Ag Drone Services in Brown County, WI for Dairy and Cash Crops

Drone spraying in Brown County, Wisconsin: 2026 per-acre rates

Drone spraying in Brown County, Wisconsin is quoted per treated acre, application only, with the product priced separately or supplied by the grower. The rates below come from the Wisconsin market range of roughly $11–$22 per acre per pass and are set at or below the middle of that band. Every request goes to FAA Part 137-certified, state-licensed operators who work the Green Bay, De Pere and Fox River Valley farm belt.

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Herbicide (burndown, post-emerge, pasture weeds)	from $13/acre	2–3 GPA carrier
Fungicide (corn tar spot, soybean white mold, wheat head scab)	from $15/acre	Timed to VT–R3 or anthesis
Insecticide (alfalfa leafhopper, soybean aphid)	from $14/acre	Between cuttings or at threshold
Cover crop seeding (cereal rye, oats, radish)	from $17/acre	Seed billed separately
Foliar nutrient pass	from $13/acre	Often tank-mixed with fungicide

What moves the quote: total acres in one trip, gallons per acre (a 5 GPA fungicide pass takes longer than a 2 GPA herbicide pass), field shape, hazards such as tree lines and power lines, and how fast the window closes. Orders below 25 acres usually carry a flat trip charge of about $150, and neighbors who pool fields on the same road can split that charge.

Ag drone services Brown County WI growers can book

Brown County is dairy country first, so most passes protect forage and feed rather than a single cash crop. The service list reflects that.

Weed control

Pre-plant burndown on no-till corn ground, post-emerge passes in soybeans, and spot work on thistle and wild parsnip along hay field edges and drainage ditches. Drones handle small, odd-shaped fields between woodlots that a 120-foot boom cannot turn in.

Disease protection

Tassel-to-R3 fungicide in corn for tar spot, R1–R3 applications in soybeans for white mold, and early-flowering head scab protection in winter wheat. These windows land when corn is too tall for most ground rigs without crop damage.

Insect control in alfalfa and beans

Potato leafhopper insecticide on second- and third-crop alfalfa, plus soybean aphid passes in July and August once scouting confirms the threshold.

Cover crop seeding

Cereal rye or oats flown into standing corn silage or soybeans before harvest, so the seed is in the ground when the chopper rolls out. This matters on dairy farms where manure goes on right after silage harvest.

Field mapping and scouting

Multispectral or RGB flights to locate wet spots, stand gaps and disease hot spots before a treatment is ordered, so the spray goes only where it pays.

How a Brown County spray request gets matched

1. Send the basics. Field location (town or section), crop and growth stage, acres, target pest or goal, and your preferred date.
2. Get operator quotes. Your request goes to local FAA Part 137-certified, state-licensed operators who serve Brown County; you compare price, timing and product plans.
3. Confirm the plan. The operator checks the label for aerial use, sets the carrier rate (usually 2–5 GPA), and reviews hazards with you.
4. Fly the field. Application is logged by GPS, with wind speed, temperature and product recorded at the time of the pass.
5. Receive the record. You get the coverage map and application details for your files and nutrient or pest management plan.

Why drone spraying fits Brown County's heavy clay

Much of the county sits on red clay and clay loam soils left by glacial lake deposits. These soils drain slowly, rut easily, and stay soft well into June after a wet spring. A drone keeps equipment weight off the field entirely.

• No wheel tracks in standing crops. A fungicide pass at tassel does not knock down corn rows or compact headlands.
• Fly the day after rain. When a ground sprayer would sink, a drone can still meet a narrow tar spot or white mold window.
• Low water volume. Drones apply 2–5 gallons per acre versus 10–20 for most ground rigs, so one refill covers far more ground, which matters on farms hauling water from the yard.
• Comparable results in trials. UW–Madison Extension white mold trials found drone applications at 2 GPA performed about as well as a 15 GPA ground rig.
• Downwash pushes product into the canopy. The rotor wash moves droplets into lower leaves, where tar spot first shows up.

Brown County crop acres by the numbers

The 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture counts 907 farms and about 181,000 acres in farms across Brown County. Cattle and calves top livestock inventory at over 130,000 head, which explains the crop mix below.

Crop	Acres (2022 Census)	Typical drone use
Hay and haylage (mostly alfalfa)	48,811	Leafhopper insecticide between cuttings
Corn for silage	32,166	Herbicide, fungicide, cover crop seeding
Corn for grain	28,841	Tar spot fungicide at VT–R2
Soybeans	22,853	White mold fungicide, aphid control
Wheat	11,133	Head scab fungicide at early flowering

Corn silage acres are almost as high as grain corn, a pattern common to dairy counties along the Fox River. Silage fields come off in late August and September, which creates an ideal opening for aerial cover crop seeding right before harvest.

Pest and disease windows for northeast Wisconsin crops

Timing drives results more than product choice. These are the windows Brown County growers most often call about, based on UW–Madison Extension guidance:

Crop	Target	Window	Notes
Corn	Tar spot	Tassel (VT) to R3, late July–mid August	Two modes of action recommended; scout lower canopy
Soybeans	White mold	R1–R3, mid to late July	Preventive only; spraying at R5 showed no yield response
Alfalfa	Potato leafhopper	2nd and 3rd cutting, mid June–August	20 sweeps at 5 spots before deciding
Soybeans	Soybean aphid	July–August	Treat at threshold, not on sight
Winter wheat	Fusarium head blight	Early flowering, mid to late June	Risk rises after warm, wet weeks

Red crown rot was confirmed in Wisconsin for the first time in 2025, so growers with alfalfa-soybean rotations should scout for red lesions near the soil line and report suspect plants before choosing a treatment plan.

Towns covered across Brown County

Operators run routes from the Green Bay metro outward to the rural townships where most cropland sits:

• South and southwest: De Pere, Wrightstown, Greenleaf, Hollandtown, Little Rapids
• East and southeast: Denmark, Morrison, Holland, Ledgeview
• North and northwest: Pulaski, Hobart, Suamico, Howard
• Along the bay: New Franken, Bay Settlement, Champion

Fields just over the line in Outagamie, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Shawano counties are usually quoted on the same route.

DATCP and FAA rules for spray drones in Wisconsin

Every operator listed through this site holds the credentials Wisconsin and the FAA require for paid application:

• FAA Part 137 agricultural aircraft operator certificate, plus a Part 107 remote pilot certificate.
• FAA 44807 exemption for spray drones over 55 lbs takeoff weight.
• Wisconsin DATCP commercial applicator certification in a base category such as 1.1 Field and Vegetable, plus category 9.9 Aerial Application, renewed through an annual individual commercial applicator license.
• Pesticide business license from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Operators also confirm that each product label permits aerial use before mixing.

Spraying near the Fox River and Lake Michigan shoreline

Brown County drains to the lower Fox River and Green Bay, two waters under long-running phosphorus and sediment cleanup plans. Fields along the East River, Duck Creek and the bay shore often have label buffer requirements near surface water. Drones help here: the swath can be shut off at the edge of a grassed waterway, and the GPS log shows exactly where product went. For fields bordering streams, share any buffer strips from your nutrient management plan when you request a quote.