Ag Drone Services in Lincoln County, MO for Soybeans, Corn and Wheat

Ag drone service prices in Lincoln County

Ag drone services in Lincoln County, MO are billed per acre, per pass, application only. Missouri drone rates run $11–19 per acre, with $15.50 typical, and custom operators in the region often charge $11–14. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Soybean fungicide or insecticide	from $13/acre	R3 passes
Corn fungicide	from $13/acre	Tassel to early grain fill
Rescue herbicide	from $13/acre	Where labeled for aerial use
Wheat fungicide	from $13/acre	Flag leaf to heading
Cover crop seeding	from $14/acre	Seed billed separately

Each visit has a $250 minimum. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect acres per trip, levees and wetlands nearby, homes and the spray volume on the label.

Soybeans first

Lincoln County had 1,040 farms on 218,355 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, averaging 210 acres, with sales up 35% to $116.7 million, 71% from crops. Net cash farm income more than doubled to $37.4 million.

Crop or livestock	2022
Soybeans	67,425 acres
Corn for grain	33,842 acres
Hay and forage	15,134 acres
Wheat	4,788 acres
Cattle	10,866 head

The county ranked first in Missouri for horse and equine sales and fourth for nursery, greenhouse and sod. Ag drone services in Lincoln County center on soybeans and corn in the Mississippi bottoms and on upland fields in the hills.

Lock and Dam 25 and the grain river

Lock and Dam 25 at Winfield opened in 1939 at river mile 241.4, and the Corps of Engineers broke ground in 2023 on a new 1,200-foot chamber. The lock handles about 23 million tons a year, and the Soy Transportation Coalition says nearly all river-shipped grain and soybeans from five Midwest states pass through it; a single 15-barge tow carries more than 800,000 bushels of soybeans.

Levees and the 2019 flood

On June 2, 2019, the Pin Oak levee near Winfield breached and about 50 homes flooded. USDA's 2020 breached-levee map for the county also names the Old Monroe and Schramm levees and areas around Elsberry. Bottom fields behind levees often stay too wet for a ground rig after high water, and a drone treats them without ruts. Levee slopes and drainage ditches are mapped as no-spray zones.

Lincoln Hills and Cuivre River State Park

The Lincoln Hills run along the Mississippi from northwest of St. Louis toward Hannibal, with limestone bluffs, glades, sinkholes and knobs that feel more like the Ozarks than north Missouri. Cuivre River State Park near Troy covers more than 6,400 acres, including the 1,872-acre Lincoln Hills Natural Area. Upland fields here are small and broken by woods, so mapped edges matter, and the park, which drew more than 738,000 visitors in 2022, is a no-spray zone.

Refuges and conservation areas

Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge, 3,750 acres of Mississippi floodplain in neighboring Pike County, and MDC's Ted Shanks Conservation Area, with 35 miles of levees and row-crop land, sit just upriver. Fields near refuges and wetlands get wider buffers and flights only with wind blowing away from them.

Dicamba labels in 2026

The 2026 over-the-top dicamba labels allow at most two applications of 0.5 pound per acre a year. When the forecast is 85–95°F on the day of or after spraying, only half of a county's untreated dicamba-tolerant acres may be treated, and nothing goes on at 95°F or higher. A volatility reduction agent and three runoff-mitigation points per field are required. Rescue passes are planned around those limits.

Soybean cyst nematode

MU Extension reports that more than 95% of Missouri soybean varieties rely on PI 88788 resistance, and SCN is showing early signs of overcoming Peking resistance too. In a high-SCN trial, Peking varieties out-yielded PI 88788 by more than 5 bushels per acre. Healthy roots make foliar passes pay.

Fields next to new homes

The county is part of the St. Louis metro, with 59,574 residents in 2020, and Troy and Moscow Mills keep growing; the local R-III school district grew 13% in a single year in 2021, and a state projection once named the county Missouri's fastest-growing. Fields now border subdivisions, and a local beekeeping club is active, so operators check FieldWatch, map homes and hives as no-spray zones and fly only with wind blowing away from them. MU Extension's office in Troy has agronomy and livestock field specialists for local questions.

Field conditions

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Wet bottoms behind levees	Ruts, stuck rigs	No soil contact
Small upland fields in the hills	Missed corners	Mapped edges
Corn at tassel	Crop damage	Flies above the canopy
Fields beside subdivisions	Drift concerns	Mapped buffers

A Lincoln County spray season

Window	Typical drone work
May	Wheat fungicide
June	Rescue herbicide in soybeans and corn
Late July to August	Corn fungicide at tassel, soybean R3
Late August to September	Cover crops into standing crops

Missouri licensing

The Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) requires commercial drone applicators to hold Category 13, Aerial Pest Control, and the business holds an FAA Part 137 certificate with Part 107 pilots.