Drones for agriculture use

[Bigfoot]

I went to a meeting last night, and a guy was doing a pretty good job of selling us on the idea. Scouting crops etc. I got no real use for that. He said that there would be plenty of applications for it, with detecting body heat off of cows you couldn't find. He's usually the cutting edge guy around here. He's probably right.

 

[jedstivers]

I'm going to split one with a friend and we are going to give it to our consultant. Might do it this year but prol next. Have a friend bought one this year but hasn't gotten it yet.

 

[Bigfoot]

I liked the one with disposable wings. Seemed like a good way to go.

 

[snake67]

I went to a meeting last night, and a guy was doing a pretty good job of selling us on the idea. Scouting crops etc. I got no real use for that. He said that there would be plenty of applications for it, with detecting body heat off of cows you couldn't find. He's usually the cutting edge guy around here. He's probably right.

Thanks to the military I have been involved in UAVs for many years. I spent a lot of time in Yuma teaching US Spec Forces folks on their use.

If all goes well I will be teaming with a good guy from Kansas and starting out within the next couple months on yet another venture.

The use of UAVs for crops is not really that good unless you have IR, filters or a very high capability camera or something similar as the picture from the air does not give you a great idea of what you are seeing - unless you know what to look for. You need to apply filters to the camera lenses to get an accurate picture of what the crop is doing. One of the largest producers of potatoes in the world - McCains uses UAVs exclusively to study plant growth and effectiveness of fertilizers and water - however their machines are high end and not usually bought by the local guy.

Searching for animals is also not as easy as it sounds. IR is good and it works but not like the average person thinks and it is only as effective as the system - they do not come cheap and the cheaper ones do not work well.

Better to have a live feed from the camera to the user.

There will be some serious limitations to the use of UAVs - especially quad, hexo and octo copters - they are electric and can usually only fly for about 20 minutes at a time.

It helps to have a background in geomatics as well. That helps when looking at close ups and possibly calculating volumes.

The FAA is going to appeal their latest court loss and that means judgement in the last case is stayed - so there is room for certain UAV applications as long as you are aware of the safety concerns and the potentials for problems with law enforcement types who are not aware of the appropriate use of a UAV.

Best that anyone who uses them is also aware of the different classes of airspace as anyone infringing upon airspace that is not "unclass or G class or general purpose" they could be in serious trouble.

Bottom line?

UAVs are here to stay - the gold rush is on in the US of A since the FAA court case was lost. The big money right at this moment is taking pictures - golf courses, real estate developments, hotels, folks selling their house and so on.

Remember - you want to take pictures you do not need a live feed - you want to scout something out - then you need to up the anti and get a live feed.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is building the civil models for sale - be sure to get one that is well built.

No matter what you buy today for the civil use - be sure it can carry the load - and better if you are able to get one that will carry about 8 pounds. Allows you to multi task - after all those batteries run out faster than you think!

Best to you

Bez

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I like the idea of it for finding lost cows.

 

[jedstivers]

I went to a meeting last night, and a guy was doing a pretty good job of selling us on the idea. Scouting crops etc. I got no real use for that. He said that there would be plenty of applications for it, with detecting body heat off of cows you couldn't find. He's usually the cutting edge guy around here. He's probably right.

Thanks to the military I have been involved in UAVs for many years. I spent a lot of time in Yuma teaching US Spec Forces folks on their use.

If all goes well I will be teaming with a good guy from Kansas and starting out within the next couple months on yet another venture.

The use of UAVs for crops is not really that good unless you have IR, filters or a very high capability camera or something similar as the picture from the air does not give you a great idea of what you are seeing - unless you know what to look for. You need to apply filters to the camera lenses to get an accurate picture of what the crop is doing. One of the largest producers of potatoes in the world - McCains uses UAVs exclusively to study plant growth and effectiveness of fertilizers and water - however their machines are high end and not usually bought by the local guy.

Searching for animals is also not as easy as it sounds. IR is good and it works but not like the average person thinks and it is only as effective as the system - they do not come cheap and the cheaper ones do not work well.

Better to have a live feed from the camera to the user.

