When John Sobotka of Sobotka Seeds decided to dive into drone spraying, he didn’t ease into it. He jumped in with both feet.
“We bought two spray drones and one mapping drone right off the bat,” John said. “I’d been watching the technology for a while, and then one day Nathan happened to pull into my driveway. We’d literally just been talking about drones, and there he was.”
After a few conversations, a couple of farm shows, and some calls to friends already running drones, all roads led back to one name: Airstrike Ag.
“Everyone I talked to said the same thing. If you want to learn drones, go to Nathan. The guy just knows more about it than anyone else in the lower 48,” John said. “And being only 35 miles away, it made sense for service and support too.”
Sobotka Seeds started with plans to spray their own acres and handle some custom work for seed customers. But when the summer turned wet and fields were too muddy for ground rigs, demand for drone spraying took off. John said the investment is already paying for itself faster than they expected.
“They’re going to pay for themselves a lot quicker than we figured,” he said. “We thought maybe three years, but it’s looking like half that time.”
But before they could start flying, there was the licensing hurdle. “We started the process back in December, right after we bought the drones,” John said. “Airstrike helped us through the process, but dealing with the FAA took a lot longer than expected. We didn’t get fully licensed until two days before we started spraying in June. If anyone’s thinking about doing this, I’d start that process a year ahead of time.”
Despite the hurdles for licensing, the service from Airstrike Ag sealed the deal. “We had a crash with a drone on a Sunday morning, and by that afternoon, we were back flying again. That morning Nathan had a line of guys waiting, but he got us up and running in no time. That kind of service, you don’t get that everywhere.”
When asked if he’d recommend Airstrike Ag to others, John didn’t hesitate:
“I wouldn’t go anywhere else. If you’re looking into drones, I’d point you straight to Airstrike.”
This is how Sobotka Seeds gets the mission done. Drones in the air, satellite connected and an office on a lift.