Ins and outs of drones
GARY King sees nothing but growth in the future of drones.
His conviction was only strengthened after a recent trial which pitted a tractor and a drone on pesticide spraying duties against each other.
Mr King founded Universal Drones in Toowoomba six months ago and said they were aiming high from the very beginning.
He said when it came to the most recent trial, it turned out the drone used 20L of pesticide compared to the tractor at 150L and managed the task in a much shorter period.
With numbers like that, he felt confident more farmers would continue to look at new ways of doing things.
Drone costs had already come down to the point where the average farmer could afford the latest technology for a huge range of tasks.
Far from being just for spraying pests or weeds, he said, there was a wide range of tasks a drone could carry out on an average farm, from fence checks and vermin control to stock welfare checks and biosecurity checks.
He said the business had an auspicious start after being one of only two Australian drone companies invited to take part in the World Drone Congress, held in China in June.
“We don’t muck around, it’s straight to the top,” he said.
“We want to be the rural and regional drone specialists in Australia.”
He said drones could help with almost every step involved in creating a J-BAS
biosecurity plan.
“We’re working on biosecurity at the moment and a lot goes into that like vermin control, checking fence lines, water checks and erosion right down to the processes of cattle.
“So that’s what they eat, where they go and how they’re loaded on a truck.”
At this stage there were two classes of agricultural drones and farmers might need one of each depending on the task, but the outlay wasn’t too
extreme in either case when compared to many capital expenditure costs incurred on the average property.
He said a spray drone came in at around $15-20,000, while a drone that could be used for fence checks and other surveillance tasks could be as cheap as $2000.
Like any major farm asset, they were tax deductible.
Mr King said his business offered plenty of options for farmers.
He said the team could be
hired to carry out work, or those who preferred could come in and buy their own drones.
Training, servicing and maintenance were also included in their list of services.
He said apart from the initial outlay for a drone, the next biggest cost was replacement batteries.
Crashing your drone and damaging it was another possibility, but Mr King said not only were they as
insurable as any farm asset, but with the right training that risk could be minimised.
Licensing could be a problem for many commercial enterprises, but most farmers were exempt from a range of rules that affected others using drones for commercial gain.
He said farmers could use a drone up to 25kg with no official training, though he recommended at least basic training to avoid expensive disasters.