Agriculture company gives Bustos a drone’s eye view

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Dave McDorman and Tony Campbell are looking be a part of changing the agricultural game, from right here in Galesburg.
Their company Integrated Precision Agriculture was started last year, using drones to crop dust and survey farm land. 

McDorman tells WGIL it’s not as difficult to talk farmers into the new technology as you might think.

“The farmer doesn’t seem very concerned with how that chemical is getting on the field,” McDorman says. “What he’s more concerned about is that it’s safe, it’s less expensive and those are really the main things.”

But IPA is still awaiting on an exemption from the Federal Aviation Administrator to crop dust.

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos stopped by McDorman’s home today to see a demonstration.

The East Moline Democrat sits on the aviation subcommittee of the transportation committee, where regulations for drones go through.

“What I told them is if there’s a delay in them hearing back, let us know and we’ll make sure they get a prompt answer,” Bustos says. “They want to get going in January and figure out their client base and grow their client base and try to make a business out of this.”

McDorman admits that one small drawback is that drones take a little longer to crop dust.

He believes that they can catch up though.

By next year he thinks IPA’s drone could catch up to a crop duster plane’s time it takes to dust an acre.

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