Look! Up in the sky! It’s a pig-fighting drone

FAA’s experiment is far from being on the hoof

Farmers in Oklahoma are getting a helping hand from drones as they fight an unusual menace: the $2 billion problem posed by wild pigs.

Members of the Choctaw Nation in central Oklahoma deploy the drones as part of a national experiment launched by the Federal Aviation Administration in May that will also see drones deliver medical supplies in Nevada and spray insecticides on mosquitoes in Florida. It’s part of a fast-growing industry with the potential to transform deliveries, farming and construction, help communities recover faster from disasters and reduce congestion on roads.

“We want to make more things possible,” said James Grimsley, the president and CEO of drone company DII, which works with the Choctaw Nation. Drones drop dried corn into traps used to capture wild pigs, which destroy crops and can pollute water sources.

Dropping the corn from remotely piloted drones reduces the amount of time and gas farmers need to refill the traps by hand, and trapping the pigs more effectively will help reduce about $2 billion in damage they cause annually.

“We see drones as an extension of smart farming technology,” said Mike Komp, an agricultural drone expert at the Noble Research Institute.

“We see drones as an extension of smart farming technology.”

Mike Komp agricultural drone expert