Drone Spraying in St. Croix County, Wisconsin

Drone spraying prices in St. Croix County

Drone spraying in St. Croix County, WI is billed per acre for one pass, application only. You supply the product through your co-op or agronomist, and the operator applies it at label rate, usually at 2–3 gallons of water per acre.

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Corn fungicide (grain or silage)	from $14/acre	tar spot, VT–R2
Soybean fungicide / insecticide	from $14/acre	white mold, aphids at R1–R3
Alfalfa & hay	from $13/acre	leafhopper, weevil, weeds between cuttings
Herbicide & burndown	from $13/acre	broadcast or spot
Small grains	from $13/acre	oats and wheat fungicide
Cover crop seeding	from $15/acre	into standing corn or after silage

Wisconsin drone rates run about $11–$22 per acre, with a typical state figure near $16, so our starting rates sit just below the middle of that range. Price depends on total acres per trip, field shape, carrier volume, obstacles such as power lines, tree lines and farmsteads, and travel. Fields under 20 acres are usually billed at a 20-acre minimum.

Dairy rotations: corn, soybeans and alfalfa

St. Croix County is dairy and forage country on the edge of the Twin Cities. The USDA 2022 Census counts 1,192 farms on about 254,600 acres, with an average farm of 214 acres. Corn leads at about 75,900 acres, much of it chopped for silage, followed by soybeans at about 61,300 acres and alfalfa and hay at about 16,600 acres.

Crop	Main drone jobs	Typical timing
Corn (grain & silage)	Tar spot and leaf disease fungicide	VT–R2, July–August
Soybeans	White mold fungicide, soybean aphid	R1–R3, July–August
Alfalfa	Potato leafhopper on regrowth, alfalfa weevil	After first and second cutting
Oats & small grains	Leaf and head diseases, weeds	June

Why alfalfa matters here

Alfalfa sits in rotation on most dairy farms, and potato leafhopper can stunt regrowth quickly after a cutting. A drone treats a field days after the cut without running wheels over the new growth. With several cuttings a season, that adds up.

Silage corn

Fungicide decisions on silage corn weigh forage quality as much as yield. When tar spot or other leaf diseases show up before silage harvest, a pass at tasseling is often the only practical option, since the crop is too tall for most farm sprayers.

Rolling fields, trout streams and buffers

The landscape is rolling glacial ground cut by river valleys. The St. Croix River forms the western border, and the Willow and Kinnickinnic rivers run through the county. The Kinnickinnic near River Falls is a well-known cold-water trout stream, and many fields drain toward creeks and wetlands.

That shapes how spraying is done on St. Croix County farms:

• Mapped buffers from streams, ponds and wetlands, held precisely on every pass.
• Slopes and waterways flown at a constant height above the crop without crossing them.
• No compaction on wet spring ground or heavy dairy soils that already see manure and harvest traffic.
• Edges near homes, a growing concern as housing spreads around Hudson, New Richmond and Baldwin, are flown low with coarse droplets.

Cover crops after silage and into standing crops

Silage harvest leaves bare soil in late summer, and dairy farms in St. Croix County often follow it with a cover crop. Drones can broadcast winter rye or other covers right after chopping, or seed into standing corn and soybeans before leaf drop so the cover is established by harvest. Covers hold soil on slopes over winter and can provide spring forage. The operator calibrates the spreader for your seed and flies a mapped route so the seeding rate stays even across irregular fields.

Spray season in St. Croix County

• May: burndown and early herbicide on wet ground; alfalfa weevil checks before first cutting.
• June: post-emergence herbicide in corn and soybeans; leafhopper on alfalfa regrowth; small-grain fungicide.
• July–August: corn fungicide at tassel, soybean fungicide and aphid control; these windows usually overlap.
• Late August–September: cover crop seeding into standing crops and after silage.

In St. Croix County, as across northwest Wisconsin, the season is short, so the July–August stretch is the busiest. Booking a week ahead helps keep each field inside its window.

Wisconsin licensing for drone spraying

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) regulates pesticide applicators. A commercial drone applicator must be certified in a base category, such as 1.1 Field and Vegetable Crops, plus 9.9 Aerial Application, then hold an annual individual commercial applicator license. The company doing the work needs a commercial pesticide application business license. Farmers spraying their own land by drone need private certification in their base category plus the aerial subcategory.

Federal rules add an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, a Part 137 agricultural aircraft operator certificate and a Section 44807 exemption for drones over 55 pounds. If a label prohibits aerial application, the product cannot be applied by drone.

How booking works

1. Send the field location, crop, acres and target.
2. We match you with a DATCP-licensed, FAA Part 137-certified operator working in St. Croix County.
3. You approve the per-acre quote and spray window.
4. The operator maps the field, applies and sends you the application record.

Communities we cover

Hudson, New Richmond, River Falls, Baldwin, Hammond, Roberts, Woodville, Glenwood City, Somerset, Star Prairie, Deer Park, Wilson, Emerald and Boardman, plus farms along the Polk, Pierce and Dunn county lines.