Cool stuff today! Daniel found this guy, Rian, to come spray a few of our fields for alfalfa weevil. Now, we have a sprayer, a three wheeled vintage sprayer, but it’s well, getting older. Alfalfa weevil will ruin your crop, so they must be handled as soon as you find them. Rian’s got a different take on the spray process… a drone!
Vernon has been wanting one of these for years. I’ve watched more YouTube videos about these things with him than I care to admit. This is the first time we’ve seen one in action live.
It carries 40 liters of solution. It can land, turn off, Rian can put in a new battery, and fill up the tank in just a couple of minutes and it’s back to work.
It sprays a swath 25’ wide. If it runs out of spray, it can remember where it ran out and return to the exact spot. It can avoid obstacles and automatically return to its landing spot on its own. I mean, didn’t I say it was cool?
Rian has quite the setup, running generators to speed charge his batteries and hauling water to mix with whatever he happens to be spraying. He did work for Daniel too, prepping his pivot field. The drone was perfect for that, spraying where it’s rough to drive until he has a chance to farm it.
They are working on “see and spray” drones, where they identify the weed and spray only that one instead of having to spray an entire field. I like the option it has for spreading seed… so reclamation after fires or floods is much easier. There are cool things coming in this drone business! I’d share Rian’s business card, but I left it in my sxs. If I upload some video, I’ll include it there.
Find me here!
Amazing what it can achieve.
That is one smart drone. Time saving to boot.
Very cool!!
Wow!