Ag Drone Spraying in Dodge County, WI for Corn, Beans and Peas

Ag drone spraying prices in Dodge County

Ag drone spraying in Dodge County, WI is billed per acre for each pass, application only. Wisconsin drone rates for corn, soybeans, alfalfa and wheat run $11–22 per acre, with $16 as the 2026 typical figure. For comparison, UW–Madison's latest custom rate report lists ground fungicide application at an average of $12.17. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate
Post-emerge herbicide	from $13/acre
Corn and soybean fungicide	from $14/acre
Insecticide (aphids, weevil, leafhopper)	from $14/acre
Cover crop seeding	from $15/acre
Processing peas and sweet corn	from $16/acre

Jobs under 25 acres are billed as 25 acres. Fields that border Horicon Marsh, Beaver Dam Lake or other mapped wetlands may need wider buffers and a slower edge pass, which the quote shows up front. Product is billed separately or supplied by your co-op.

What Dodge County grows

Dodge County ranked sixth in Wisconsin for total farm sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, about $499 million from 1,489 farms. Grain and oilseed sales ranked fourth in the state, and milk brought in another $213 million.

Crop	2022 acres
Corn for grain	122,274
Soybeans	84,313
Forage and hay	43,866
Corn silage	21,119
Wheat	14,769

Add processing peas and sweet corn grown on contract, and Dodge County has spray work from May wheat passes to September cover crop seeding.

Agricultural drone spraying for white mold and tar spot

UW–Madison Extension's 2026 field trials found that drones applying white mold fungicide at 2 gallons per acre performed comparably to ground rigs at 15 gallons per acre when swath overlap was calibrated. That matters in Dodge County, where soybeans close canopy on heavy soils and white mold pressure follows wet Julys.

• Soybean white mold: spray between R1 and R3; once disease shows, it is too late.
• Corn tar spot: the key fungicide timing is VT/R1, with protection useful to about R3.
• Red crown rot: first confirmed in Wisconsin in neighboring Columbia County in 2025, so scouting soybean roots and stems is worth the time.
• Wheat scab: fungicide at early flowering protects grain quality and test weight.

Processing peas and sweet corn

Seneca Foods processes peas and sweet corn in Mayville, with harvest running from mid-June to early October. Contract vegetables leave little room for missed timing, and a field that is too wet for a sprayer one week may be ready for harvest the next.

• Drone passes keep insecticide and herbicide on schedule without wheel tracks through peas.
• Pre-harvest intervals and processor spray restrictions are checked before every job.
• Weed control in sweet corn needs care: a Dodge County sweet corn field produced the first U.S. case of fall panicum resistant to nicosulfuron, so rotating herbicide sites of action is important.

Spraying near Horicon Marsh and Dodge County lakes

Horicon Marsh covers more than 33,000 acres in the heart of the county: about 22,000 acres of National Wildlife Refuge in the north and 11,000 acres of State Wildlife Area in the south. It is a Wetland of International Importance and a stopover for more than 200,000 migrating Canada geese. The Rock River flows out of the marsh, and Beaver Dam Lake (6,718 acres) and Fox Lake (2,713 acres) sit to the west.

Operators working near these waters:

1. Map marsh edges, ditches and shorelines as no-spray zones with label buffers.
2. Use coarse droplets and low flight height on edges that face the water.
3. Fly only when wind blows away from wetlands, and log wind direction in the application record.
4. Check DriftWatch and BeeCheck for nearby sensitive crops and hives.

Drones on drumlin ground

Dodge County has one of the highest concentrations of drumlins in the world: long, rounded glacial hills with wet swales between them. That landscape is tough on ground sprayers.

Field feature	Ground rig	Spray drone
Drumlin slopes	Boom sways, uneven coverage	Holds set height over the hill
Wet swales between hills	Ruts or skips	No soil contact
Tile-drained flats after rain	Waits days	Flies the same day
Marsh-edge fields	Hard to access	Launches from the field road

Alfalfa and small grains

With about 44,000 acres of forage feeding nearly 97,000 cattle, alfalfa protection is a regular job. Alfalfa weevil is treated before first cutting when tip feeding reaches threshold, and potato leafhopper on regrowth after first and second cuttings. Wheat gets a flag-leaf or early-flowering fungicide pass in June. After wheat harvest in July, the stubble can be seeded to a cover or forage mix by drone the same week, which gives dairy farms extra fall feed and keeps soil covered on drumlin slopes.

Wisconsin licensing for drone application

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) requires commercial drone applicators to certify in a base category, such as 1.1 Field and Vegetable Crops, plus the 9.9 Aerial Application category, and to hold an Individual Commercial Applicator License and a Pesticide Business License. Private applicators need the aerial category only when applying restricted-use pesticides by drone. The FAA requires Part 107, Part 137 and a Section 44807 exemption for drones over 55 pounds.