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So it's essentially a drone in a box and it is automated, but it's only just been released, so it will basically open up at a predetermined time, do its map and come back and park up and close up for the night. And people are sending them out every day to collect data. It's in a weatherproof station that sits outside a shed. As long as it's got internet and power, you can then plan flights at any time of the day so it will open up. It's got its own little weather station inbuilt, so if it is
too windy it won't take off. So there are some safety measures in place as well.
Hello and welcome back to Shared Solutions by BCG. I'm Janine Batters and in the last episode of our series on the Horizon Farm Tech sponsored by GE silos, we're speaking with Adam Mitchell from Drone Land, and he's going to be talking to us about how drones are being used in agriculture. Welcome, Adam.
Afternoon, Janine. Thanks for having me.
So very excited to have you on the show today, Adam, because drones are getting pretty big in agriculture. So looking forward to having this conversation with you, Adam. Just for a start, can you give our listeners a bit of a background on who you are and why you're so passionate about drones?
Sure thing. So our business is Drone Land Australia, so we are end to end solution providers for training, sales and basically anything to do with drones. So that's that's our business model. Um, we got into business. Our family owns cattle farms and have been involved in cattle farming for a little while. We've got a family property up in Gympie in Queensland, and where it really came about
was pretty organic by nature. There was a neighbor up there a couple of years ago that was using a drone to create more fertility amongst his land that he couldn't access by foot or by vehicle. And it was the first time I'd really been exposed to drones in agriculture. And it really fascinated myself and my two business partners, who are also my brother in law. So from there, we began a real six month period of flat out research on how they were used and some of the
synergies and impacts it could have. And like you said, even from your research, it just opened up our eyes as to the possibilities that we could achieve together. And we also like that it was Australian. We could impact the very things in our own backyard, and it was technology that was designed for a really good purpose, not just changing things for the sake of changing. There's real value in what drone technology can add in agriculture. So
that was sort of how it came about. And we decided to launch into business together.
So just for a start, for our listeners, can you tell me more about what type of drones they are there are available on the market? What do they do and how much do they cost?
Okay, so the simplest way to probably explain it is that there's a variety of different models and makes. At drone land, we sell specifically DJI products. We just find their workflows are seamless and very user intuitive. So from a first time user all the way to a seasoned professional, they've just got a really diverse and comprehensive range of products that are very easy to use. We tend to
split them up into two categories. You've got your smaller sort of mapping drones and then your larger spraying, spreading, applying drones, particularly in agriculture. So with the enterprise series, which is your smaller mapping drones, it's a drone that's probably the size of the palm of your hand, maybe a little bit bigger. And they're equipped with different sensors and payloads. Some might have thermal capabilities so you can see animals at night. Some have lidar, which is good
for surveying and topography. They're all equipped with pretty high end cameras. So any form of photography very good. And then obviously 3D models and rendering and also variable rate applications for those farmers that want to be a bit more specific with what they spray and where they spray it. That's where that workflow comes into the application of the spraying and spreading drones. So the agri series, which is the DJI Agras T50, which is the hallmark drone at
the moment, it's a 50 litre drone. It can spray and spread and map, so quite a large piece of equipment, but very versatile in its offering. So the enterprise drones, depending on the payload, they vary from anywhere from around sort of the $5,000 mark to the $15,000 mark, depending on what application you're after. And then the agro series. Drones start at around 25,000 and can go up to 60 to 70,000, depending on the package that you want
to build around them. But that's a ballpark of where they sit.
So the little ones, they're about the size of your palm of your hand. That's quite small. So what kind of things are they mapping Adam?
Typically, our most popular form of mapping at the moment is boundary mapping. So customers may want to go and fly their farm and create paddock boundaries that can then be uploaded into the larger spreading drone. So they'll go and do a very quick map. They might map half a dozen paddocks, they'll create a boundary file or a shapefile that will then be super accurate sort of centimeter accuracy,
and then upload it into the larger spraying drone. That's a plug and play scenario where they just swipe to execute the mission, and the drone will go off and start spraying at a predetermined rate. One of the other benefits that the smaller ones can offer is the variable rate application. For example, a multi-spectral drone, which will have different sensors on the top, will be able to determine variations in crop health. Or there might be an area
of deficiency that needs further attention. So you can then create a map that's specific to your paddock. So there may be an area where 50% of the yield is really high. And you think, I don't need a blanket approach and blanket spray this entire paddock. I only need to focus my efforts on the 20% or the 25% that really requires it, and we might just back that off on the other. So at the end of the day, it's about saving a lot of chemical and just being a bit more targeted in your approach.
