Canadian regulatory bodies have spent years arguing that existing aerial application labels aren\u2019t good enough for drone spraying. Crop protection products needed drone-specific approvals on their labels.<\/p>\n
Spray drones draw crowds at field days and farm shows, but those caught spraying unapproved products with them faced fines up to $10,000.<\/p>\n
The list of approved products was glacially slow to grow, despite field trials meant to feed the PMRA\u2019s (now the Pesticides Regulatory Directorate) need for qualifying data.<\/p>\n
Recently though, federal rule makers made what Prairie spraying expert Tom Wolf called \u201cthe biggest U-turn I have seen in my career that PMRA has made,\u201d in conversation with Glacier FarmMedia.<\/p>\n
Read Also<\/p>\n
Health Canada proposed<\/a> to allow drone application for any product already approved for other aerial use.<\/p>\n The move was welcomed by the technology\u2019s champions and farmers who had been eagerly waiting for rules to change \u2014 many of whom have argued that not being able to use drones hit at competitiveness.<\/p>\n Others, Wolf included, argued that the split between drones and crop planes was scientifically sound. In another spring 2026 article<\/a> from the Western Producer, Corteva field modernization scientist Kevin Falk worried the unfamiliar technology might lead to application missteps, which might then be blamed on the product rather than the means of application. The companies themselves might hold back on greenlighting drone application of their product.<\/p>\n Avoiding spray mistakes<\/p>\n Agribusiness wants to nip those kinds of mistakes at the bud.<\/p>\n Josh Crimmins, sales engineer for Raven Industries<\/a> and one of the speakers during an April sprayer clinic at AgWest in Elie, Man., said drone spraying is a growing trend in the U.S., but so are questions regarding its efficacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Spray drone demonstrations have been popular draws at Canadian farm shows for years, such as this shot from Saskatchewan\u2019s Ag In Motion 2024, despite pesticides being unable to be legally applied via drone. In 2025, for example, Iowa corn growers were dealing with a particularly bad year for southern rust.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were hit extremely bad,\u201d said Crimmins, \u201cIf you didn\u2019t put fungicide on your corn, it was like a 40-bushel hit to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n The farm he was working with at the time used both a conventional sprayer and drone in the rush to get acres protected. The drone\u2019s performance was far from perfect.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout a shadow of doubt, you could tell where the drone missed a spot,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a 10-acre piece behind a tree line that it couldn\u2019t do its path plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Where the drone missed, yield monitors showed a 40-bushel difference.<\/p>\n The mistake of stretching spray<\/p>\n Crimmins felt the problem arose from the drone operators not being properly prepared.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were kind of extending what they should be doing,\u201d said Crimmins, \u201cthey were trying to do more acres than what they were supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the disease was so devastating, Crimmins said he could easily see where the drone had applied fungicide and where it had not.<\/p>\n Crimmins\u2019s agronomist saw similar situations with other growers. Corn crops with ground-applied fungicide in the area performed better against the rust.<\/p>\n Avoiding misses<\/p>\n Such mistakes could give local farmers invaluable insight, should drone spraying get the Canadian green light.<\/p>\n Warren Genick is chief technology officer with Green Aero Tech. The Manitoba company specializes in spray drone and aerial mapping services.<\/p>\n While Genick is not aware of the specifics of Crimmins\u2019s story, he\u2019s aware of where things can go amiss if drone operators are pushing the envelope or are inexperienced.<\/p>\n Warren Genick (centre) of Green Aero Tech with attendees at Canada\u2019s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock, Ont., in September 2025. \u201cThe reality of spray drones is they\u2019re flying a lot higher off the ground than a boom sprayer,\u201d said Genick.<\/p>\n Ground sprayers typically have the spray boom between 30-50 centimetres above the canopy. A drone may fly as high as three to six metres above the crop.<\/p>\n Light winds might therefore cause more interference and make for higher spray drift risk.<\/p>\n In those conditions, Genick recommends flying in such a way as to get the fungicide spray well underneath the canopy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat might be flying a little bit lower and slower to open it up,\u201d said Genick, \u201cversus flying fast and high and just sprinkling it on top.\u201d<\/p>\n But flying low can come with its own risks, such as a higher likelihood of an operator hitting the crop. Flying low can also cause crop lodging due to the high air pressure from rotor blades, which clock in at anywhere between 800-1300 r.p.m. when in flight.<\/p>\n Ground versus air<\/p>\n The application hardware of ground and drone sprayers is also different by design.<\/p>\n Whereas ground sprayers use a high-pressure nozzle system to deliver product, drone sprayers use a rotary atomizer, similar to what is used by aircraft applicators.<\/p>\n This means that the atomization speed can be changed in real time in ranges, for example, between 50-500 microns.<\/p>\n At those extremes, Genick said one in-field study showed a drone sprayer may be, \u201cmangling that droplet more than it\u2019s actually properly atomizing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Genick added that these details are part of the training his company provides.<\/p>\n \u201cOur recommendation to users is to use maybe more inside the range,\u201d said Genick, \u201cmaybe only going up as high as 400 microns or that kind of thing, and just being a little more realistic with it.\u201d<\/p>\n A field technician refills the spray tank of the DJI T100 drone with water after returning from a demonstration flight at the 2025 Canada\u2019s Outdoor Farm Show. Genick added that the latest spray drone in its fleet, the DJI Agras T100, recently had its nozzles redesigned.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bigger the droplet you can have, the less chance for it to drift away on these little, tiny particles that are out of your control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Map it out<\/p>\n While drones can be manually operated for specific tasks, Genick says a far better option is to map out your field\u2019s boundaries and obstacles.<\/p>\n This is often done using a smaller, more agile drone. This can fly for longer periods of time and can cover more acres.<\/p>\n Once your field has been mapped, that information can be fed into a drone\u2019s autopilot system to follow a specific flight line.<\/p>\n The drone can then tap into positioning systems such as GPS or RTK, reducing human error.<\/p>\n \u201cFor all 6,000 of those flights that I\u2019ve done, I know the computer can do it far better than I can, and far more efficiently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That means the farmer will \u201cnot have to worry as much about overlaps and gaps and getting too close to things.\u201d<\/p>\n It could take as little as 10 minutes, or more than an hour to properly map out a field plan. Either way, Genick said, it\u2019s time well-spent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere it\u2019s going to really bite you is if you just show up at a field and tap out four points on the screen and say, \u2018go do it,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not going to end well, or it is not going to be efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n Flying tips<\/p>\n Genick also has the following general words of wisdom for hopeful future drone spraying pilots:<\/p>\n Keep a close eye on the weather. Spraying with a drone often requires more time in the field, and with that, the potential for sudden weather changes.
\n ![\"Grasslands](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/311370_web1_grasses-prairie-002_cmyk-150x150.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/312462_web1_26986_web1_drone2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Photo:
\n File<\/p>\n![\"Warren](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/312462_web1_drone-Warren-Genick-COFS2025-GMB.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Photo:
\n Greg Berg<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/312462_web1_DJIdrone-fillup-COFS2025-GMB.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Photo:
\n Greg Berg<\/p>\n
\nKnow how to adjust for changes in wind direction. Winds can quickly change during the course of your spray operation.
\nHave good imagery and boundaries of your field so you can fly with more confidence and be more efficient with your spray delivery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This time last year, weed and disease control via drone was looking down a long, uncertain, hurdle-filled road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21225,17,21226,10303,21227,21228],"class_list":["post-47966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-aerial-application","tag-canada","tag-drone-spraying","tag-drones","tag-herbicides","tag-pesticides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}