Farming Drones

Waffletraktor

Say my name wrote: »

I thought of the moisture idea today when out dung spreading.

Went into the field and it was perfect for the wheels tyres and air pressure. No visible clue when driving that there was soft ground ahead. No water on the surface, all grass growth the same, no real obvious surface contour that'd tell you I was going into a situation of trafficable to nearly needing a tow out in matter of feet.

I had the 4wd on anyway so was able to back out and turn and keep going.

If the technology was there on screen in the tractor, colour coded on a map of the field to show where you could and couldn't travel it'd be nice.

But then to use such a technology you'd nearly want the drone in a case with you in the tractor.

Although I have seen bigger things travelling with tractors. An umbilical slurry spreading crew have a place where they park a quad bike on their towing unit behind the tractor going from farmer to farmer.

Old drain gone bad with the recent wet.?

I think you will see robotic weeders for combinable crops powered by drones taking super accurate images from cameras to process the data just ahead of it. The tech is there for higher value veg crops already, it's just getting it cheap enough to scale.

Say my name

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Old drain gone bad with the recent wet.?

Could be a blocked stone drain deep down.
Rented ground with high ground above and water diverted from a laneway into the field.
It was drier in December than now. Water just doesn't know when to stop flowing now.
Dry bits are drying but spots still bottomless. You'd need a month of this weather to put manners on the hidden traps and deep springs.

trg

We've an outfarm that's 2.5km away in straight line with excellent line of sight.

Would a drone now be able to take off from home fly over and stay in flight while cattle are counted and get back to base?

emaherx

trg wrote: »

We've an outfarm that's 2.5km away in straight line with excellent line of sight.

Would a drone now be able to take off from home fly over and stay in flight while cattle are counted and get back to base?

A drone? Yes absolutely, but not any old drone from Amazon would be suitable.

You'd also need to seek special permission from the aviation authority. And do the required training for commercial operation.


Personally I like counting the cattle in person, too much could be missed from looking through a camera flying through the sky. I think even if I had the latest AI software for checking animals health I'd still like to eyeball them daily.

49801

emaherx wrote: »

A drone? Yes absolutely, but not any old drone from Amazon would be suitable.

You'd also need to seek special permission from the aviation authority. And do the required training for commercial operation.


Personally I like counting the cattle in person, too much could be missed from looking through a camera flying through the sky. I think even if I had the latest AI software for checking animals health I'd still like to eyeball them daily.

100%
Handy to have a drone to find particular animal in a field though in a herd of >100 head for example. Handy to have a pal to speed things up. I’d be more thinking of something that would fly a search pattern for a field automatically and report back while your checking fences or feeding meals say

trg

emaherx wrote: »

A drone? Yes absolutely, but not any old drone from Amazon would be suitable.

You'd also need to seek special permission from the aviation authority. And do the required training for commercial operation.


Personally I like counting the cattle in person, too much could be missed from looking through a camera flying through the sky. I think even if I had the latest AI software for checking animals health I'd still like to eyeball them daily.

Thanks for answering the question I had.

As to 2nd part of your post, wouldn't it be handy to know where they all are before heading over? It would make your eyeball more efficient.

emaherx

trg wrote: »

Thanks for answering the question I had.

As to 2nd part of your post, wouldn't it be handy to know where they all are before heading over? It would make your eyeball more efficient.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for new tools and technology. Yes I can definitely see a use as an aid but not replacement of regular checking.

What I don’t get is why there isn’t cab docks for the drones- they’re about the size of a cab roof, put a special rack up there and have the drone able to latch on. Drive up, fly about, land back, off ye go again! No messing about the boot, no using up boot space or needing to bring something that has a boot!

Also, how about drones scarecrows?

djmc

i brought a drone at christmas and have used it on a few occasions to bring cattle back into the yard while sitting in the window of house or the jeep. It worked well enough on both occasions but early days yet. I am interested to see how it would work out when they are all out. The fact that it was only a cow and a few calves they might have been tempted to run for the sheds and safety of the herd anyway.
I like the fact that the drone covers ground so quickly its easy to get ahead of animals even if the do go the wrong way. when you get used of it it could be like a dog with wings

AckwelFoley

AckwelFoley wrote: »

What I have thought would be if there was a drone that could be launched and flown remotely to look at cattle down the farm or fly a pre programmed route and then back to a charge base..kind of like a robot lawnmower

That would be pretty useful..

..and expensive no doubt

The software to launch a drone and fly a set route is Open Source, e.g. free. Get a drone which has the feature and it can be done.

blue5000

Deleted User wrote: »

What I don’t get is why there isn’t cab docks for the drones- they’re about the size of a cab roof, put a special rack up there and have the drone able to latch on. Drive up, fly about, land back, off ye go again! No messing about the boot, no using up boot space or needing to bring something that has a boot!