So are you talking ndVi maps, Adam, or are you talking ndVi and other maps to determine how you're going to treat those different areas in the paddock?
It can be a combination of both, really. A boundary map essentially is just mapping the perimeter of the boundary to create a geo zone for the larger drone to stay within its limits. Variable rate application can use ndVi data, which can be captured on the smaller drone as well. And that's the benefit. So one drone can do all of these things that we're talking about. And then it's just essentially plugged in and uploaded into the larger drone to go out and apply whether it's spray or spread.
If I was to say, yep, I want to map my whole farm. Adam, how long can these drones go before they need to go back and charge? Do they charge?
They do. So they're all battery. And the smaller drones. The enterprise series can fly around 45 minutes and they cover quite a bit of area, particularly if you're at an elevation of around 100 or 120m, quite an area it can cover in a short amount of time.
They go 45 minutes and then they come back to their docking station. Do I have to be there?
You don't have to be. Depending on the type of drone you got, there's new ones coming out all the time. But essentially, yeah, the pilot would send it up, they would stay there because you're supposed to maintain line of sight, and they would stay there for the duration of the flight.
I see. So these aren't autonomous drones. They're being flown.
Particular ones we're talking about are, but there are products that have just been brought out that are docking stations that are automated flight. But we'll get into that a bit later.
Cool. That sounds good because I mean, if I don't have to be there, I'm happy. So they've got a 50 litre tank, these big ones. Um, what kind of spraying are they doing? Are you using these to spray the paddock, or are you using these to sort of be more like, you know, going to go check paddocks and you're going to check that one for what I would like is for a drone to go, well, I've got to check these paddocks, I've got a bit of spraying to do. Can you check and see how many
weeds there are? Can you check and see if any of the paddocks are, if they're a bit poor in some of the areas, whether they need a bit more nitrogen or something like that, can you check and see if there's any disease, and can you tell me is there any insects or something? And then can you report back to me? Because I'm pretty busy and this is what I'm paying you for. Drone. Can they do that?
Essentially, yeah, there's a few different offerings at the moment, and it largely depends on the software that goes on the back end behind the scenes that you don't often see. And that's where we'd encourage everyone just to come in or pick up the phone and have a chat before you go in to make a purchase, just to make sure that you're across it. Because, yeah, as you know, the space is evolving so quickly and there are always different offerings on the market. So some of the softwares
can be quite expensive too. So again, we just want to make sure that you're getting exactly what you've asked for. So if you wanted to go and pick a specific weed out, there are probably better software products than others, depending on the weed that you're trying to determine.
Okay, so you could use algorithms to search out depending on, but that's a product that you would put on that drone.
Correct. So there are some aftermarket products. So typically we would go and fly the paddock or the farmer might fly the paddock. And there are other options. So if you didn't want to necessarily spend the thousands of dollars for a software program to do that because it might be a once off, that's something you might just send to us and say, hey guys, can you analyze it for me? I don't have time. We can do that.
If it is a regular occurrence, we'd probably suggest you start to look at it in-house just to save on costs. But there are programs that you can send online as well, so you can send them away for analysis. Go about your normal job and by the end of the day or early the next morning, the results should be there for you.
That sounds good. So I could say, could I say check for all of those things? Is there an app or a plugin or software that would check for each of those things? And then. Because that's what I was thinking. It'd be really cool if not only do I not have to check the paddocks, I'd like them to be autonomous. And then they tell me all these things and but I don't want to have to go back and look at all these maps myself. They want I want something that's going to synthesize it for me and say, these
are our recommendations. So can it do that? And within the day it could.
