Drone Spraying in DeKalb County, Illinois
I went to high school at Hinckley-Big Rock. Somonauk and Hinckley are ten minutes from our shop in Newark, and I have been driving these roads since before I had a licence.
Fungicide, herbicide, foliar nutrients and cover crop seeding applied by drone, from $13 an acre. Veteran-owned, FAA Part 137 certified.
The ground we're talking about
DeKalb County farms big. The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 807 farms working 353,524 acres, with 344,166 acres of cropland — and the highest average farm size of any county we serve at 438 acres. Eighty-seven farms are over a thousand acres.
It is also the most mixed. Livestock, poultry and dairy make up 31 percent of agricultural sales here — against 1 percent in Grundy and 3 percent in Will. This is the county that put its name on a seed corn brand, and it still farms like somewhere that takes agriculture seriously as an industry rather than as leftover ground.
Where we fly
Somonauk, Hinckley, Sandwich, Waterman, Shabbona, Sycamore, DeKalb, Malta, Genoa, Kingston and Lee.
Why a drone works on this ground
Cover crop seeding, where adoption is lowest. Just 6 percent of DeKalb farms reported cover crops in the last census — the lowest rate in our service area, and against 9 percent in Kane and Will. The usual obstacle is not interest, it is the calendar: by the time the combine is out there is not enough season left to establish anything. Interseeding by drone into standing corn or soybeans moves that window forward by weeks and takes the decision out of the harvest schedule.
Big blocks are our best work. At a 438-acre average, this is exactly the shape of farming people wrongly assume drones cannot handle. We stage product and batteries at the field edge, so there is no ferrying back to an airstrip and no waiting on a tender across the county. The more acres you put together, the better the per-acre number, and when a job needs more capacity we add aircraft rather than hours.
Tillage and wet springs. DeKalb runs the lowest no-till rate we see — 21 percent, against 36 percent in Will — which means more worked ground and more of it that stays soft when you need to be spraying. A drone flies ground you cannot drive, and leaves no tracks to farm around afterwards.
What we apply
- Fungicide — tasseling and R1 corn, and soybean applications
- Herbicide — including spot and targeted work
- Foliar nutrients and biologicals
- Cover crop seeding — interseeded into standing corn and soybeans
What it costs
Per acre, starting at $13, with volume pricing on larger blocks and whole-farm work. Most applications land between $13 and $15 depending on product, rate and field layout. Call with your acres and we will give you a real number the same day.
Every job comes with an as-applied record: where we flew, what went out and at what rate.
Book an application
Tell us the field, the acres, the product and when it needs to go on, and we will tell you straight whether we can do it and what it will cost.
630-465-4539 · [email]
Premium Ag Services is a veteran-owned agricultural business at 16100 Newark Rd, Newark, Illinois. We also serve Kendall, Kane and the surrounding counties.