Drone Provides Solution with Extra Eyes in the Sky

It’s normally a two-person job to align a grain auger to the grain bin fill opening: one person on top of the grain bin giving hand signals to the tractor operator below. What do you do when there is no second person to help? The exhausting process begins with backing the tractor and auger to a position that appears adequate. The operator then gets out of the tractor, climbs the ladder on the grain bin, checks to see what adjustments need to be made, climbs back down, gets back into the tractor, and moves it as needed. This whole process can take multiple attempts.

Solution: A Drone

Michael Kleinwolterink, of Yale, Iowa, decided he was done with this approach, so he purchased a DJI Air 2S drone. 

“I placed the controller, with screen, in the tractor, and I could keep the end of the auger in view as I backed it up,” the west-central Iowa farmer said. 

The drone zooms in and out while moving around the top of the grain bin from multiple angles. “Now I can get the auger lined up and perfectly centered on my first attempt,” Kleinwolterink said. “I also enjoy having a drone to perform many other tasks around the farm. This is a true time-saver.” 

Michael Kleinwolterink has a farming operation in Yale, Iowa. Kleinwolterink and his father raise mostly corn and soybeans on approximately 550 acres. He likes to golf, and work with photography. His favorite passion is hunting ducks and geese. Aside from on-the-farm education, he earned a business degree at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Email him at [email protected].

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