There will be some serious limitations to the use of UAVs - especially quad, hexo and octo copters - they are electric and can usually only fly for about 20 minutes at a time.

It helps to have a background in geomatics as well. That helps when looking at close ups and possibly calculating volumes.

The FAA is going to appeal their latest court loss and that means judgement in the last case is stayed - so there is room for certain UAV applications as long as you are aware of the safety concerns and the potentials for problems with law enforcement types who are not aware of the appropriate use of a UAV.

Best that anyone who uses them is also aware of the different classes of airspace as anyone infringing upon airspace that is not "unclass or G class or general purpose" they could be in serious trouble.

Bottom line?

UAVs are here to stay - the gold rush is on in the US of A since the FAA court case was lost. The big money right at this moment is taking pictures - golf courses, real estate developments, hotels, folks selling their house and so on.

Remember - you want to take pictures you do not need a live feed - you want to scout something out - then you need to up the anti and get a live feed.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is building the civil models for sale - be sure to get one that is well built.

No matter what you buy today for the civil use - be sure it can carry the load - and better if you are able to get one that will carry about 8 pounds. Allows you to multi task - after all those batteries run out faster than you think!

Best to you

Bez

The one I'm looking at has the gopro camera and the nvid. Has a 30 min run time and a 30 min charge time. If we get it we'll get two extra batteries.
Can view real time or watch that night what it did during the day.
Cost about 15k, thinking prices will come down so would like to wait but it will pay for itself the first year or less. Just the two of us would be less than 2 dollars an acre for the purchase price.

 

[Deepsouth]

They couldn't find Bigfoot with one so they probably can't find your lost cow either.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I went to a meeting last night, and a guy was doing a pretty good job of selling us on the idea. Scouting crops etc. I got no real use for that. He said that there would be plenty of applications for it, with detecting body heat off of cows you couldn't find. He's usually the cutting edge guy around here. He's probably right.

Thanks to the military I have been involved in UAVs for many years. I spent a lot of time in Yuma teaching US Spec Forces folks on their use.

If all goes well I will be teaming with a good guy from Kansas and starting out within the next couple months on yet another venture.

The use of UAVs for crops is not really that good unless you have IR, filters or a very high capability camera or something similar as the picture from the air does not give you a great idea of what you are seeing - unless you know what to look for. You need to apply filters to the camera lenses to get an accurate picture of what the crop is doing. One of the largest producers of potatoes in the world - McCains uses UAVs exclusively to study plant growth and effectiveness of fertilizers and water - however their machines are high end and not usually bought by the local guy.

Searching for animals is also not as easy as it sounds. IR is good and it works but not like the average person thinks and it is only as effective as the system - they do not come cheap and the cheaper ones do not work well.

Better to have a live feed from the camera to the user.

There will be some serious limitations to the use of UAVs - especially quad, hexo and octo copters - they are electric and can usually only fly for about 20 minutes at a time.

It helps to have a background in geomatics as well. That helps when looking at close ups and possibly calculating volumes.

The FAA is going to appeal their latest court loss and that means judgement in the last case is stayed - so there is room for certain UAV applications as long as you are aware of the safety concerns and the potentials for problems with law enforcement types who are not aware of the appropriate use of a UAV.

Best that anyone who uses them is also aware of the different classes of airspace as anyone infringing upon airspace that is not "unclass or G class or general purpose" they could be in serious trouble.

Bottom line?

UAVs are here to stay - the gold rush is on in the US of A since the FAA court case was lost. The big money right at this moment is taking pictures - golf courses, real estate developments, hotels, folks selling their house and so on.

Remember - you want to take pictures you do not need a live feed - you want to scout something out - then you need to up the anti and get a live feed.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is building the civil models for sale - be sure to get one that is well built.

No matter what you buy today for the civil use - be sure it can carry the load - and better if you are able to get one that will carry about 8 pounds. Allows you to multi task - after all those batteries run out faster than you think!

Best to you

Bez

I wouldn't fly one in the Thicket lower than buckshot range.
These hillbillies will not take it well.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Could be just the deal for hog hunters.

 

[Bigfoot]

The helicopter one actually sounded to me like it would be better for crop scouting.

