Small Unmanned Arial Systems (sUAS) or “drones” are increasingly being utilized with the promise of improved efficiencies in agriculture operations that affect farm profit, worker safety, and overall situational awareness. There is an abundant need for continued exposure to drones and in continuing education for informing farmers and adjacent professionals on the benefits of the technology.

To provide learning opportunities for farmers and adjacent professionals, members of the Land Grant and Cooperative Extension program collaborated with other parties to host a series of field days at local farms to showcase the use of drone technology for agriculture production and environmental monitoring. A total of three (3) Agricultural Technology Field Day events were hosted in various counties throughout central Kentucky in partnership with the local Extension field representatives.

The success of each event involved provision of technical knowledge and hands-on demonstrations of equipment for all participants. Events included a June 28^th event in Edmonston, Ky (Metcalf) reaching 28 participants, July 7^th event in Frankfort, Ky (Franklin) in collaboration with the KY Hort Council reaching 45 participants, and July 11^th event in New Castle, Ky (Henry) reaching 10 participants. Contact with farmers in each community resulted in 10 additional site visits for the collection and processing of drone imagery for scouting and documenting conditions at each operation as a free demonstration.  Total estimated cost savings for participants of site visits for collection and data product generation is approximately $10,000 (550 acres @ $18/acre).

Events in Metcalf and Henry County were funded by USDA NIFA 1890 Capacity Building Grant project, “Optimizing nitrogen management in soybean integrating manual and high throughput aerial phenotyping” (P.I. Anuj Chiluwal) and the Kentucky Horticulture Council sponsored Franklin County event (Dani Zwischenberger and Cyndi Finneseth).