Drone Spraying in Will County, Illinois
Fungicide, herbicide, foliar nutrients and cover crop seeding applied by drone across Will County, from $13 an acre. Veteran-owned, FAA Part 137 certified, working out of Newark in Kendall County.
The ground we're talking about
Will County is the one that surprises people. Everyone thinks of Joliet and the intermodal yards, but the 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 780 farms working 241,269 acres, with 228,134 acres of cropland and 97 percent of agricultural sales coming from crops.
More striking: while farmland shrank across most of the collar counties, land in farms here grew 11 percent between 2017 and 2022, and the average farm got bigger. That is the opposite of what is happening one county north in Kane.
It is also the most conservation-minded ground we work. Thirty-six percent of Will County farms run no-till — the highest rate in our service area, against 21 percent in DeKalb.
Where we fly
Wilmington, Manhattan, Peotone, Wilton Center, Symerton, Elwood, Beecher, Monee, Channahon and the ground south and east of Joliet.
Why a drone works on this ground
No-till and no tracks belong together. If you have spent years building structure by not tearing the ground up, running a rig through tasseled corn in July is an odd way to finish the season. A drone puts nothing on the ground at all — no wheel tracks, no compaction, no plants brushed down by a boom.
Cover crop seeding into standing crop. Nine percent of Will farms reported cover crops last census, better than most of our area but still short of what the interest suggests. The obstacle is almost always the calendar. Interseeding by drone into standing corn or beans moves establishment forward by weeks instead of waiting on the combine.
Working around everything else. Will County farm ground shares the map with rail, interstate, pipeline corridors and the Midewin prairie. That leaves a lot of edges, buffer-sensitive boundaries and fields that are awkward for a plane. We fly a mapped boundary and shut off where it says to.
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. Will County is the far edge of our normal range, so larger blocks and whole-farm work make the trip pencil better — call and we will be straight with you about it.
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, Grundy and the surrounding counties.