Half a dozen farmers have spent the past two days learning to use a new tool in the agriculture industry - drones that increasingly resemble the Starship Enterprise.

“We’re only two or three years away from having sensors that will literally show you where in the field you have different weed species,” said Markus Weber, who runs the Land View Ag Drone School.

His traveling clinic came to Humboldt Tuesday and Wednesday to teach farmers everything they need to know to legally operate a drone. That included ground school and real-world practice.

Some farmers use drones for crop scouting or finding lost cows, though others haven’t yet taken the plunge because better technology is always just six months away, he said.

Weber goes to every small town he can so farmers have another way to learn besides online classes or driving to the few locations in Western Canada that put on a ground school.

“I love this. I love the agricultural conversation that happens too, because as much as I’m teaching them about safe flight, often the conversation goes back to, 'how do I use this imagery on my farm, how am I going to make money with this,' and it’s amazing the creativity you have from farmers figuring out how to use these things,” he said.