members of the Oregon Board of Agriculture watched from a safe distance as the unmanned helicopter hovered over a small plot of wheat stubble, carrying water to spray for imaginary weeds. Gusty winds cut the demonstration short after a few minutes, but it was enough to prove how the technology is capable of helping farmers better manage their fields.
Specifically, agriculture drones like the RMAX are built with equipment that allows growers to spray crops more precisely, which not only saves money on herbicides and pesticides but also helps the environment by placing fewer chemicals into the soil. Other types of drones — like the experiment station’s own “Octocopter” — can fly different types of cameras and remote sensors over fields to determine where there might be a problem, or predict yields even before harvest.
Young Kim, CEO of a Virginia-based company called Digital Harvest, coined the term “digital agriculture” to describe this convergence of technology in the world of farming. Kim is now one of the leaders behind the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Future Farm in Pendleton, a real-world testing ground for how drones can be used to help farmers across the country grow more food, cheaper.
With the governor-appointed Board of Agriculture in town for its quarterly meeting, Kim said Monday’s test flight at the experiment station north of Pendleton is part of the ongoing research and discussion of how drones will ultimately fit in agriculture, and what exactly they’re capable of doing.
“Those are the kinds of things we want to test right here in Pendleton,” Kim said. “We’re in the market to learn.”
Pendleton is now home to two RMAX drones, one of which is operated by Digital Harvest on the Future Farm and the other by Yamaha, which has opened a local office at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport. Working as strategic partners, the two companies are trying to figure out how the vehicles can be used to safely and reliably spray crops at night, when there’s less heat and wind that could cause some applications to go to waste.
Jeff Lorton, director of the Duke Joseph marketing agency and project manager at the Future Farm, said the RMAX is the most advanced agriculture drone in the world. Yamaha already has 2,500 of the aircraft operating in Japan, though Lorton said U.S. agriculture is where the opportunity for the industry lies.
“Make no mistake, we are the market,” Lorton said.
The RMAX is the product of 35 years of engineering. It weighs approximately 200 pounds, and with a 250-cc engine, Lorton jokes it’s more like a snowmobile with a propeller. The Oregon Department of Agriculture is already interested in what the drone industry has to offer, Lorton said.
“Essentially, ODA is in kind of a period of transition. Digitization of agriculture is creating a whole bunch of new things for them to think about,” he said.
Katy Coba, ODA director and incoming Oregon Chief Operating Officer, admitted there are still hurdles to clear with operations and regulations of agricultural drones in Oregon, but the agency is well aware that this kind of technology represents the future of the industry.
“We know how agriculture is adopting new technology on a day-to-day basis,” Coba said.
Lorton said demonstrations like the one held Monday are a reminder to “wake up, pay attention and get invested.”
“Agriculture is the last great human endeavor to be digitized,” he said. “It’s the biggest thing people do.