Droplet trajectories from rotary spray drone application: Implications for swath width measurements

Introduction We conducted a series of drone deposition studies with three main objectives: We wanted to: The four swath width measurement methods were: Assuming a trapezoidal-shaped spray swath, the Effective Swath Width (ESW) can be roughly defined as the span between two points that represent 1/2 of the average maximum deposit density. The idea is […]

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Green-on-Green in Ontario: A Custom Operator’s Experience with See & Spray Premium

In the summer of 2025, Todd Frey of Clean Field Services (Drayton, Ontario) and I participated in the Elora Weeds Tour. We discussed his new John Deere See & Spray Premium and the practical considerations for implementing green‑on‑green spraying in Ontario (Figure 1). With that first season squarely in the rearview mirror, I reached out […]

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Drone Tendering – Considerations before Buying or Building

Acknowledgments Much of this article is based on a session and tradeshow I attended at the 2026 Drone End-User Conference in Kansas City. I want to acknowledge the insightful information provided by the three session speakers, as well as the ~200 audience members that asked honest questions and shared their experiences. The speakers were Mr. […]

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The Carvalho Boom and the Stages of Quadcopter Flight

The Hypothesis The results of a recent herbicide deposition study performed with the DJI T100 led us to observe that after ~13 m/s, swath width and drift were no longer directly related to travel speed; They appeared unaffected. The result was completely unexpected as it was counter to several years of prior study with smaller […]

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Wanted: A new technology for assessing spray coverage (The Spray Doctor – Part 1)

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”. While the source is nebulous (Peter Drucker, Lord Kelvin, or Antoine-Augustin Cournot), the sentiment is clear. The status quo In the world of crop protection, considerable resources are expended to distribute a pesticide over a target. And yet, sprayer operational settings and spray coverage are rarely […]

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