House Votes to Broaden Ban on Drones Flying Over Ag Operations

By Cami Koons

A bill that would further prohibit the ability of a remote-piloted aircraft, or drone, to fly over farmland needs final approval from the Senate before it can be sent to the governor. 

Senate File 491 was amended on the House floor Tuesday to remove language classifying a “farmstead” as “40 or more contiguous acres.” 

The bill builds on a 2024-enacted law that prohibited drones from flying over animal feeding operations and homesteads and created misdemeanor fines up to $2,560 if the drone that flew over these areas was equipped with recording devices. 

The proposed legislation, which advanced from the Senate March 17, would prohibit the use of a drone, without the landowner’s permission, within 400 feet of farm animals, equipment, and structures, including animal feeding operations, farmer residences, barns, and manure storage.

Rep. Derek Wulf, R-Hudson, said the bill “broadens the scope” of the existing law and “strengthens” security.  

“It protects our livestock and agriculture producers more strongly than the law we passed last year,” Wulf said. 

Proponents of the bill said livestock are afraid of the remote aircraft and that it invades a farmer’s privacy. 

Opponents of the bill argue it, and the existing law, would be preempted by federal laws that regulate airspace. 

A fact sheet on the local regulation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems from the Federal Aviation Administration, explains that some privacy-related restrictions on drones, if it interferes with the administration’s ability to “safely and effectively integrate UAS into the national airspace” would be preempted. 

According to the document, at least 44 states have enacted laws pertaining to unmanned aircraft systems since 2013 and the FAA holds that states are “generally free to regulate” as long as the laws do not interfere with federal regulations or “relate to the prices, routes, or services of commercial air carriers.”

No lawmakers spoke in opposition to the amended bill on the House floor and the measure advanced 89-7. 

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