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Drones help Scheid Vineyard grow grapes in Greenfield

Drones help Scheid Vineyard grow grapes in Greenfield

The FAA recently lifted its ban on farmers using commercial drones to survey agricultural fields.

The changed rule means more drones while be flying over the Salinas Valley's sweeping farm fields in the near future.


Scheid Vineyards has already been testing use of a recreational-type unmanned drone for a year over its grape crops in Greenfield. The drone allows growers to patrol their vineyards far faster and provides crucial aerial information while checking on things like irrigation and pests.

VIDEO: Watch how Scheid Vineyards' drone works for farming

Scheid Vineyards President and CEO, Scott Scheid, said, "Scouting normally takes place by our people walking in the field or using ATV's to go up and down rows, usually about every 5th row, to look for problems in the vineyard, identify and write down where that is. The great thing about drones is they're all GPS enabled."

Scheid Vineyards has 4,200 acres of grapes. Drone video can be uploaded to a laptop immediately and analyzed.

"If we don't catch a vineyard disease before it gets to be a problem, it's very expensive to replant and lose the production, and in other ag it could even be more important. Overall I can see billions of dollars being saved by quick identification," Scheid said. 

With the FAA's decision, farmers who don't have drones of their own can hire an outside company to fly drones for them.