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BY GRIFFIN ELLIOT
under the Alberta Weed Control Act, such
as purple loosestrife, orange hawkweed
and leafy spurge.
“You want to catch them as early as pos-
sible because they’ll be easier to handle.
Once you’ve got a big patch, it’s a much
more expensive proposition,” Neeser said.
“Prohibited noxious [weeds] especially,
you don’t want them to spread at all.”
Once the weeds are identified, the
county will help the landowner come up
with a control plan.
“The landowner has the duty to
control these weeds,” Neeser said. “If it’s
a prohibited noxious one, they have to
be destroyed, and if it’s a noxious one,
they simply have to prevent them from
propagating.”
Rocky View County’s pilot drone
project was executed on a tight budget,
Fleischer said, by investing in “entry-
level” drone hardware. “We bought a fair-
ly cost-e ective drone,” he said. “Drones
range in price from $1,500 all the way to
hundreds of thousands. We do see areas
where in the future it might be useful
to update the camera so that we can do
di erent mapping.”
Overall, the use of drone technology
in agriculture is on the rise. As drones
have become more a ordable and their
capabilities have expanded, more and
more farmers are trying the technology
for themselves. In addition to Rocky View
County’s drone pilot project, Fleischer
noted that similar programs have been
developing simultaneously. “There are
private consultants that farmers are using
as well to fly over and do field scouting,”
he said. “I’m seeing more and more com-
panies start up, and a few other counties
using it as well.”
Winter
2017
grainswest.com41
DRONES ON PATROL:
Rocky View County
agriculture services o cer Ashley Stewart
pilots the county’s new aerial drone.
Photo:RockyViewCounty