Our Drone Articles

Drones For Hire visited Kangaroo Island to help customers set up their DJI T30 spray drone and Phantom 4 RTK. A lot of vegetation has grown back since the island suffered extensive bush fires in 2020. Unfortunately, some of the regrowth is unwanted weeds. DFH assisted by providing a solution to enable the customer to map the hilly terrain (P4 RTK) and then use the T30 spray drone to spray weeds and increase the proportion of grazable land. 

You should consider what chemicals licences you may need when doing drone spraying. These licences are nothing to do with CASA and requirements vary for each state.

Chemicals licences required in NSW

For example in NSW it is the NSW Environment Protection Authority - you’ll need to apply for a RPA applicator pilot licence, which involves doing 2 training units:

AHCCHM307 prepare and apply chemicals to control pest, weeds and diseases. (previously called AHCCHM303).

And AHCCHM304 Transport and store chemicals.

$415.0

Note if you spray normally from tractors etc you likely have already have done these tickets (AHCCHM307 or AHCCHM303 and AHCCHM304). They will be e.g. on your Chemcert card. Just make sure it less than 5 years since it was updated.

You’ll also need a RPA applicator business licence, or be employed by a person holding one . Again, if you have been spraying for a long time from tractors etc you will probably just need to fill out the form for this (not actually have to do a training course).

Also $415.0

When ready, apply for the NSW licences here:

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/licensing-and-regulation/licensing/econnect-epa

Note that a pilot is not allowed to discharge pesticide from an aircraft within 150 metres of a dwelling, school, factory or any other public place without the prior written permission of the occupier of the premises.

Roads, travelling stock reserves and State Rail land are excluded from the definition of public places.

The owner of the land on which the pesticide will aerially be applied must get the written permission of the occupier of the dwelling, school, factory or other public place that is within 150 metres of the application area.

EPA details:

List of regional EPA office locations around NSW

02 9995 5959 – ask for the RPA (drone) licencing team.

[email protected]

For full details please refer to https://casa.gov.au and https://epa.nsw.gov.au

Chemicals licences required in VIC

You need 2 things: an RPA AAOL, and an RPA PCRL:

RPA AAOL: Remotely Piloted Aircraft (drone), Agricultural Aircraft Operator Licence

You need this if you provide aerial spraying services from an RPA, or employ pilots to carry out aerial agricultural spraying from RPA, or in any other case operate (own, lease, borrow) RPA that carry out aerial spraying.

The RPA AAOL application fee as at 1 July 2021 is $841.65 and the licence is valid for three years.

Download the form here.

RPA PCRL: Remotely Piloted Aircraft (drone), Pilot Chemical Rating Licence

PCRL for remotely piloted aircraft

Any person who pilots an RPA (drone) to carry out aerial spraying in Victoria must hold a Pilot (Chemical Rating) Licence (PCRL) issued under the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, which specifically authorises aerial spraying from a RPA.

The RPA PCRL application fee as at 1 July 2021 is $338.15 and the licence is valid for three years.

Download the form here.

For full details please contact Agriculture Victoria on 136 186.

The brand new Agras T30 by DJI has just launched in Australia, boosting itself to the role of next-generation aircraft with its 30L spray capacity, 9m spray range, and 40 acre per hour coverage. However, there are a few other spray drones in the market that are better for different niches in the agricultural market, some of which you may be tempted to consider as well.

The Agras T30 and Agras T10 were built to service different areas in the agricultural industry, and we can help you figure out which drone suits your needs the most. Do you have a family-owned regular-sized farmstead with a few acres of crops and livestock that you would like to keep away from chemicals? Are you a commercial farmer with hundreds of acres of farmland? Are you an orchard or vineyard farmer looking for a better method of spraying your taller crops? Read on to find out which drone is best for you. 

Note: we sell the T30, and T10, but no longer sell the T20. The T20 is only included for comparison.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing about spray drones, other than the fact that they help you spray crops, is how much they spray, per hour, or per flight. You want to know how much you can get out of one battery charge or one tank of liquid before you have to recharge and refill. Whether you run a small, simple orchard or have sprawling fields of crops, you want to know how much you can get out of a fully juiced spray drone.

Spraying capabilities

The T30 has the largest tank capacity out of the three, which also leads to the biggest acre/hr spray capability, assuming constant power. The T30 boasts a carrying capacity of 30 litres of whichever herbicide or pesticide you’d like, which can be sprayed at a horizontal range of 9m wide. This allows the T30 to theoretically spray up to 40 acres an hour, which is 33% more than the previous generation Agras T20 spray drone. The T30 can also carry 40L of granules/seeds in place of the 30L of liquid, for seeding and granule spreading purposes. 

