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Ex-Amish Drone Pilot Pocketed $132K in 24 Days

  • $132,000 in 24 days spraying crops

📝 Mike Yoder grew up Amish in Ohio. Four years ago he bought a drone and went all in.

Now he runs nuWay Ag, and on a recent podcast he broke down the spray drone side of his business 👇

Mike shows up at farms with a DJI T-100, sets an auto mission on his phone, and lets the drone do the rest…

It’s all automated. You can spray a whole field and never once touch the remote controller sticks.

Here’s where it gets wild…

  • $132K in 24 days on one job
  • $65K profit in 8 days on another

He charges $10 to $20 per acre. Operating costs are $3 to $3.74 per acre. That works out to roughly 70% margins 🤑

The licensing is simple. Study for your FAA Part 107 for a few days, grab a state pesticide applicator license, and you’re in.

Per Mike, only 2.5% of US crop acres get sprayed by drone today. The rest still uses planes, ground rigs, or helicopters…

I don’t care where I would go in this country, in any state, I could do it.

Could you be the first drone sprayer in your county? 🤔

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Updated: June 7, 2026

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