Yes it could. And I suppose not to throw a spanner in the works, but probably something just to consider is also depending on what you're trying to analyze. So some people may want to perform a stand count for example on a really small germination. Obviously at 120m that's a long way up. So you just want to make sure that whatever height we're flying at can capture all the things that you're talking about. So it's not always
a one size fits all. But generally speaking, there's a lot of data that can be captured and managed in one flight.
Might take more than one pass. Is what you're saying?
Not more than one pass, but you can fly a bit slower, a bit more high resolution. So the more we can zoom in and and capture imagery and the greater the GSD, which is ground sampling distance. So every pixel of a photo represents a distance on the ground. So the the lower and slower you fly the more high resolution you get.
So if I had 150 hectare paddock Adam, how long would it take the drone operator to survey that paddock? For all the things that I mentioned.
As a rule of thumb, I would say around an hour and a half to give you a rough time frame. The good thing about the drone is we can determine all of this before we even get to your place. Or the drone operator can, the farmer can. So you can actually plug this into your controller, sitting it in the comfort of your house and do a quick map and say, here's the area that I want to fly.
It will come out with the amount of photos. The duration where you're going to take off from all the information is in the palm of your hand, so you'll know ahead of time, which is also good for quoting purposes, because you've got an accurate data set that you're going to use. You're not just having a guess, it'll tell you ahead of time.
Okay, but you or I still have to fly the drone. Correct? Okay. So the 50 liter tank, is that going to do optical spraying for me? Because I don't feel like 50l is a big tank. How does that work? Does it keep going back and filling up.
Yes it does. So it's actually I slipped up before. It is a 40 liter tank but a 50 kilo spreader. So the hopper comes out when you spread and then when you spray the tank goes back in. So the T 50 has four nozzles on it as opposed to the old model which only had two. So it increases
the liter per minute. But one thing farmers are finding is the application rates can be severely and drastically reduced using a drone, and a lot of agronomists are starting to get really familiar with drones and their application rates. So I think you'll find and hopefully over the next sort of 6 to 12 months, we'll have a label rate specifically for drones on a lot of the chemicals or applications that need to go out there, which will help everyone in the industry. Okay.
And you're saying that's going to be less. Why is that going to be less? Adam.
More efficient, greater coverage on the leaf as well. And if you ever see a drone go over, say for example, a corn crop, you'll see it really the rotors wash the foliage and it really penetrates very well and very efficiently. And there are other additives that can be added as well to make sure that it sticks on the leaf at a greater rate. It's just a bit of feedback we've had from farmers and agronomists that the rates can
be dropped. But again, we always refer back to the agronomists as they know best.
What kind of farms and in what kind of situations are farmers using these. The bigger drones for spraying or spreading? It's a good.
Question. And look traditionally we started out by spraying blackberries more than anything, just on really hilly country. People weren't wanting to walk in snake infested areas or they'd be really jagged rocks. It was just really undulating terrain and they said, we don't want a bar of it. We need to use a drone to get in there. So a lot of our flying early days was targeted, areas
like that up on hills and inaccessible areas. But there's also a big push for getting on straight after a heavy rain or spreading anything where it's just too wet. We can't get on, uh, in Victoria. We've had quite a bit of rain lately, so we spray quite a few turf farms as well where they've got to be sprayed regularly, and it's just too wet to get on. They don't want tractor marks or any impact or compaction on the, on the turf. Essentially anywhere that's being sprayed
currently can be used by a drone. Obviously, you've got to weigh up the pros and cons against, like you said, a 40 litre tank versus a 4000 litre boom sprayer. There's a bit of difference, but it can be quite efficient to take 3 or 4 drones out in one hit. As a contractor and blanket spray and just go with four different pilots and just move from paddock to paddock. If you scaled up to do so, which we are.
That's really interesting. I didn't really think about using a number of them. What do you guys charge?
So for just as an example, we're around the $40 mark for a broad acre. I think we're doing canola next week and that's around that $40 mark per hectare. Again it's a bit of a where is it located. Is the access clear? Are there obstacles or is it truly broad acre and open? There's a few things that we factor in, but we tend to go out and map the property first for a small fee, depending on where it is. That just gives the client the choice ultimately to say, we can say, here it is, here's
how long it's going to take us. We can present all the data in front of them, and then they can really see it, rather than just someone on the phone saying, yeah, I think it's going to be around about this. And then they come out and they say, oh no, it's this.