Also, how about drones scarecrows?

Low shed entrances, I think it was already mentioned.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote:

What I don’t get is why there isn’t cab docks for the drones- they’re about the size of a cab roof, put a special rack up there and have the drone able to latch on. Drive up, fly about, land back, off ye go again! No messing about the boot, no using up boot space or needing to bring something that has a boot!

The main problem I think is the drone docking back onto the cab. If you launch the drone and then move the tractor, the drone doesn't know where the tractor is. It can be done, but would make it more expensive. It's easier to just launch from the ground, fly manually or auto-pilot on pre-selected waypoints, and then land back at the same spot. Then fold it up, and put it back in the boot, onto the trailer, etc.

listermint

blue5000 wrote: »

Low shed entrances, I think it was already mentioned.

I don't think everyone has low sheds... The question was why isn't there an attachment. Not do some folks have a low shed roof. Yes there are low sheds. But not all sheds are equal

emaherx

I'm sure someone somewhere has one by now.

Low branches could also be an issue, the dock would need to completely cover the drone after landing to protect it which would add more complications/cost to it.

emaherx

blue5000 wrote: »

Low shed entrances, I think it was already mentioned.

I think the sort of tractor likely to have such a device fitted would probably already have issues fitting into low sheds.

Morris Moss

A problem I've had with my drone is the noise, cows run for the hills when they here it, the father said it sounded like a bot fly so that's probably the reason

the plan of sending it off to collect them for milking didn't last too long, although maybe if they got used to it they might be ok.

Morris Moss

Morris Moss wrote: »

A problem I've had with my drone is the noise, cows run for the hills when they here it, the father said it sounded like a bot fly so that's probably the reason

the plan of sending it off to collect them for milking didn't last too long, although maybe if they got used to it they might be ok.

If they get used to it they won't move at all for it. Flew mine near neighbours cattle accidentally one day, they stood there eyeballing it, not so much as a twitch.

Sheep will get used to them as well if the drone is used around them a lot.

funkey_monkey

I could see the benefit of a drone for a hill farmer where it can be sent up to monitor for sheep. However, to make it useful, it would need to perform some actual tasks - such as seeking out animals in distress and counting the flock.

I'm not sure that robotic tractors will be able to hit the road in a timeframe to make any potential usage of drones null and void.

The drones would need to link in with AI vendors such as Herdeye in order to provide something useful. Don't the European satellites now provide information on soil nutrient data?

An autonomous drone which went out daily reported issues and returned to base and docked itself ready for next day could have potential in that it might mean a busy farmer could avoid physically oversighting crops/animals daily freeing up time for whatever else they have on plate.

The idea of sending up a drone to tx down live video of the fields is not a great step forward as the video will need to be analysed and animals are easier inspected up close with the human eye or to a certain extent, AI. Watching video provides very little benefit and probably increased risk of missing an issue.

If the drone can't be sent out of LoS to check stock at an out farm then I'm not sure what benefit there would be if you have to drive to the outfarm and then release the drone. The step change in efficiency would not be there for the uptake. You'd be as efficient tearing through the fields in the jeep or by taking a quad in the trailer with you.

For soil analysis, then yes I can see it being okay to go farm to farm, but I think that is a narrower market and potentially directed more at agronomists and large scale tillage contractors. Might not even be feasible due to limited market.

I remember when farmers here starting getting a quad years ago. Lazy man etc. His father and everyone else walked the fields etc. Now everyone has a quad. It's progress and TBH they don't seem to have any more spare time than their fathers - if anything they have even less spare time. Not as much hanging over gates chatting these days!

Cattlepen

They are used successfully in China for spraying. What ever software they have the monitor crops and spot spray accordingly thus reducing chemicals.
On the point of rounding up cattle and sheep, you would want to have fighter pilot skills. I tried it and between flying the bloody thing and watching the sheep’s reactions whilst trying to drive them out the gap I made it shoot sideways and onto a road at just about the right height to go through an approaching trucks windscreen. Seriously nearly wet me pants moment before I got control of it and my senses and made it fly up. A very near miss

B Rabbit

Drone works ireland are now spraying with the like of the DJI Agras T-30.

Some job for those areas which are hard to access (i.e. steep terrain)

They can also spread fert, seed etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Kw4k9rUcw&t=101s&ab_channel=AgriSprayDrones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHYMrXJMGY4&t=427s&ab_channel=AgriSprayDrones

Banana Republic 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119529995#Comment_119529995

Exactly.

