Man from Utah uses drone to melt snow on school sports fields

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah — Devin Rose has always had good ideas. However, it is his latest one that has turned into a business.

“Growing up, I have always been tinkering around with technology,” he said from his Brigham City home.

Technology plays a big part in his new business, which involves using a large drone to dump a special kind of dirt on sports fields at schools.

The dirt, called humate, is a garden fertilizer that is mixed with soil and helps melt snow faster.

The idea for his business came when he saw a KSL news story about high school spring sports games being postponed or canceled because of heavy snow still on fields.

He called a friend who works for the Box Elder School District, who put him in touch with schools in Cache County that still had a lot of snow.

“I’m just trying to do my part and help kids out because they’re consumed with electronics nowadays, and coincidently I am using electronics to try and fix it,” Rose said.

So far, he has flown his drone for three high schools in Cache County: Skyview, Green Canyon and Mountain Crest.

He fills the drone with several buckets of dirt and is able to fly for about seven minutes before having to land and replace the battery.

His work trailer includes a generator he uses to charge batteries as they’re swapped out.

“When you’re flying with a payload like that, it is draining the batteries really quick,” said Rose.

He also flies a drone to help farmers spray chemicals on their fields, as well as help the Utah Highway Patrol with accident reconstruction investigations.

His business, D&C Drones Agricultural Drones Services, is still relatively new to him.

He says he’s learning the best way to fly and makes lines of dirt on fields to make the snow melt faster.

“It’s still all kind of an experiment. I’m basically learning to do art on a huge scale,” he said.

However, helping kids get back on the fields faster means a lot to him.

“I liked being athletic when I was younger, and I think it’s good for kids to get outside.”

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