Can drones crash into things? Say, if the operator wasn't concentrating?
Absolutely. At the end of the day, the answer is yes. They've got a lot of safety features that are built in the obstacle avoidance. Almost every sensor you can picture is on a drone. The best way to put it is we compare it to driving a car. No one relies on lane assist to drive their car for them. If you're driving the car, you drive the car. Same with the drone. It's got every feature under the sun to help you avoid a crash, but if you haven't
checked it, some of those settings are on. It might be as simple as toggling a switch to make sure they are on. If you do the right things, it's highly unlikely you will ever have an issue. We haven't to date, but again, it's just making sure you're thorough enough just to go through the checklist before you fly and you're good to go.
Very cool. So what else can they do in the cropping space Adam? So you've talked about spreading, spraying, you talked about mapping. How do they do insects?
So I would fly the multi-spectral drone which has a variety of different sensors on there. You can scale back the various vegetation indices to basically determine that there's an issue there. So it won't necessarily detect what type of infestation you've got or what issue there is. But from that vantage point being straight up above, you will see a drastic difference in one area of the crop compared to another. And again, using the multi-spectral sensors, you'll be
able to see it ahead of time. So things you might miss if you're on the ground looking with your naked eye. The sensors will be able to pick them up. It's just about trying to be a bit more proactive and manage an outbreak or an issue before it becomes a real prominent issue.
So is that the same technology for disease then? Yes. Okay. So what else? Is there anything else that I've missed in terms of cropping?
There is stand count. There's plant figure, chlorophyll content, biomass measurement. All these things can be done. Some will use different sensors than others, but essentially the software that plugs in behind the scenes as well is what will then go and run the analysis. And that is ever changing. We're currently talking with a pineapple grower that's measuring their stand count and flower count. So as an example, they've got quite an area of plantation that is measured by just
ground passes. So they will drive past and see that there's a percentage of the field flowering at any given time, and one of the tools they're using it for is to assess production and yield. So their yield counts are way out because of some of the weather conditions that they've had and weather events they've had. So by getting up over the top of it and giving them a real understanding of exactly what the stand count is, one area I probably haven't touched on enough is the biomass
measurements and the vegetation indexes that can be derived. So one of the best things about LiDAR technology, which we use in the enterprise series drones, is we can lift all of the vegetation off the land as well to create contour lines to develop flow patterns. So if you have a heavy downpour on the farm or where you want to potentially build a dam or some sort of infrastructure around it, some of these drones can again lift the densest of vegetation up and give you a really
accurate terrain model of your property. Again, just by flying a farm, you'd be amazed at what can be captured if you were to do just one pass with the 3D flyover. People using it for insurance purposes as a bit of a timestamp on how their property looks at any given time, so they can then go through for insurance claims. There's all these sort of things that have been tabled by various farmers and said, oh, what if we do this? What if we do that? And it's
all encompassing. So it's just the more data you can collect, the more informed decision making power you're going to have.
I think what makes these things stand apart is what I'm hearing is that they're not actually just collecting more data, as you say. They're synthesising it, which I think is really important because there's a lot of data capturing going on, but it's actually being able to to pull all those figures together and help farmers to make a decision, isn't it?
100%, absolutely.
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Are they transported on the back of a trailer?
We've got trailers that we use. We've got yurts. Tool boxes. They fit in the back of a ute if you did want to do that. But if you're spraying hundreds and hundreds of hectares in a day, then you need quite a bit of water supply. Your chemical mixer, your batch mixer, things like that. And obviously making sure that you've got the system to be able to power up your batteries all day long.
Yeah, that's a good point. So you need the generators as well to to power those. So the other thing that I was interested in was can you use these for seeding. And how do you do that.
Yes you can. So the Agri series does have a spreader and a hopper on there. So again 50 kilos of seeds. There are just two opposing discs that spread out Oppose each other. Spread the seed quite uniformly across a certain area. So typically most people will go and plow their field. Go and spray. And then they would just irrigate following that event. I have heard and seen some other drones overseas that almost fire the seeds into the ground in a little enclosure, and they sort of
they're like an arrow shape. I've seen them.
That was the one that I saw where it was. Yeah. Firing them into the ground. And I was had all these questions. I was thinking, how do they know how deep they're going and how do they know, like the seeding rate. And I just was I thought that was really interesting. So that's something that's perhaps around the corner. Another thing that I was thinking about is fire. Are drones being used to fight fires.
I have seen cases where they're used commercially, not so much. I would say agriculture, just because of the size and the scale of it. We have had some experience in helping to prepare fire management plans by assessing what sort of foliage is there currently on a site. So where to put fire breaks, things of that nature. So we will go and conduct a lidar flight, which is a different type of flight, but essentially it's where we can
measure the biomass of an area. We can highlight areas that may be of concern because there might be higher or more dense ladder fuel type systems in place, and then as it gets more sparse or canopy heights differ and become lower, they may be less of an issue. LiDAR is a phenomenal tool. A bit more of a commercial application, but we're using it more and more in agriculture. What
What is LIDAR?
Lidar is a laser point system. So basically no different than your laser tape measure that people have at home. It's millions and millions of laser measurements that are shot out from the drone in any given direction, and then all stitched together to make a model. But the benefit of lidar is because it can penetrate vegetation. So it
has five points of return. So basically we can fly over a large area using lidar, and it will just basically spray the area with millions and millions of measurements and points that can then be stitched back together to create a 3D render or a 3D model.
Now, one other question that I had regarding the seating was I'd love to be able to plant trees, drop trees and vegetation. Go. I want a shelter belt there. How effective is it to do that?
Great question. It's not something we've tackled before. I'd be very interested to see how we could do that. I would say the spreading system, if it was a tree of decent size, that would be an interesting one because the spreading couldn't do it. But I dare say there's a way that we could incorporate drones into the workflow in some way, shape or form.
So if I was going to think about getting a drone, Adam, I'd want to know, what's the return on my investment? Can you do you have any statistics on that?
Not off the top of my head. I dare say you would compare it to obviously traditional methodology versus if I adopted a drone. So one would be labor costs. Labor component is obviously always a big one. One drone per pilot is something to consider. Versus depends how many
people you need for this other role. I suppose the other thing to consider is people that have bought drones in the past have bought them for one specific purpose, and then once they've got more confident in the capability of their drone, they've realised, oh, I can actually also do it for this application. I've got quite a big area to manage myself. It might be a thousand acres
or a thousand hectares. We've got cases of farmers just going to check troughs, flying it out to go and check if gates have been left open or find some cattle or livestock. So that's quite a basic operation for a drone. But then they've also doubled up and said, oh, the same drone can also give me a variable rate application over here that I want to achieve.
Would that be your recommendation to start with one?
I would always go and start with the smaller mapping style drone first. Just get your legs, understand what the process is about. If you are considering doing it for a commercial purpose, you will need a licence, which is still relatively straightforward. It's called a ripple, which is it allows you to fly up to a 25 kilo weight, and that takes generally about five days to achieve. And then you can work on someone else's Rioch, which is
the company business licence. But what you need to know is, if you're interested in flying a drone on a property that's not yours, you're going to be up for a license that takes around five days to get.
So I don't need a license if I'm flying my own drone on my own property.
Correct. But if it's over 25 kilo, you will.
Where are drones most being used in Australia and what industries?
I would say it's around the land topography as well. So particularly areas that aren't probably broadacre just yet. A lot of people are starting to use fixed wing drones, which can fly a lot further, but that's a bit of a slower adoption than what we're talking about now, which is multi-rotor drones, the traditional drones that you see with propellers. So I would say areas that are quite heavily prone to being wet, quite often rocky. And in terms of areas, I would say it really varies from
cropping to cattle. Lots of sheep. It's not a specific industry. I'd say it's probably more the geographical location of the place.
I was really interested when you said the flat winged drones because, oh, there's a different type. What are they about, Adam?
So they're called fixed wing. Essentially they take off vertically and then they're like a little model airplane. They're quite lightweight, but they can't hover like a traditional drone can. They have to be moving forward. So they are very good for larger applications and broadacre. There are other licenses that you can get as well where you don't have to be just visual line of sight. You can fly beyond that.
That's handy for broad acre applications where you can cover great distances very quickly.
Okay, so are they bigger?
They're slightly bigger. They're actually quite light. A few of them, they're just a different technology. But similar sensors can be attached to those as well.
So the Multi-rotor drones we talked about the little drones and their battery life. What's the battery life of the bigger ones?
They spray anywhere from around 10 to 15 minute duration, and they take about 10 to 12 minutes to recharge. So it's almost a like for like swap out. So once it's empty with its payload, it comes back in, you swap the battery and you're up in the air again within a matter of maybe a minute and a half.
In terms so you're talking about Licenses? What are some of the things that you aren't allowed to do? So what were the what are some of the things that they'll be teaching you in the license?
So you'll learn straight away? Obviously, the ultimate authority in Australia is Casa, the civil aviation safety authority for first time users. You'll go through this five day licence and they'll educate you largely around aeronautics and some of the
things you've got to know as a pilot. But then more specifically, I guess at the end of the day, it's just about making sure your records are up to date, that your drone is in good shape before you operate it, that you are operating visual line of sight, which means you have to be able to determine the orientation of your drone at all times. So if you lose sight of your drone, not good. You've got to make sure
you can see it. One pilot per drone. So one operator can't take five drones and fly them all at once. It's 1 to 1 ratio. And then probably the most important one is the 30 metre rule. So in agriculture it's great because you tend to not be near anyone. But if you were in a built up area, you are supposed to maintain a 30 metre clearance from any personnel.
Do.
Drones ever go rogue and just fly up into the air and you can't see them anymore?
Wouldn't go rogue unless they've been programmed to do so. So again, that's that pre-check that I was talking about. Drones have a lot of safety features. What if the signal cut out when I was flying my drone? What happens? There are settings that you can select. One might be return to home. So it will come back. The minute it loses signal, it will fly exactly back to where it started. But some people might have it on hover
where it just sits there. If you don't get the signal back, it will sit there forever until it runs out of battery. So again.
That's from the sky.
Then it would eventually, if that's the situation it was in.
So if I don't need a license on my farm, how am I going to keep myself and everybody else safe?
I would say there's probably two things. One, think about your flight before you're going to do it. So if you know you're going somewhere where there are transmission towers or power lines, just be wary. I wouldn't chance it, I never would. Infrastructure costs a lot, so avoid it as best you can and then just stay clear of any built up areas. So if there was a common area that people are sort of loitering at, I would avoid that altogether. Just go have a bit of a
joy flight in an open area. Get the feel for it. The drones nowadays are very good and pretty easy to fly. I think in your tests you will be asked to fly in attitude mode, which basically takes off a lot of the guidance for you. So if there's a high wind, the drone will drift with the wind to make sure that you're skilled enough as a pilot to go and then refly it and drop it down. So once it's in an automatic sort of mode, it will sit there and hover in some pretty high winds. So they are
very versatile units. So it's getting away from and I think getting the mentality of these aren't toys anymore. These are real pieces of equipment and machinery, especially in AG and the enterprise sector. When you're paying north of 5000 for a small drone, it's not a toy, so you don't want to chance it. Okay.
And so you talked about power lines and not being able to chance it. Would you as a contractor, if someone had a transmission line in their paddock, would you just say, we're not doing that paddock. Or would you just stay well clear of it?
No, we would still tackle the paddock. There's just different measures you can take. So obviously depending on the height, you may choose to fly under it again. If they are around maybe five metres off the ground and we fly at three, that would be too close for us. But we can then split up the paddock on the controller and have north and south of the paddock, and there might just be a small line under the power
line that you don't target. But the swath on a drone at about three metres off the crop height can reach 8 to 10m wide. So if you do it well enough and again, our pilots do it day in, day out, they will know what they can and can't achieve, and normally it hasn't been an issue for us. However, part of your JSA before you start, which we will probably touch on later in in the conversation, but we do a lot of preparation ahead of time so we can map out all of those obstacles, which is hence
why we tend to map our jobs. First, send the little one up, do its thing, mark out obstacles, and we'll just sit there and have a bit of a toolbox ahead of the job, and then we go out and spray.
