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SALEM,
Ore. -- Jeff Lorton says drone technology is the next big thing in agriculture,
and he's determined to make sure it lands in Yamhill County, the center of
Oregon's world-class wine industry.
Lorton
is the county's part-time economic development manager. He's organized a Dec. 9
"Precision Farming Forum" to introduce the concept to farmers,
vineyard operators and nursery managers.
In
farming, the potential uses of drones include flying over nurseries to do
inventory and identifying areas of plant damage, disease or irrigation
problems. Larger drones could carry payloads of pesticides or fertilizer, an
application now being tested at vineyards in California's Napa Valley, the
agricultural publication Capital Press (http://bit.ly/17MBffF)
reported.
"It's
a big game changer in agriculture," Lorton said. "The Holy Grail of
it is crop diagnostics."
Lorton
believes drone technology will spawn a myriad of economic opportunities for
spin-off industries, in addition to luring engineers and software developers.
He hopes Yamhill County will become a center for the industry. Others in Oregon
have similar ideas, notably economic developers in the Pendleton area.
Among
the speakers is Oregon State University forestry engineering Professor Michael
Wing, part of OSU's new Unmanned Vehicle System Research Consortium. In an
Oregon State news release earlier this year, Wing described the state as the
perfect spot for UAV testing.
"Within
about 100 miles you can go from the Pacific Ocean to seashore dunes, coastal
mountains, agricultural valleys, rivers, urban areas, many types of forest,
volcanoes, lava fields, alpine peaks, canyons and high sagebrush desert,"
Wing said.
Other
speakers include Ryan Jenson, chief executive of HoneyComb Corp., a fledgling
Portland company that has developed a drone intended for agriculture.
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