Brave Harvest
Veteran-owned company partnered with Landus Cooperative (7000+ member-owners 70+ locations) to provide drone crop spraying and scouting services.
Working row crops grown in the region across the Corn Belt region, Brave Harvest delivers drone pesticide and fungicide spraying and multispectral crop scouting to farms in Iowa and Minnesota. Commercial drone applicators in Iowa need FAA Part 137 plus an aerial category endorsement on a state pesticide applicator license issued by IDALS.
Operations are based in the Corn Belt region.
Services offered
States served (2)
Aerial pesticide licensing in states served
Every state requires a pesticide applicator license with the aerial category endorsement on top of FAA Part 137. The agencies that issue these licenses in Brave Harvest's service area:
- Iowa — aerial pesticide work runs through IDALS under Category 11 (Aerial Application).
- Minnesota — Any commercial drone spray over Minnesota fields needs Category B: General Aerial. Plus MnDOT aircraft registration and commercial operations license., issued by Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA).
Full agency, exam and renewal-cycle details by state are catalogued on the state pesticide licensing reference.
Verify and resources
Primary-source references for verifying credentials and looking up state-specific rules in Brave Harvest's service area.
Frequently asked questions
Verifying Brave Harvest runs through three independent checks: Part 107 via the FAA Airmen Inquiry, Part 137 via the issuing FAA Flight Standards office, and the state aerial-category pesticide applicator license via the receiving state's department of agriculture. In Iowa the state credential is issued by IDALS; you can ask the operator for the applicator license number and verify it with the agency directly. Pair that with a current chemical-drift COI and the Section 44807 exemption number for due diligence.
Typical drone spraying rates of $12 to $22 per acre in the region typically covers the application itself: drone calibration, GPS-guided mission planning, mixing and loading product into the tank, the labor and machine time to fly the field, and a written FIFRA Part 170 application record (date, time, product, EPA reg number, rate, weather, field ID). Pesticide product, surfactants and adjuvants are usually supplied by the farmer and excluded from the per-acre rate. Common surcharges include long travel past the operator's standard radius, after-hours or emergency turnaround, fields with steep terrain or significant obstructions, and minimum-acreage charges below a stated field size. Get inclusions and exclusions in writing before any application.