Furthermore, it can be coupled with 2 other T30s to create a swarm of spray drones that will allow you to spray 27m wide swaths, and up to 120 acres an hour. The swarming capabilities of the T30 allow farmers and farmstead owners to adopt a more modular approach to spraying crops. Are you looking to spray only around your seasonal fruits? Use just 1 of the T30s. What about a farm-wide spraying job? Get all 3 into the air and get the job done in 45 minutes. 

In comparison, the T20 is smaller and lighter (21.1 kg) than the T30 (26.4 kg), carries up to 20 L of liquid, and sprays up to 27 acres an hour. Although the T20 has the advantage of a smaller and lighter frame, it does not stand up to the T30 in terms of spraying rate or width.

Battery Life and Rechargeability

The other vital parameter of any spray drone is its battery. Specifically: how long one lasts and how many are required for continuous use. The basic details are listed below, and we can use them to go into more detail about each drone’s battery capabilities.

Each drone has its own dedicated charging station and smart battery with different voltages (except the T20, which shares batteries and charging station with the older T16 model, and the T10, which can use the T20 and T16 batteries).

Since each charging station has more than one charging slot, you can choose to either charge 1 battery at a time then quickly replacing the batteries on your drone, or get more than 2 batteries for continuous flight and to lessen the risk of running out of power between flights. Our personal recommendation is to always get 3 batteries, which is our tested minimal amount of batteries to maintain continuous flight throughout the day. 

Each drone’s battery also has a battery life, which the manufacturers supply, but it’s not worth it to cover here since you’ll have to get their specific batteries anyway. 

Spreading systems

In addition to spraying liquid, some of these drones, specifically the T30, T20, and T10, have spraying systems, which you can use to spray seeds, grains, granular fertilizer, and even solids like animal feed over fishponds. 

The rate of distribution above is according to continuous use, and with respect to the rate of manual operation. The tank capacity, spreading width, and tank opening of the drones all contribute to a significant increase in spreading capabilities for your farmstead. If you have been physically spreading granules by hand, the T10 can decrease your workload by 36x, and the T30 can do it by a whopping 105x.

If you have been using a large vehicle or anything that takes up more space and resources, consider getting a drone to do the work for you: it’s smaller, less intrusive into your crop growth, and allows you better control over your work. 

Spray Method

One of our most popular questions is “how do I start spraying with this drone? Will I have to fly it manually?”

Short answer: “Nope!” 

(Well, sort of no.) 

To spray an automatic path through your crops, you will have to create a set plan, either by:

1. Manually inputting waypoints as you fly a drone through your farm

2. Manually inputting waypoints as you walk through your farm with a remote controller

3. Or! Setting them through first or third-party software like DJI Terra, Pix4D, or Drone Deploy

How do you do this? For the first and second methods, all you need is your drone, your remote controller, and a good understanding of your farm and where you would like to spray. Spray drones will only spray where you manually set them to spray and does not make any intelligent decisions on their own other than to avoid trees and other obstacles. Even then, you should be careful to ensure that the flight path you’ve planned is as accurate as possible, and around as few obstacles as possible. As much as sensing technology has improved, your drone is NOT sentient.

However, you can use DJI Terra, Pix4D, or Drone Deploy to enhance your field mapping and planning and specify flight missions so that you save time, resources, and overall effort. These software packages allow you to set waypoints on a visual map of your farm and depending on the type of software, you may also be able to get thermal and multispectral information about your farmland to assist in targeting areas.

The DJI Terra is compatible with all Agras Spray drones, namely the T10, T20, and T30, and for the drones currently in stock (T10, T30) a 1-year subscription to DJI Terra is included in the price. DJI Terra allows you to plan flight missions, capture image data, process images into maps and models, and analyze data all in one. Both Pix4D and Drone Deploy use different images across many sources to produce ultra-high res, high-accuracy 3D maps and models, while DJI Terra is much more limited in image source compatibility, even if it is comparatively much more convenient to use than Pix4D and Drone Deploy

Tl;dr DJI Terra allows you to immediately create a flight plan with 2D images, though it does so less accurately and with a lower resolution of maps than Pix4D or Drone Deploy, which are incompatible with the T10 and T30. 

So how would you use Pix4D or Drone Deploy? Well, you’ll need the Phantom 4 Multispectral or Phantom 4 RTK. Why another drone? These 3rd party software require compatible cameras and sensors which spray drones generally do not support, which leads to the 2nd drone requirement if you’re looking for advanced mapping capabilities. 

Drone Deploy is also compatible with the Mavic Enterprise and Mavic Pro models.

Pix4D is also compatible with the Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual (RGB only) and Mavic 2 Advanced, and the Matrice 300 series drones. The following sensors from DJI are compatible with Pix4D software: Zenmuse X3, Zenmuse X4S, and Zenmuse X5S. Multispectral and thermal sensors such as the Zenmuse XT are not compatible. A full list is available here.

The Conclusive Evidence Suggests…

If you’re a farmer (orchard or crops) with a huge farm, get the Agras T30, with an accompanying Phantom 4 Multispectral or RTK.

