DRONES on farms are becoming more and more popular so it wasn't a surprise to see a few around Beef Australia this week.
Much larger than the average run-of-the-mill drone is the DroneAgriculture, a large, heavy-lift octocopter drone with a lift capacity of 20kg that has an aerial application of granule herbicides in confined areas.
DroneAgriculture is a joint venture between AeroBugs and Granular Products to provide a service wherea chief pilot comes to the farm, flies the drone and sprays all of the infesting weeds.
"We saw a need to treat smaller areas and harder to access areas and we teamed up with Nathan,” Granular Products Sales Paul Hubbard said.
"Aerobugs has been going for five years and we have been doing a lot of stuff out in horticulture and in the cotton fields but this is the first time for us in the beef environment,” Drone Agriculture Chief Pilot and Aero Bugs founder Nathan Roy said.
"A lot of farms may need to focus their attention on other aspects of the business and other hard tasks on a bit of a hill or really thick pieces of noxious weeds where we can just take that pain away from them,” Nathan said.
The services is a thorough process.
"We have someone come out into the paddock, assess it for different areas and we map it up into polygons and we gave that to Nathan,” Paul said.
The drone has GPS point tracking and field plotting technology which allows the drone to run along a pre-programmed track. Terrain following allows the drone to follow at the slope and depth of the ground while spraying through precision herbicide equipment.
"There is a platform we use to map up a flight plan and then once it is uploaded into the drone, you enable the auto-flight and the drone will actually fly those weigh-points and you can turn the spreader on and off to release the granules,” Nathan said.
Sitting on a table in the RuralCo site, the drone has caught the eye of many passers-by, with long propellers and the tank in the middle.
"Beef is a great platform to launch any new technology, it is a pretty impressive machine and it draws a lot of attention, asking a lot of questions,” Paul said.
"From the response we have had here, it is amazing, so many farmers have gone, 'that is what we need, can you do this?',” Nathan said.
"A lot of people from everywhere, from Albury Wodonga, all the way up to the Atherton Tablelands, over in the Northern Territory.”
Drone work has mainly been targeting the infesting giant rats tail grass along the eastern seaboard.
"We have also had enquiries from people and the Meat and Livestock Australia looking to do work with the prickly acacia in western Queensland,” Paul said.
"It's a got a fit for a wide range of geographic areas.”
All pilots are trained and licensed Civil Aviation Safety Authority and have chemical accreditation.
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