Demand for drone pilots to spray, fertilise and even sow seed has ramped up in the wake of wet weather from the coast to the black soil plains.
Shane Moylan, from New Italy via Coraki on the floodplains of the Richmond, had long admired the idea of managing a farm while hovering above the ground and when technology developed he invested.
He now owns Australia's largest and second-largest drones to carry out everything from sprinkling fertiliser and seed to spraying herbicide, pesticide and fungicide on crops as diverse as tea tree and rice, bananas and landscaping palms. Applying chemical to the tops of plants with an immediate downforce from the drone's rotor blades gives an ideal application.
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Another crucial job has been to paint polyethylene growing tunnels with white UV dampening paint, which lowers the temperatures inside by four degrees Celsius.
Of course the real reason to use a drone is for its light touch and ability to access paddocks days ahead of conventional equipment.
"I've had a lot of inquiries from dairy famers lately asking me to seed their paddocks," Mr Moylan said. "I've been so busy since the floods."
The large drones carry two batteries, 9.5kg each, and after every 4.5 minute trip require a quick and powerful recharge. Mr Moylan uses a portable 15kva generator which also operates the liquid-transfer pumps.
The coverage is excellent. We can expect to use half the volume of chemical.
- Spray contractor James Gratsounas, Wee Waa
In the near future technology will allow drones to couple with other high-tech gear like camera sprayers, while digital soil maps are already incorporated into automated flight paths. The operator only has to take-off, land, and fill 'er up.
Drones' increase in relevance to big cropping enterprises is beginning to attract interest from the western districts with contract sprayer from Wee Waa, James Gratsounas crunching the numbers on whether he should invest in existing technology.
At current trade a contractor can buy 10 drones each capable of carrying 52kg for the same price as one big conventional rig.
Drones are easier to transport as rigs are slow on the road, require an escort and need to pull over to let traffic pass.
The real barrier at the moment is price of application - Drone spraying currently costs $50 to $70/ha and Mr Gratsounas reckons blacksoil farmers won't pay much more than $20.
Conventional spray rigs come at a charge of $8/ha when the farmer pays for the diesel and apply coarse droplets. When spray is spread from a plane the cost is around $13 to $15/ha.
But anyone who sees the results can see the value in a drone applying fine spray above the crop, with rotors applying downforce, from a height of just 3-4m.
"The coverage is excellent. After a spray I can see hundreds of little droplets on the leaves of a crop," he says. "We can expect to use half the volume of spray."
The next generation drone can carry 72kg, while still complying with strict CASA rules on take-off weight and will cover 20ha/hr - the same as Mr Gratsounas' 24m spray rig.
Drones are easier to maintain - eight identical electric motors and a motherboard. Meanwhile, just the digital output unit on his spray rig costs $7000 to replace and one tyre $5500. "It costs me $70,000 to $90,000 a year to maintain my two spray rigs," Mr Gratsounas said.
