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UNIQUE SOLUTION FOR ANTI-HERBICIDE FOLKS? DRONES??

Sligh1

Sligh1

Administrator
Staff member
I thought about this one….
I think all of us would say “if we magically could get rid of herbicides we would”. Obviously.
There’s 3 reasons for it:
1) people do not want to be exposed to it during spraying.
2) Soil health. Possibly some health ramifications later of eating crops that have been sprayed.
3) herbicide costs. This 3rd one is least impactful as there’s always going to be a “cost” to any weed removal.

Cultivation to remove weeds has major downsides. We have lasers. Hand weeding, etc. All of which have +/-‘s


DRONES….. developing like computers…. More weight, costs are slowly getting more reasonable, etc.
Where we are TODAY: about $20k for this latest & newest spraying drone. Old models or used, under $10k. Expensive? YES. Compared to a AG sprayer - it’s peanuts. The prices likely will keep coming down though or capacities getting better. Capacity & battery time are limitations…. All getting better pretty fast.

HERE’S WHERE DRONES FIX AN ISSUE….. only #1….. exposure to the herbicide. Which, to me, is a big one!!!! For ME…. It’s the most important of the 3. If u fill drone & don’t get on yourself - u can apply from a distance. No exposure. Plus some other benefits like: not running over crops & not needing an expensive self propelled sprayer.

Costs for sprayers: wide range factoring in some used items to the higher end new, ballpark made up figures:
self propelled: 25k used to $250k
Pull type: $15-50k
Utv or 4 wheeler & sprayer: $4-25k
Small tractor & sprayer: $5-50k
Backpack sprayer: $75 ;)
Drone: $8k to $22k


If folks have 2-15 acres in plots & didn’t want to spray …. Bet there’s going to be more guys to hire to spray your plots for you. Especially if the price point keeps coming down. They at $20k new now. If we get these to $10k…. Now we getting to level where become very common or more common. I think there’s a point where I might look at one of these. Especially with the ability to interseed cover crops with it too. Last- I can See this being a little business for a lot of folks out there “we’ll custom spray or spread cover crop seed for u”. & heck, imagine what things be like 5, 10, 20 years from now!!! :).
Thoughts?

www.dji.com

AGRAS T40 - One for All - DJI Agricultural Drones

The DJI agriculture drone AGRAS T40 is equipped with the revolutionary Coaxial Twin Rotor design, enabling it to carry a spray load of 40 kg and a spread load of 50 kg (70 L). The aircraft is built in with a Dual Atomized Spraying System, DJI Terra, Active Phased array Radar and Binocular Vision.
www.dji.com www.dji.com
 
Drones are quickly gathering a market share of some spraying in my area but only for Fungicides, Insecticides, Micro-Nutrient application, etc. They just dont put down enough gallons per acre to do an effective job at herbicides. Most are applying less than 2 gallons per acre. And the price far exceeds what you mention, I just talked with a guy in the shop on his way to purchase a $65,000 done with a 15 gallon tank. Many of my fields are too close to too many tree lines for an airplane to do a good job, therefore i will definitely consider hiring a drone operator in the future.
 
Personally, as someone who does not like to blanket spray herbicides, the downsides for me (in order) are:

1. Exposure to wildlife: Wildlife eating plants that have been sprayed with herbicides, insecticides.
2. Additions to the watershed: (I don't care how quickly "studies" say the halflife lasts or inert in soil, etc), these chemicals still go into our watersheds.
3. Sterilization of plots: No predator insects to protect plots, prey insects for poults, flowers for insects, etc. Have to evaluate yourself for beans, corn, etc vs green plots.
3. Soil microbes: Herbicides kill microbes. So does tillage. (Not overly important for me as soil microbes double in population every 20-30 minutes).

The future in farming I see to get away from this are the weed zapping drones. Helps protect humans from consumption, wildlife from eating these products.

Still wondering why Bayer is dumping the ag division. I think they also see the end of herbicides once these weed zappers get into production.
 
Wait till the ones are available that selectively spray only the weeds and skip the rest.

Watched a video of a robotic spray rig that went down the rows only spraying the actual weeds.
 
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