Crop Spraying in Kosciusko County, IN by Drone for Corn and Popcorn

Crop spraying prices in Kosciusko County

Crop spraying in Kosciusko County, IN by drone is billed per acre, per pass, application only. Indiana drone rates run about $9–20 per acre. Purdue's 2025 custom rate survey put airplane spraying at $13.31 and self-propelled ground spraying at $8.39. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Corn fungicide	from $12/acre	Tar spot, VT–R2
Soybean fungicide	from $12/acre	White mold, R1–R3
Popcorn fungicide or insecticide	from $13/acre	Where labeled
Rescue herbicide	from $13/acre	Where labeled for aerial use
Cover crop seeding	from $14/acre	Seed billed separately

Each visit has a $225 minimum. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect acres per trip, lakes and homes nearby, poultry barns and the spray volume on the label.

Corn, soybeans, popcorn and poultry

Kosciusko County ranked eighth in Indiana for farm sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, at $428.9 million, up 44%. Crops brought in 55%.

Crop or livestock	2022
Corn	112,181 acres
Soybeans	104,359 acres
Popcorn	11,484 acres
Forage	11,414 acres
Broilers	592,439
Hogs	116,917 head

Popcorn is the county's third-largest crop, and grain moves through licensed buyers such as Cargill in Mentone, Louis Dreyfus in Claypool and Creighton Brothers in Etna Green. Of 1,079 farms, 65 run 1,000 acres or more, yet with 56% of farms under 50 acres, crop spraying in Kosciusko County covers big corn and soybean fields and many small ones.

Ducks and the Egg Basket

Maple Leaf Farms in Leesburg raises about 10 million ducks a year, and Indiana produced 60% of U.S. duck in 2017. Mentone calls itself the Egg Basket of the Midwest, with a 10-foot, 3,000-pound concrete egg built in 1946 and an Egg Festival every June. Duck and poultry barns sit beside crop fields across the county, so operators map barns and air intakes as no-spray zones and fly only with wind blowing away from them.

Tar spot in northern Indiana

Purdue has confirmed tar spot in 82 of Indiana's 92 counties, and growers reported losses of 20–60 bushels per acre in 2018. A single fungicide pass at VT–R2 gave the most consistent results. Wet weather in June and July brings it on early; otherwise it usually shows up mid-to-late July.

White mold in soybeans

Purdue plant pathologists note that northern Indiana is especially favorable for white mold. Fungicide is preventive and goes on at R1–R3, with the highest priority on fields with a history of the disease. A drone flies over closing canopies without wheel damage.

More than 100 lakes

Water covers about 23 of the county's 554 square miles, more than 4%, and Kosciusko County has more than 100 lakes, including Lake Wawasee, Indiana's largest natural lake at about 3,200 acres, and Lake Tippecanoe, the deepest at 122 feet. The Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams notes that phosphorus above 0.03 mg/L can trigger algal blooms and names farm fertilizer runoff as one source. Other lakes include Winona, Big and Little Chapman, Big and Little Barbee, Dewart, Pike, Center and Syracuse. Operators map lakes, channels and lake homes as no-spray zones.

The Tippecanoe River

The 182-mile Tippecanoe River flows west through the middle of the county, and the Eel River crosses its southeast corner. It holds nearly 50 species of freshwater mussels, the world's largest population of clubshell mussels and endangered darters. Streams and ditches leading to it are buffered, and only products labeled for use near water go on banks.

Indiana licensing

Pesticide licensing in Indiana is run by the Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC), not the Department of Agriculture. Any application by air needs an aerial applicator license with Core and Aerial exams, the person flying must be licensed rather than supervised, and mixers and loaders must be at least registered technicians. The business needs an FAA Part 137 certificate and pilots hold Part 107.

Registries started here

DriftWatch began at Purdue. Growers register specialty sites over half an acre and beekeepers register hives in BeeCheck, and applicators check the map before spraying. Drift complaints go to OISC.

Field conditions

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Muck and wet ground near lakes	Ruts, stuck rigs	No soil contact
Corn at tassel	Crop damage	Flies above the canopy
Small fields by lake homes	Drift concerns	Mapped buffers
Soybeans at R3	Wheel-track losses	No crop contact

A Kosciusko County spray season

Window	Typical drone work
June	Rescue herbicide passes
July	Soybean white mold at R1–R3
Mid-July to early August	Corn and popcorn fungicide at VT–R2
Late August to September	Cover crops into standing crops

Airports

Warsaw Municipal Airport, two miles north of downtown, has a 6,001-foot runway with an instrument approach and handles about 37 operations a day, and Nappanee Municipal serves the north. Operators check airspace for every field nearby.