Silverdream

Crop dusters must be worried

https://youtu.be/sIY7BQkbIT8

reiska

My 50 heifers broke into an 18 acer field of maize last week. Drone would have been handy to find the bastards

MrMusician18

A large problem with drones is that they are often a solution looking for a problem.

For some of the issues mentioned on thread, is a drone the most effective or even feasible solution on the current regulatory environment?

Banana Republic 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119531094#Comment_119531094

The idea that an agri spec drone is only useful for finding sheep on the mountains or cattle in a maize field says it all really.

One can be in the farming business and the money making business at the same time.

RoboRat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119529995#Comment_119529995

I priced up the various components to build one of those with a 20L sprayer (all CE marked) and it would cost approx €3,500 - that was about 2 years ago so I'm sure it's probably doubled, or tripled! I'm not sure what they're charging for an out-of-the-box solution, but I would hazard a guess that it's around €15- €20k. Then you have the software licensing such as pix4D or drone deploy on top of that if you really want to maximise the investment.

I had started to build a drone similar to the DJI Phantom and it was coming in at around €200, that's without the high spec cameras - I had a 4k camera which I would need to test. This is for the father-in-law to send out looking for the herd, or checking the gutters / shed roofs. With a proper camera suitable for NDVI analysis, he could check for drainage issues, grass/crop health etc, but I put it on the long finger due to work being so busy, and I knew this would end up being a rod for my own back!

I also had quite a few conversations with the IAA regarding the legality and requirements, these might be interesting for anyone considering getting a drone.

Scenario 1: Class C2 drone operating on their own property in a rural setting within Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) and under 400ft

Interpretation: Subcategory A3. Drone must be CE marked and operator must be over 16, registered as a user and pass the open category competency requirements. 

Scenario 2: Class C2 drone operating within VLOS and under 400ft – rural location but the land is separated so it may pass over other people’s land and/ or homesteads (intention is to avoid if possible) 

Interpretation:  Subcategory A3. Drone must be CE marked and operator must be over 16, registered as a user and pass the open category competency requirements. [clarifications] does the user need to account for GDPR.

Scenario 3: Class C3 Operating on their own property in a rural setting within VLOS and under 400ft. No uninvolved people present but the drone is being used to spray pesticide/ spread fertiliser / seeds - the drone is being used for targeted application, rather than bulk application. The container is crash tested and the contents are non-toxic.

Interpretation: Specific category with a risk analysis [Clarifications] Is this covered by a PDRA or does it require a SORA analysis? This kind of operation is available already using a DJI Argas series with dronedeploy, so there may be a PDRA available. Interpretation is that it's open use if it's not transporting dangerous/ toxic material.

Scenario 4: Class 3 Operating on their own property in a rural setting but the drone is being used BVLOS and using GPS/ GLASNOS – This is a manned operation but the drone may pass over other people’s lands and possibly regional roads, is this in the specific category?  

Interpretation: Specific category with a risk analysis - There appear to be PDRA's for this type of operation but they limit the distance to 2km [Clarifications] is it possible to operate beyond 2km or does this require a SORA risk analysis? Also, does the operator need to account for GDPR.

Final point regarding VLOS - if your drone is out of sight, but you have another person with whom you are in contact within VLOS, then this can be deemed as still within VLOS as long as the contact channel remains open.

Girl Geraldine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/116490660#Comment_116490660

How reliable would it be though? I can envision the argument in the field with a machine up the axles - "why the fúck did you go in there" "the drone said it solid ground" "if it told you to drive off a cliff i suppose you'd do that too?"

Setting up a drone to fly around a field before doing work is just another job to do.

Keep a close eye on the front wheel and if it starts to squelch, then stop.

B Rabbit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119552682#Comment_119552682

From what I can see, a new DJI Agras T10 comes around 15K and the T30 comes in around 25K. Honestly, this is something we'd seriously consider getting at home as the steep mountain makes it damn near impossible to control weeds any other way.

Our quad won't even travel where we need it (without any implements, never mind having a tank of water on the back or pulling a weed licker)

That's good info on the legality side of things. What kind of hoops would we have to go through to be able to fly the likes of the T30 in a rural setting, non-separated land, under 400 ft and within VLOS etc.

Banana Republic 1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119554133#Comment_119554133

With an IR system the idea is it would self apply herbicide as and when.

RoboRat

On your own land, no uninvolved people, within VLOS and under 400ft... you could argue just having open category competency requirements should be enough. The reality is that if you're rural and away from the general public... who is going to see you. The only drawback is that you must register a drone of its greater than a toy drone and they would see that it's a sprayer drone. The legislation is terrible... its not something that has been given much thought and its so confusing and contradictory.

My advice, go to a specialist drone training school and they should know what you need.