Special Report

The fun and efficiency of UAVs

Zach Fiene and his cousin were working as crop scouts when they started to use their personal remote-controlled unmanned aircraft with cameras for surveying fields. When customers saw how efficient and fun the process could be, they wanted to get their own system. So Zach and his cousin formed DMZ Aerial of Sauk City, Wisconsin. Today they create systems for farmers in 15 states. He says the “ah-ha moment” for most farmers is when they see the efficiency of the units. “When you have a 600-acre field to scout and you have 50 other fields to scout that day, you need something like the UAVs.” He can pinpoint problem areas with the UAV and then walk straight to those areas to take tissue samples. All of the data is the property of the farmer, it can be left on the UAV or downloaded to a computer. They will be demonstrating the systems at the show.

Zach talks about the UAVs, data, the laws and more:

DMZ Aerial recorded a video of the Statz Brothers dairy operation in June: