Drones ..... one of these days ...

[Canuck5]

I know that drones are now becoming a little more popular in seeding cover crops on farms, but for a lot of us food plotters, who seed 5-20 acres/year, how slick would this be? I am adding up the costs of maintaining my equipment (all fluids changed, new battery, grease, bearing replacement, hauling, diesel, gas, tires, repairs, etc), these may fall into the "more affordable range", maybe, soon. This one (for seeding) is probably $11,000 and maybe drones may get a little more affordable in the future. Popularity of drones for the military will certainly increase over the next few years.

Combine this with a sprayer on the back of a 4 wheeler, you can probably do a lot. They do have drones sprayers, but I think they are above $30k right now. And yes the drones will require maintenance, but maybe not like my tractor .......

 

[elfiii]

I need a drone that can pick rocks out of food plots. Everything from pebbles up to we're gonna have to dig it up by hand and then pull it out of the field with some chain and two tractors.

 

[Canuck5]

If you got one of those grenade tossing drones they use in Crimea, you could at least break the big rocks up into more manageable gravel!

Rocks are a never ending battle ....

 

[RamblinWreck88]

Through my work I have watched the evolution of drones very closely over the past 4-5 years... Rantizo has definitely done some cool things. Ultimately, the spraying/dispensing drone applications we have looked at come down to a question of coverage with respect to time... If the improvement over conventional methods provides a good return on investment, it gets adopted. Otherwise, people just write articles about how cool it is and the founding company fizzles out.

With this drone applying 55 pounds/acre, I am curious how many acres can be done in one acre and how that compares to conventional methods.

 

[Canuck5]

That's a good question and certainly lots of "pro" articles written about them.

I don't know if I would invest in one if I was a farmer, but for a food plotter .... maybe.

Washington Co. farmers aim to improve land for cleaner waters in the Cedar Creek watershed

Visitors to the Fall Field Day at a Cedarburg farm get schooled in the benefits of technology, cover crops and no-till for boosting soil health.

www.wisfarmer.com

It says 28 acres/hour, which seems like a lot and may not take into account the "loading and delivery time", but even if it was 14 acres/hour, and going with a no-till type system, would sure save me a lot of time. However, I would have to test out spreading a mix of large and small seeds first, to see if that would work, otherwise, spread the large seeds first and then come back with the small seeds.

I would spend more time spraying the plots, than I would over seeding them. It might not be perfect, but something worth considering.

 

[Canuck5]

I think the advantage for a farmer, as an example, he could over seed a cover crop into a standing field of soybeans, just before leaf drop. A "clean" way of doing it vs possibly trampling soybeans to spread.

 

[RamblinWreck88]

I think the advantage for a farmer, as an example, he could over seed a cover crop into a standing field of soybeans, just before leaf drop. A "clean" way of doing it vs possibly trampling soybeans to spread.

For sure; the non-invasive nature of drones is a big benefit. Might also be a good thing for plots that are really hard to get to, when the as-the-crow flies distance is only a few hundred yards or less.

One thing that happens with spray drones is that the downwash messes up the spray distribution... Some people out there have laid out paper squares and sprayed dye over them, only to find pretty poor coverage by some drone spray service providers. It would be interesting to see to what extent this translates to seed-dispensing drones.

 

[Canuck5]

I think also with the spraying drones, some additional permits/licenses are required vs using a sprayer on a 4 wheeler.

But someone will get all this figured out, one day!

 

[specialk]

flying a drone just aint as therapeutic as driving a tractor though...

 

[Mexican Squealer]

I’ve been approached by two drone spraying companies for my duck impoundments. There are times when it’s too wet to get my tractor in there in the windows I have to do the work. They will be a perfect solution to that issue. Pretty neat.

 

[WishboneW]

If you got one of those grenade tossing drones they use in Crimea, you could at least break the big rocks up into more manageable gravel!

Rocks are a never ending battle ....

It is amazing how food plots grow rocks

 

[doomtrpr_z71]

As low as he's flying that would have to take forever to put out 55lbs/AC not to mention the amount of batteries needed to cover an acre. Spraying with them is not too bad as long as you ignore their spray swath recommendations and then you get good coverage, it's just a lot narrower swath than they recommend. The atomizer models are a bit better but $3000 batteries for something that will be outdated in a year is a bit much especially for something that thinks it's smarter than it really is. Not to mention in ga most are going to just spread cover crop seed in with fertilizer and get the fertilizer retailer to spread it.

 

[Canuck5]

Yes, looking at a few more video's, they are swapping batteries quite often and they look like pretty big ones, but, can take a charge quickly. Maybe one day they will get things refined to make it make more sense for food plotters. I think drones are going to take major leaps and bounds over the next few years .........

 

[Crakajak]

I need a drone that can pick rocks out of food plots. Everything from pebbles up to we're gonna have to dig it up by hand and then pull it out of the field with some chain and two tractors.

Call Amazon and tell them they can use your place for their drone R&D.

 

[elfiii]

I think also with the spraying drones, some additional permits/licenses are required vs using a sprayer on a 4 wheeler.

But someone will get all this figured out, one day!

In the meantime, lift that bale, pull that barge!

 

[Canuck5]

Yeah, I already have too much money tied up in what I have, LOL.

 

[Crakajak]

Take the peaceful tractor time and our sanity out of the equation,and it's cheaper to just buy farm raised venison, orl book a guide service in the midwest.