Food Plots Old dog, new tricks, I don’t know…

[Popcorn]

They went and bought an agricultural drone, ok…
They want me to operate it…! Mmmm
Been to a showing, impromptu class, wore the phone out asking questions. Whew!!!
I'm 60, never even played video games! Even the language is foreign!
But looks like this is happening….
Sprayed 25 acres yesterday and planning 88 Friday or Monday. All for the farms I work for.

 

[megalomaniac]

Hate to say it, but that's the way of the future (well, not necessarily a bad thing... the ag drones look like they work great!)

If you can't figure it out, the young guns at the co op will do your place for you for a nominal fee.

 

[DoubleRidge]

How many gallons does the drone hold and how often did you have to refill for the 25 acres? Amazing technology.

 

[Popcorn]

I sprayed the first 25 acres without help and it was a real task. I will have a helper on the next fields. They broadsided me with this right in the middle of fall planting, spraying, mowing, and a big NRCS contract. Time is a commodity I don't have to spare. But it's happening, maybe next month I will have more practice time. It will be a blessing on the NRCS jobs.

 

[Popcorn]

How many gallons does the drone hold and how often did you have to refill for the 25 acres? Amazing technology.

10.5 gallons sprayed at the aerial rate. There will be some variables but 3 gallons per acre so about 3.3 acres per flight totals 7 fills and a half fill. Change battery with every fill.
Spraying small plots is a real pain in the butt. Unload, setup, map, spray, tear down, load up, move and start anll over…especially when they are spread out but a larger field is a lot easier. Set up, map and repeatedly service the drone between flights till it's done.

 

[RobbyW]

Did you have to get your FAA part 107 license since your using it for commercial use?

 

[Popcorn]

Licensing is underway, Technically Its not yet commercial since I work for the farms that both own the drone and the land but Licensing is still a requirement. I am being supervised by a license holder at this point.

 

[BSK]

10.5 gallons sprayed at the aerial rate. There will be some variables but 3 gallons per acre so about 3.3 acres per flight totals 7 fills and a half fill. Change battery with every fill.
Spraying small plots is a real pain in the butt. Unload, setup, map, spray, tear down, load up, move and start anll over…especially when they are spread out but a larger field is a lot easier. Set up, map and repeatedly service the drone between flights till it's done.

Will the drone accept GIS layers (shapefiles) of fields or does the drone have to map the field? I'm asking because I hope to have some timber cuts sprayed by drone in the spring, and I already have all of the areas GIS mapped.

 

[DoubleRidge]

10.5 gallons sprayed at the aerial rate. There will be some variables but 3 gallons per acre so about 3.3 acres per flight totals 7 fills and a half fill. Change battery with every fill.
Spraying small plots is a real pain in the butt. Unload, setup, map, spray, tear down, load up, move and start anll over…especially when they are spread out but a larger field is a lot easier. Set up, map and repeatedly service the drone between flights till it's done.

Amazing technology....thanks for the info.

 

[Ski]

Consider my mind blown. Simply amazing.

 

[Popcorn]

Will the drone accept GIS layers (shapefiles) of fields or does the drone have to map the field? I'm asking because I hope to have some timber cuts sprayed by drone in the spring, and I already have all of the areas GIS mapped.

I believe so. It has 3 modes of mapping, by flight, by manual input, actually drawing via waypoints on a google earth-like map and by physically going around the field marking waypoints on the remote.
Supposed to also do these maps on your cell phone then upload to the cloud then download onto the remote but I'm not there yet.

The mapping does require detail be paid to obstacles like trees, sudden elevation changes, structures.
I also figured out that too many waypoints slow the process. So either pay attention to detail but keep it simple!