
Dual-Purpose Drones for Agriculture - prostoalex
https://www.agweb.com/article/dual-purpose-drones-agriculture
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jcims
>“What we can do is spray insecticide right where it’s needed and herbicide
right where it’s needed,”

This is the most important part for drone applications in crop management.
With multispectral imaging and RTK it's possible to get much more specific
about application of various products that were previously applied in bulk to
prevent or remedy a situation.

Unfortunately TFA amounts to an advertisement and doesn't have any useful
info.

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amelius
> “What we can do is spray insecticide right where it’s needed and herbicide
> right where it’s needed,”

And if you remembered where you sprayed it, you can sell a part of your crop
at a premium, i.e. as "insecticide-free".

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yial2
[https://www.xa.com/en/pseries?gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxx...](https://www.xa.com/en/pseries?gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTvmZ-
zxBNqVcLmR0aW3J_7VUscmsvwejNfI_TDg-hUHrjSwzTQTDzRoCVc4QAvD_BwE)

Potential alternative?

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opwieurposiu
For comparison, the avg piloted spray plane can do about 200 acres/hr, with a
running cost of $1200/hr which is $6/acre.

[https://www.agairupdate.com/how-much-does-it-
cost/](https://www.agairupdate.com/how-much-does-it-cost/)

An acre of cash crop is has gross value of $500-700.

[https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2018/08/corn-soybean-
budge...](https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2018/08/corn-soybean-
budgets-2018-2019.html)

~~~
snovv_crash
If regulations require pest/herbicide to be below certain concentrations per
acre, a blanket application is often insufficient.

Targeted application by drone makes it a) actually work at all under stricter
regulations and b) can be placed only on the areas that need it, so it
actually is cost competitive with blanket application despite being more
expensive per acre.

~~~
jcims
I will pull up a chair and watch the fields near me get sprayed for an hour.
It’s like a free air show.

That said, in ten years this will probably be all drones. The ability to do
precision dosing, safely fly a few feet above the target, lower noise, lower
capital investment, no need for commercial pilot, little to no overspray, high
automation potential, simultaneous high resolution monitoring, etc etc etc.

Big limitation now are the meager payloads and flight times. Drone delivery is
going to open up the market for manufacturers to start pumping out drones that
meet that demand and it’s going to be mothballs for the old guard in quite a
few places.

Hopefully companies like Air Tractor get on board and adapt their product
lines, they have way too much valuable experience.

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aaron695
I'm very surprised these are electric.

I would have thought they would have to be fuel based.

I would have thought electric for information (ie photography) Fuel for the
meat world.

The Chinese are electric as well -
[https://www.xa.com/en/xp2020](https://www.xa.com/en/xp2020)

I don't get it?