 

[lovehammer]

Wow! 15 THOUSAND dollars?!

You gotta be kidding me.

 

[ga.prime]

For that much money it ought to be supersonic.

 

[snake67]

I went to a meeting last night, and a guy was doing a pretty good job of selling us on the idea. Scouting crops etc. I got no real use for that. He said that there would be plenty of applications for it, with detecting body heat off of cows you couldn't find. He's usually the cutting edge guy around here. He's probably right.

Thanks to the military I have been involved in UAVs for many years. I spent a lot of time in Yuma teaching US Spec Forces folks on their use.

If all goes well I will be teaming with a good guy from Kansas and starting out within the next couple months on yet another venture.

The use of UAVs for crops is not really that good unless you have IR, filters or a very high capability camera or something similar as the picture from the air does not give you a great idea of what you are seeing - unless you know what to look for. You need to apply filters to the camera lenses to get an accurate picture of what the crop is doing. One of the largest producers of potatoes in the world - McCains uses UAVs exclusively to study plant growth and effectiveness of fertilizers and water - however their machines are high end and not usually bought by the local guy.

Searching for animals is also not as easy as it sounds. IR is good and it works but not like the average person thinks and it is only as effective as the system - they do not come cheap and the cheaper ones do not work well.

Better to have a live feed from the camera to the user.

There will be some serious limitations to the use of UAVs - especially quad, hexo and octo copters - they are electric and can usually only fly for about 20 minutes at a time.

It helps to have a background in geomatics as well. That helps when looking at close ups and possibly calculating volumes.

The FAA is going to appeal their latest court loss and that means judgement in the last case is stayed - so there is room for certain UAV applications as long as you are aware of the safety concerns and the potentials for problems with law enforcement types who are not aware of the appropriate use of a UAV.

Best that anyone who uses them is also aware of the different classes of airspace as anyone infringing upon airspace that is not "unclass or G class or general purpose" they could be in serious trouble.

Bottom line?

UAVs are here to stay - the gold rush is on in the US of A since the FAA court case was lost. The big money right at this moment is taking pictures - golf courses, real estate developments, hotels, folks selling their house and so on.

Remember - you want to take pictures you do not need a live feed - you want to scout something out - then you need to up the anti and get a live feed.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is building the civil models for sale - be sure to get one that is well built.

No matter what you buy today for the civil use - be sure it can carry the load - and better if you are able to get one that will carry about 8 pounds. Allows you to multi task - after all those batteries run out faster than you think!

Best to you

Bez

The one I'm looking at has the gopro camera and the nvid. Has a 30 min run time and a 30 min charge time. If we get it we'll get two extra batteries.
Can view real time or watch that night what it did during the day.
Cost about 15k, thinking prices will come down so would like to wait but it will pay for itself the first year or less. Just the two of us would be less than 2 dollars an acre for the purchase price.

Night vision is a good thing.

The Go-Pro, well I am not that familiar with them as I only used the small one on my helmet in Afghanistan. Does this one have "zoom" capability? If not I would recommend you look at something else as objects - even big ones - get very small very quickly from any type of altitude.

As for the cost - despite the comments, it is not out of line. We are looking at a couple models in the $50K range for commercial work this summer - planning to have them flying as much as possible - working with the police, fire and ambulance folks as well as mines, pipelines and power transmission line patrols.

Once we're are fully up and running - if we make it that far we would actually like to get to the point where we can do beyond line of sight - making things a bit more tricky but certainly far more efficient. You will not see that in US of A comercial operations for some time due to FAA regs - in Canada due to the empty spaces, the regs are a bit more relaxed.

Cheers

Bez

 

[highgrit]

At what altitude will these drones fly at?? I would assume less than 500' feet. I like to fly low and slow myself, unless the buzzards are real bad. I can see me trying to keep a eye out for a drone, when I'm looking for deer. VFR only works when someone can see the other aircraft.

 

[jedstivers]

The gopro does what we need plus the one we are looking at is big enough to build more onto as things come out. The NVID will be the biggest use for us. That camera is 4,500 by itself.
Trimble is coming out with one that's 50 or 60 thousand but it has survey capabilities that can have cut sheets made and dirt moved from.