Drone spraying
- Thread starter SwampCat
- Start date
I guess he is confident in his flying ability. Not a lot of protective clothing on either
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Buddies set up
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
The neighbor does that. No flying involved. Just map it and it programs itself. Cool as hell and way more safe from drift than cropdusters.
Does he have to crawl up there to change batteries and fill the tank of does he land it on ground when working?
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Can do it both ways. Most recently we just landed it in a food plot and swamped everything out. It’s a nice platform for transport of nothing else.
Hoytvectrix
5 year old buck +
That really puts it into perspective for how large the drones are!
Drone today had a 120 lb payload. My grand kids could have rode it
T-Max
5 year old buck +
I have seen more crop dusters than ever this year. Planes and helicopters both. And coincidentally I have seen more dead trees everywhere than ever before. They fly and spray when it’s blowing 20+. Hate it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Drones probably do a little better with drift since they normally spray at a lower altitude
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
We had 900+ trees killed including half my orchard. Called the State immediately and they sent a guy out for samples and testing. He said it happens a lot. They sprayed restricted herbicides over water, had the wrong property lines, exceed wind speeds per label, and exceeded altitude per labels. Even with a slam-dunk of a case we spent 3yrs of getting to know our lawyer very well. I imagine most people end up not holding them accountable so it works out on the ledger for them in the end.
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
Any ideas on the price range for this size Drone package? I don't have a clue....but I would guess one like shown has gotta be pushing $50 K ?
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
I was quoted 36 for the big one
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
OK...thanks. I suppose that is the tip of the iceberg?......and then you need the mixing equipment, trailer, generator, truck, and, and, and. Of course some of that land-based spray equipment is not exactly "cheap" either. Interesting how techy farming has become.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Yeah that was the drone, generator and maybe 1 extra battery. The batteries are super expensive.
You are spot on, you need a big side by side to haul the unit and then the ability to carry water to mix. The battery doesn’t last long at all so you can’t fly very far or you burn too much battery. And then you need to run the generator continuously to be charging while flying and it’s incredibly noisy.
Drones definitely have a time and place if you can swing it. But when it comes to run of the mill plot spraying I’ll take my tractor 10 out of 10 times.
Guy told me around 50k for drone, three batteries $2500 apiece, 220 v quick charger, three 330 gallon water totes, diesel gen, storage box, trailer, pumps, agitator, hoses, etc. His F150 wouldnt handle the load so bought a flatbed F250 (used). I think all in including truck right at $100k
He sprayed about 20 acres from 8 to noon including setup and pickup and gone. I have a 55 gal pto sprayer I can spray about 2.5 acres per tank. Would take me about 8 fill ups. Takes about and hour to spray and fill. Would have taken me about 8 hours, not including loading tractor, unloading, water barrel refills - I can only haul 3 55 gal barrels. Probably twice as long as he did it - and a heck of a lot more work - not to mention, I couldnt get a tractor to two of the plots due to wet ground. If water quits flowing through one of my duck pond, he he will come back and spray and plant same day on mud you cant walk through. On row crop, he has sprayed 200 acres in a day. If things work out here in a couple weeks, we plan on using him to spray 40 acres of freshly drained duck holes one day and plant the next day. Couldnt do either with a tractor. Drone offers a lot of opportunity that is not available with a tractor - but I am not sinking that kind of money into that equipment. Prices are coming down as more drone operators are competing with each other. I know a guy who said he just had 800 acres of pasture sprayed for $10 acre plus chemical - but it was easy work. No trees and great visibility.
Foggy47
5 year old buck +
Yep.....and I am still grumbling about spending $800 for my 50 gallon UTV sprayer. lol Seems like a good application for a Co-Op or perhaps a large farmer or group of farmers......with a tech head. Tho.....I think many of us could learn to do this (according to a video I just watched). Great to have under some circumstances like wet fields.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
As I said they absolutely have their place. I’d love one. But for my 3/4-3 acre plots it makes no sense. I can fill up one time and pretty much hit each of my farms with a tank…almost. The mobilization with a drone would probably be a pain, not to mention dealing the obstacles of the smaller, odd shaped plots. But for certain applications you literally cannot beat it. We sprayed a 15 acre, 3 year old cutover the other day. Would have been impossible any other way besides aerially.
