Eyes in the skies

 Typical uses include eye-in-the-sky for monitoring stock and checking fences or waterways, carrying sensors for precision agriculture or carrying sound devices for mustering stock or scaring birds away from orchards. 

The domestic drone industry is the largest technology growth market and agriculture is singled out as by far the largest user group. The advantages are enormous and will only increase as the technology is further developed. 

The simplest offering is an eye-in-the-sky for monitoring and inspection, says Southland farmer Hugh Gardyne. Two years spent using the technology has shown him that 80% of time is spent travelling a the farm looking for potential problems, in 20% of that time a real problem is found, and a drone saves 45% of the commuting time around the farm.

“We are using our drone supplied by Aeronavics for general farm use providing ‘eyes in the sky’ to monitor stock. Our main use is checking for cast stock, monitoring sheep at lambing time and some mustering. 

“Fifty per cent of the cast sheep flown over by the drone could right themselves, if got to early enough. We saved about 40 ewes x $300 = $12K per year,” he explains. 

“Another use is monitoring water infrastructure to make sure stock have access to water and checking waterways for stock in trouble. A 1.25hr trip on a quad around all the troughs takes the drone just 15 minutes – finding two-three leaks a year.

“The drone reduced our quad commuting by 2000km last year. We’ve saved $8000 and lowered our accident risk.

“We also use the drone to check weeds and pests around the farm in hard-to-access areas.”

Gardyne says they have used the drone for farm and drain mapping and photography

“For drainage mapping you could be paying $1600 for a half day with a helicopter, whereas a drone can do it in minutes.”

Visit at the Innovation Accelerator area near the Innovation tent.

www.aeronavics.com