Ag Drone Spraying in Eau Claire County, WI for Corn, Beans and Hay

Ag drone spraying rates in Eau Claire County

Ag drone spraying in Eau Claire County, WI is billed per acre, per pass, application only. Wisconsin drone rates for corn, soybeans and alfalfa run $11–22 per acre with $16 as the typical figure, and Chippewa Valley operators publish $16–18 per acre with job minimums up to $400. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate
Post-emerge herbicide	from $13/acre
Alfalfa insecticide (leafhopper, weevil)	from $13/acre
Corn and soybean fungicide	from $14/acre
Cover crop interseeding	from $14/acre

A $350 minimum applies to each visit. Small, scattered dairy fields can be booked together on one trip, and neighbors can split a visit. Product is billed separately or brought from your co-op.

Dairy and forage drive the county

Livestock brought in 60% of Eau Claire County's $143 million in farm sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, led by about $45 million in milk. The county's 1,006 farms average 167 acres.

Crop	2022 acres
Corn for grain	39,424
Soybeans	26,178
Forage and hay	24,784
Corn silage	4,314

The county also raises more than half a million broilers. With forage nearly matching soybean acres, alfalfa protection and cover crops after silage are as important as row-crop fungicide here.

Interseeding cover crops into standing corn

Chippewa Valley dairy farms have started using drones to seed cover crops into standing corn and silage fields, a service local operators have shown at Wisconsin Farm Technology Days. The advantage is timing: seed goes on in late August or early September, weeks before a drill could get into the field after chopping or combining.

1. Into corn for silage: cereal rye or winter triticale seeded 2–4 weeks before chopping, ready for fall cover or spring forage.
2. Into standing soybeans: rye or oats at leaf yellowing.
3. After silage harvest: seed onto bare ground the same week.

Agricultural drone spraying for tar spot and white mold

UW–Madison Extension rates tar spot as a high risk across Wisconsin and names a fungicide pass at tassel (VT/R1) as the key timing for corn. For soybeans, white mold fungicide works from R1 to R3, with little or no benefit later. UW trials found drone fungicide at 2 gallons per acre performed comparably to a 15-gallon ground application on white mold, so drone passes give growers the same protection without driving through the crop.

Alfalfa and weed control between cuttings

Eau Claire County's dairy farms depend on high-quality alfalfa, and two insects cause most of the losses:

• Alfalfa weevil feeds on new growth in spring; treat before first cutting when tip feeding reaches threshold, or cut early if the field is close to harvest.
• Potato leafhopper arrives on storm fronts in June and stunts regrowth after first and second cuttings, leaving yellow "hopper burn".

In corn and soybeans, waterhemp and giant ragweed escapes are the main weed problems. Post-emerge passes work best while weeds are under 4 inches tall, and mapped patches can be spot-treated later in the season instead of spraying the whole field again.

Fields next to the County Forest and woodlots

The Eau Claire County Forest covers about 52,000 acres in the eastern part of the county around Fall Creek, Augusta and Fairchild, and many farms there have fields cut out of woodland.

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Small fields surrounded by trees	Long turns, missed corners	Mapped edges
Rolling ground in the south and west	Uneven boom height	Follows terrain
Wet low spots after rain	Ruts	No soil contact
Tall corn at tassel	Crop damage	Flies above the canopy

Spraying near the Chippewa River and the lakes

The Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers, Lake Altoona and Lake Eau Claire run through farmland and growing suburbs. Operators map shorelines, streams, wells and homes as no-spray zones, use coarse droplets on downwind edges and check the FieldWatch registries (DriftWatch and BeeCheck) for specialty crops and hives before each job.

Small farms and gardens around Augusta

The Augusta area is home to Wisconsin's third-largest Amish settlement, with about 1,600 people, and many small farms, produce gardens and horse pastures sit next to larger dairy and cash-crop fields. When a drone job borders these properties, operators map gardens and pastures as no-spray zones, avoid flying toward them in any breeze and talk with the landowner who books the job about neighbors who should be told ahead of time.

Wisconsin licensing for drone application

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) requires commercial drone applicators to certify in a base category such as 1.1 Field and Vegetable Crops plus the 9.9 Aerial Application category, and to hold an annual commercial applicator license and a Pesticide Business License. Product labels must allow aerial application. Before booking, ask any operator for their DATCP license number, Part 137 certificate and certificate of insurance, and confirm that the business license covers drone work in Eau Claire County. The FAA requires Part 107, a Part 137 certificate and a Section 44807 exemption for drones over 55 pounds.