What about noise pollution? Adam, how loud are they?
Some of the larger scale. The aggregates do have a bit of noise, but to be perfectly honest, it hasn't been an issue for us. We always wear PPE and have earmuffs and radios to communicate with one another anyway. But the benefit of drones, and something I didn't really mention before was the chemicals being taken away from you. So it's being applied at a long distance away from where you're set up. Whereas opposed to when you're on
a sprayer, you're right amongst what you're spraying. So that's another safety aspect of a spraying drone, is we're taking the chemical hundreds of meters away from you, and you're applying it at a distance, and then it's coming back when it's empty. So we probably park the drones maybe ten, 15m away from us when we're operating, wait for it to shut down, power down, get a battery, go over, fill it up, salt the battery, and away it goes again.
So it hasn't been an issue for us. If you're doing maybe more of a commercial or, you know, potentially work for councils where you're around people, things of that nature, you'd want to be just wary of it. And there are times of the day that are better suited to operating than others.
So what are some of the current challenges that farmers are facing using a drone?
I would say one of the biggest challenges and hurdles is the fear of change. People are less likely to adopt something if no one else around them is doing it. Being the first one at it is always a bit of a hurdle and a bit of a risk to overcome. The technology now has been around for quite a number of years and it's getting more and more affordable as well. So even as recent as 2 or 3 years ago, some of this technology was over twice the price of
what it is now. So I think it's a bit of a combination between the manufacturer also listening to the end user and just having a bit of time between to really get together. And obviously a lot of the feedbacks came back and forth. So early days it was maybe the price is too high or it's not viable for my business. DJI have obviously listened to that. They're creating different product lines and different services and different packages and different offerings to be able to support the farmer.
So for someone to go completely uneducated, never have flown a drone within the space of a few weeks, can have their drone license their business up and running. My only advice to anyone doing that would just be to just be a little bit patient. There is a lot to learn. We're still learning every day, and just be open to suggestions and getting as much feedback from people as you can that are in the industry already doing it, because it'll save you a lot of headaches, a lot of time.
Good advice Adam. I think now moving into livestock, can you tell me how drones are being used by farmers with livestock?
Quite a number of our clients have actually purchased thermal drones, because they want to go and count some of their stock as well at any time of day or night. So they will then fly them up. And obviously some of the technology as well that's coming in. As you probably have seen, a lot of the cattle now have markings on their ears or little chips inserted. So again that's got other benefits to it. So if they go up to a trough there's certain apparatus now that can weigh.
See how much the calves drank. See what it's eaten that day. And drones are almost the overview where they can go and scan the entire premises and basically collate all that data in a uniform fashion. Other than that, it's very similar to the cropping where you can still again spread map spray. All those applications are still relevant in livestock.
So could they deliver feed?
They could. I haven't seen it done in Australia personally just yet. There are drones that can carry quite a bit of weight and they're more for transporting. But I think traditionally farmers, particularly here in Victoria, have already got all the infrastructure that they need to be able to
do it on a larger scale. So I think the weight is always going to be that issue with the drones that we've got currently, where they're not going to be able to transport, I would say more than 100 kilos or something like that.
Okay. So going back to your first story and how you were inspired. Can you tell me how were they using drones to increase fertility?
So they had there was a lot of hilly area that was just basically unused. And it wasn't a broad acre sense. This was quite a small property, a few hundred hectare, but there was just very dense scrub and lantana and I just needed a real good clean up, but there was no real way of accessing it. It was so thick and dense, this this scrub that was
around this place. Again, it was either wait for a helicopter, but they didn't want some of the vegetation killed, so they didn't want the chopper coming in and just bombing everything. They wanted to be a lot more specific and targeted in their approach. And that's where the drone came in is okay. I can actually hover right over exactly what I want to spray, apply the chemical. But I don't necessarily want to kill all this. Some of the wattles and different trees that are around the place.
So what about in terms of research. So I know BCG has got some nice drones. How are we using them in research and how are they being used in research in general.
