Ag Drone Services in Giles County, TN for Hay, Pasture and Soybeans

Ag drone service rates in Giles County

Ag drone services in Giles County, TN are priced per acre, per pass, application only. Tennessee drone rates run $9–17 per acre with about $12 typical, and statewide quotes reach $14–20 for some services; corn work runs $12–18. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Pasture and hay herbicide	from $12/acre	Buttercup, broadleaves
Hay insecticide	from $12/acre	Fall armyworm
Soybean and corn fungicide and insecticide	from $12/acre	Stink bugs, southern rust
Liquid fertilizer	from $13/acre	Foliar feeding
Cover crop seeding	from $13/acre	Rye, wheat, clover

Fields under 15 acres are billed as 15 acres. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect acres per trip, tree lines, slopes and the spray volume on the label.

One of Tennessee's top cattle counties

Giles County ranked fourth in Tennessee for cattle sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, at $33.8 million. Livestock made up 72% of the county's $76.6 million in farm sales.

Land use or crop	2022
Pasture	80,128 acres
Woodland	66,302 acres
Forage hay	40,433 acres
Soybeans	9,100 acres
Corn for grain	8,926 acres
Cattle and calves	55,682 head

Hay ground covers more than four times the acres of soybeans or corn. Ag drone services in Giles County are mostly pasture and hayfield work, with row-crop fungicide and insect passes in summer.

Buttercup and winter weeds

UT Extension's guidance is that the best window for buttercup is fall, from late October to early December, with a second window from late February to early April. Spray after three days at or above 55–60°F. Hairy buttercup responds to 2,4-D ester, while bulbous buttercup needs GrazonNext HL or DuraCor. Once a pasture turns into a "sea of yellow" in April, it's too late for that season. A drone can cover wet winter pastures that a tractor would rut.

Fall armyworm in hayfields

Giles County Extension advises treating at 3–4 larvae per square foot from late summer until frost. If a field is within a week of harvest, cut it instead of spraying. Labeled options include pyrethroids, Intrepid, Prevathon and Besiege, each with its own haying interval. Armyworms can strip a field in a few days, and a drone can treat it the day they're found, without crushing the stand.

Stink bugs in Giles County soybeans

UT thresholds from R1 to R6:

Species	Threshold per 25 sweeps	Note
Green and brown stink bugs	9	18 at R6 and later
Southern green stink bug	9	More common in southern counties
Redbanded stink bug	4	More likely after mild winters; high rates needed

Scouting runs from R3 to R6. Fields near the Alabama line can see southern species earlier than the rest of middle Tennessee.

Southern rust in corn

Southern rust has been confirmed in Tennessee and blows in from the Gulf South each summer. UT research shows fungicide pays when applied around tassel and gives no benefit at R5 (dent). Gray leaf spot is also common in continuous corn. A drone flies above the canopy at tassel, when a ground rig would knock down the crop.

A Giles County spray season

Window	Typical drone work
Late February to early April	Buttercup, thistle rosettes, winter broadleaves
May to June	Post-emerge herbicide in corn and soybeans, pasture weeds
July	Corn fungicide at tassel
August to September	Soybean stink bugs at R3–R6, fall armyworm in hay
Late October to early December	Fall buttercup window, cover crop seeding

Small fields and rolling ground

Of the county's 1,457 farms, 36% are under 50 acres and 75% are under 180. Fields are broken by tree lines, fence rows and creeks.

Field condition	Tractor sprayer	Spray drone
Rolling pasture	Rollover risk on slopes	Follows terrain
Small hayfields between woods	Missed corners	Mapped edges
Wet creek bottoms	Ruts	No soil contact
Corn at tassel	Crop damage	Flies above the canopy

Neighbors on the same road can be flown in one morning to keep each visit affordable.

The Elk River, I-65 and neighbors

The Elk River crosses the southern part of the county near Prospect, and I-65 runs north and south past Pulaski and Frankewing. Homes, gardens and small orchards sit next to many hayfields. Tennessee joined FieldWatch in 2018, so operators check DriftWatch and BeeCheck before every job, map streams, ponds and homes as no-spray zones and use coarse droplets on downwind edges.

Tennessee licensing for drone application

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) licenses drones as aircraft. A for-hire drone applicator needs commercial certification in Category 1 (Agriculture) plus an Aerial Applicator (AER) license, filed on form AG-0137, with at least $100,000 in liability insurance and a decal for each aircraft. Licenses run on the calendar year. The FAA requires Part 107, Part 137 and, for drones over 55 pounds, a Section 44807 exemption.