DRONES are not the answer when it comes to weed control according to Planfarm researcher Peter Newman.
After receiving a grant to trial the use of drones and how they could detect weeds in a paddock, Mr Newman has said there was better technology out there that was ground-based.
“It may be possible to use drones to detect weeds in crop enabling later patch spraying with a conventional boomsprayer, but it is unlikely to be economically viable due to the cost of image capturing by drone to achieve the required image quality,” Mr Newman said.
After multiple tests Mr Newman and his collaborative team couldn’t get the pixel quality that was needed to detect weeds in a crop from a drone.
The fixed-wing drone to would have to cover 200-300 hectares an hour if it was going to be more cost effective in comparison to weedseekers and other ground technology.
Mr Newman said he found the drones to be a difficult piece of equipment because “they fly” and “the eagles just love them”.
“When you have $80,000 in the air you are going to want to spot an eagle before it takes the drone down,” he said.
Mr Newman hoped that in the future, as technology improved, they may be able to use drones to identify weeds, program a spray plan and assemble into a commercial tractor, but said at this point in time it was neither cost efficient of time-effective.
“I believe ground-based see-and-spray technology such as Blue River technology is likely where future ideas will come from,” he said.