Yes. So Burchett has purchased the Mavic three multi-spectral that I mentioned before basically for their trial plots. So using those different vegetation indices to peel back and analyze specific crops that they're planting, there is also a pix 4D license, which is one type of software that we offer so it can go through and determine plant vigor. It can do some stand counts, things like that. And you also
did purchase a T25, which is the T25. So a smaller version of the drone I was talking about before. So 25 liter tank, essentially all the other features are quite similar. So smaller scale spreading, but again a very versatile and nimble drone. So there is just on that. There is another product. It's called the dock two. So it's essentially a drone in a box and it is automated,
but it's only just been released. So it will basically open up at a predetermined time, do its map and come back and park up, close up for the night. And people are sending them out every day to collect data. It's in a weatherproof station that sits outside a shed. As long as it's got internet and power, you can then plan flights at any time of the day so it will open up. It's got its own little weather station inbuilt, so if it is too windy it won't
take off. So there are some safety measures in place as well.
How do they fit into the licensing regulations, then that's a good question.
And that's one that's involved. So that is beyond visual line of sight. So that's another separate license that you need.
And how reliable are they Adam. Because my robot vacuum cleaner isn't very reliable.
No I would trust this. Absolutely.
That is good. I'm pleased that you've said that. What about irrigation? Can they irrigate crops?
They can. That model can spray crops depending on what you're spraying it with. If it's just water, anything that can come out of a nozzle, essentially it can do. I haven't heard of them just spraying water only, but I'm sure it could do it.
Okay. What is the lifespan of a drone, particularly the big ones? If I'm going to buy a big one? Adam, I want it to last a while.
That's a good question. They've got a couple of years warranty, but ultimately I've never seen one perish yet because they probably haven't been out long enough. So I would say you'd want to get at least ten years out of one of these bigger drones. But yeah, the warranty is quite comprehensive as well. But batteries go off life cycles, so they tend to be I think it's 1500 cycles off the top of my head before they become unserviceable.
They'll still work, but highly recommended to replace them. But the general wear and tear and maintenance of these drones, they're all quite modular, so they're relatively easy to get parts for their plug and play a lot of the time.
Do you find they break down a bit?
No. I think the most common item we have go is propellers. And sometimes that's clients taking them off from potentially rocky areas or gravel roads where stones flick up once the rotors start up. That tends to be one of the first things that shows signs of wear. So we either use a mat, a landing pad, or we will fly them off the paddock deck where it's just got some grass or something around it, but they are
pretty reliable and durable. Normally consumables washes a couple of little bits and pieces, but no, they are pretty robust.
Okay, Adam, so once you leave and the next day I'm trying to fly it and having some trouble, is there support available?
Absolutely. We definitely won't leave you high and dry or drop it at your doorstep. We'll be there to walk you through it and hold your hand every step of the way.
And is that included in the cost of the drone? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Was there anything else, Adam, that you thought our listeners might be interested in?
One thing to probably mention is a lot of the questions that you're probably feeling. If you are a first time listener, you want to reach out. And we spoke earlier about people potentially being a bit timid and not wanting to ask those questions. You do need to, and it's the easiest way to get ahead of it and leapfrog you forward six months down your journey. Because a lot of people have the same issues. We get asked a lot of the same questions, so there is no
stupid question. I still ask them all the time myself. So yeah, just don't feel too precious about it. Come see us, give us a call, have a chat, talk to anyone else that's in the industry as well. Get some really valuable advice. And we've actually just released a YouTube channel a few months ago, and we've got some user friendly content on there that people have been asking for.
Like a helpful YouTube channel. So that's that's one we might put in the show notes. Speaking of advice, that might be a nice segue. Adam. What is the best advice that you've been given in life or in business.
I love these ones because I could talk for hours, but as funny as it is, the simplest piece of advice I ever got given was just be good to people. And I know that sounds really basic, but it just makes so much sense and not doing it because you're told to do it, but do it because you want to do it and approach life like that. And it's something I instill in my kids quite a bit. Manners cost nothing. Just be good to people in general if they've got an issue and you can help them, help them.
Whether that's walking down the street and opening the door for someone. Just do right by people and things work out pretty well in the end. If you're what goes around does come around.
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