Crop Spraying in Highland County, OH by Drone for Soybeans and Corn

Crop spraying prices in Highland County

Crop spraying in Highland County, OH by drone is priced per acre, per pass, application only. Ohio State University's 2024 custom rates put drone chemical application at an average of $14.64 per acre, with a $15 median, and OSU's 2026 survey lists drone seeding at $15.64 and drone fertilizer at $17.15. Operators quoting in the county list $13–35. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Herbicide	from $13/acre	Burndown, rescue passes
Fungicide or insecticide	from $14/acre	Soybeans, corn, wheat
Cover crop seeding	from $15/acre	Seed billed separately
Fertilizer and foliar feed	from $16/acre	Liquid or dry

Fields under 20 acres are billed as 20 acres. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect acres per trip, tree lines, slopes in the south and the spray volume on the label.

Soybeans lead in Highland County

Crops made up 64% of Highland County's $194.5 million in farm sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, and cropland covers about 79% of farmland.

Crop or livestock	2022
Soybeans	96,819 acres
Corn for grain	41,102 acres
Forage	15,231 acres
Wheat	4,647 acres
Hogs	29,001 head
Cattle	19,913 head

The county ranks 11th in Ohio for cattle and 12th for hogs. Soybeans outnumber corn more than two to one, so crop spraying in Highland County is mostly soybean fungicide and insect work in August, plus corn at tassel.

Tar spot next door

Tar spot was first found in Ohio corn on July 10, 2026, and by late July it had been confirmed in neighboring Ross and Fayette counties. When lesions show on lower leaves, fungicide decisions are made through grain fill. A drone flies over tall corn without knocking it down.

Wheat head scab

OSU times scab fungicide at Feekes 10.5.1, about 50% flowering, with an effective window of four to six days after. Products such as Prosaro, Caramba and Miravis Ace are standard. Southern Ohio wheat reaches flowering earlier than northern fields, and a drone can hit that window when soft ground keeps rigs out.

Marestail and fall burndown

OSU recommends fall herbicide treatments between harvest and Thanksgiving week, using 2,4-D plus a partner such as glyphosate, dicamba or metribuzin, without residuals. Fall work targets marestail and winter annuals like purple deadnettle, which also hosts soybean cyst nematode. OSU suggests keeping fall spending to about a quarter of the herbicide budget.

Hay: fall armyworm and pasture weeds

OSU's fall armyworm threshold in forages is 2–3 larvae per square foot, treating while larvae are under three-quarters of an inch. In southern Ohio, the last alfalfa cutting before the fall rest period is around September 15. In pastures, poison hemlock and wild parsnip are sprayed as rosettes in fall or early spring; once they bloom, spraying isn't practical.

Till plain to the north, hills and karst to the southeast

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Flat tiled ground after rain	Ruts, compaction	No soil contact
Rolling fields in the southeast	Rollover risk	Follows terrain
Soybeans at R3	Wheel-track losses	No crop contact
Small fields between woods	Missed corners	Mapped edges

Northern Highland County around Greenfield and Leesburg is flatter till plain, while the southeast near Sinking Spring and Fort Hill is hillier, with sinkholes and springs.

Rocky Fork, sanctuaries and neighbors

Rocky Fork Lake covers 2,080 acres east of Hillsboro, and the Highlands Nature Sanctuary protects about 2,000 acres along the Rocky Fork gorge. Fort Hill and Fallsville Wildlife Area add more protected land, and Plain community farms and buggies share the roads near Hillsboro and Leesburg. Ohio runs DriftWatch through its specialty crop registry plus BeeCheck, so operators check both before every job and map lakes, preserves, gardens and homes as no-spray zones.

Small farms and shared trips

About 35% of Highland County farms sell less than $2,500 a year, and many hold a few fields of hay, beans or pasture rather than a single large block. Crop spraying in Highland County by drone lets those smaller places get the same fungicide or weed pass as large grain farms without hiring a full ground rig. Neighbors along the same road can group fields into one trip, which spreads the travel and setup across more acres and keeps each field near the 20-acre minimum. Operators map each owner's boundaries separately and issue a separate record for every field.

A Highland County spray year

Window	Typical drone work
March to April	Poison hemlock and parsnip rosettes
May	Wheat scab fungicide at flowering
June	Post-emerge herbicide
Late July to early August	Corn fungicide when tar spot or rust shows
August	Soybean fungicide and insecticide at R3
September to November	Cover crops, fall burndown

Ohio licensing and airspace

The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) requires a commercial applicator license with the aerial category plus Core; the application asks whether the aircraft is manned or unmanned, applicants attach a Part 107 certificate, and the business must hold a Part 137 certificate. Highland County Airport sits east of Hillsboro, and Wilmington Air Park, a busy cargo airport, lies northwest. Operators check airspace before flights.