If you’re a farmer (orchard or crops) with a slightly less huge farm (say, up to 16 acres), you’ll be able to get by with an Agras T10.

If you think you’ll want to use your drones to spray seeds and solid fertilizer, get the DJI spreading system, you’ll need it. 

Always confirm that your bundle comes with at least 3 batteries to maintain continuous flight. 

And finally, if you’re planning on getting a T30 or three, consider getting the RTK mobile station. It will bring your accuracy from a 1-2 metre range (error owing to satellite uncertainty) to 20 cm, significantly improving your drone’s spray capabilities. You can read more about it here.

Hopefully, this was informative for you, and remember to check out all the drone pages before you make a calculated decision. Feel free to call us at 1300 029 829 if you want to chat about obtaining the best spray drone for your needs!

Both the T30 and T10 share these advantages as drone-based spraying systems:  

• Access: Spray areas that can’t be accessed by vehicles or that vehicles get bogged in
• No ground impact: no earth compression/crop damage (unlike utes and tractors)
• Safer: Much less potential to get herbicide/pesticide on your body, unlike back-pack sprayers and ute sprayers.

The T30 is best if one or more of these criteria relate to your situation: 

You see a lot of potential for drone spraying on your own or others’ property’s and plan to blanket spray/spread more than 10 days per year, and expect this to increase with time. You might also be planning to add one or two more T30’s later to swarm them (operate two or three T30’s from a single controller / Field Mission). 

You plan to spray/spread on other people’s land (as a commercial business), not just your own land. Because you need a licence (for any size spray drone) if spraying on other peoples property. Getting a licence and spraying others’ properties would normally suggest you would go with a spray drone with larger capacity so you can cover more ground and handle larger spray jobs as the business grows. 

You are ok with a larger / heavier drone and are used to using large generators and moving them around a property. 

Your budget is higher (T30 is approx. 42k, T10 is approx. 25k) but you don’t mind this as you see your T30 proving a strong return on investment after a year or less of use. 

The T10 is best if one or more of these criteria relate to your situation: 

You are ‘dipping your toe in the water’ with drone spraying, have a smaller property, or plan to blanket spray/spread up to 10 days per year, or only need to do isolated spot spraying.

You only want to spray/spread on your own land (no licence needed with the T10 on your own land). 

You want to be able to carry the drone around with one person (the T10 is only 13kg without battery and an empty tank). It also requires a much smaller generator than the T10 (to charge the battery station out in the field). 

Your budget is lower (T30 is approx 42k, T10 is approx 25k) 

Spraying Productivity 

T30

The T30 achieves an efficiency of 40 acres per hour based on a dosage of 6 L/acre (herbicide or pesticide mixed with water/carrier), spraying width of 9 m, flight speed of 6.5 m/s, and height of 2.5 m.

T10 

The T10 achieves an efficiency of 15 acres per hour on average (with a dosage of 4.8 L/acre, spraying width of 5 m, speed of 5 m/s, and height of 2 m). 

You also need to consider your own water/carrier dilution ratio. And note these figures are claimed by the manufacturer, it's always good to make them about 15% more conservative for real world use. 

Granule/seed spreading Productivity 

(fertilizers, seeds, or any dry granule sized 0.5-5mm)

T30

35kg spreader tank capacity
spreading width of up to 7 meters
Hourly spreading capacity of 1 tonne, based on a dosage of 20 kg/667 m², flight speed of 4.5 m/s, and row spacing of 6m.

T10

10kg capacity
spreading width of up to 7 meters
Hourly productivity of 14 acres based on dosage (of seeds) of 2 k g/667 m², flight speed of 7 m/s, and row spacing of 5 m.

Licencing 

T30 - licence needed 

The T30 is more than 25kg when filled with liquid/granules so you will need to get a "REPL" licence (about $1500.0 - $2000.0) , and a 25kg "REPL license upgrade" or “Agras Flight Test” (about $1200.0). For spraying on you own land or someone else’s land.

T10 - no licence needed when spraying on your own land. 

The T10 is rated to under 25kg (24.8 kg), so if operating on your own property, you do not need a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) or Upgrade / Flight test. You will need a RePL licence if spraying on other people’s property but not the Upgrade / Flight test since the drone is under 25kg. 

For more details see our article “4 Steps required by CASA to be able to operate a spray drone on your own land in Australia”. 

Generator 

If you don't already have one, you will likely need to buy a generator as spray drones are commonly used on rural properties , far from access to mains power. 

T30

The T30 charging station needs a generator with:

7200W charging power
Total external AC current greater than 32A
Two or more 15A AC output from generator

The T10 drone charging station needs a generator with:

3000W charging power
Total external AC current greater than 16A
Two or more 15A AC output from generator

Click here to see suggested generators, specs and prices.

Go to T30 pricing and bundle options
Go to T10 pricing and bundle options

You may buy the Agras T30 or T10 from the link below: