September 14, 2024 • 39 mins
“So it's essentially a drone in a box. And it is automated, but it's only just been released, so it will open up at a predetermined time, do its map, and come back, park up and close up for the night. And people are sending them out every day to collect data,
“It's in a weatherproof station that sits outside a shed or something like that. As long as it's got internet and power, you can then plan flights at any time of the day.
“So it will open up. It's got its own little weather station inbuilt. So if it is too windy, it won't take off. So there are some safety measures in place as well.
In our eighth and final episode of our series On the Horizon: Farm Tech Janine chats to Droneland Australia’s Adam Mitchell about how drones are being used in agriculture to support farmers. The conversation covers types of drones, costs, capabilities including spraying, spreading, seedings, mapping, analysing, topography collection, firefighting, livestock management and agricultural research. The conversation also covers safety, licensing, support and contracting.
This podcast is sponsored by GE Silos. Visit https://www.gesilos.com.au/ today
About Adam Mitchell
Adam has always been interested in business and envisaged becoming an entrepreneur. He has always admired people who believe in a vision and back themselves to make their vision a reality. After high school, Adam became a qualified electrician and from there moved into facilities management. At the same time, he attended university (night school) whilst raising a young family. Adam completed a Bachelor Degree in Business. It was then that Adam first came across the use of drones in agriculture. His family has had cattle farms for some time and it was at their farm in Gympie that a neighbour was using a drone to access an area he could not reach by foot or vehicle. Adam and his two brother in laws and now business partners began researching how drones were being used in agriculture, and saw a real opportunity in the space.
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We would like to thank our sponsors GE Silos for making this episode possible. Visit https://www.gesilos.com.au/ today
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In the spirit of reconciliation, BCG acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
BCG acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and
their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our
respects to their elders, past and present.
S2 (00:14):
So it's essentially a drone in a box and it
is automated, but it's only just been released, so it
will basically open up at a predetermined time, do its
map and come back and park up and close up
for the night. And people are sending them out every
day to collect data. It's in a weatherproof station that
sits outside a shed. As long as it's got internet
and power, you can then plan flights at any time
(00:36):
of the day so it will open up. It's got
its own little weather station inbuilt, so if it is
too windy it won't take off. So there are some
safety measures in place as well.
S3 (00:49):
Hello and welcome back to Shared Solutions by BCG. I'm
Janine Batters and in the last episode of our series
on the Horizon Farm Tech sponsored by GE silos, we're
speaking with Adam Mitchell from Drone Land, and he's going
to be talking to us about how drones are being
used in agriculture. Welcome, Adam.
S2 (01:06):
Afternoon, Janine. Thanks for having me.
S3 (01:07):
So very excited to have you on the show today, Adam,
because drones are getting pretty big in agriculture. So looking
forward to having this conversation with you, Adam. Just for
a start, can you give our listeners a bit of
a background on who you are and why you're so
passionate about drones?
S2 (01:24):
Sure thing. So our business is Drone Land Australia, so
we are end to end solution providers for training, sales
and basically anything to do with drones. So that's that's
our business model. Um, we got into business. Our family
owns cattle farms and have been involved in cattle farming
for a little while. We've got a family property up
(01:44):
in Gympie in Queensland, and where it really came about
was pretty organic by nature. There was a neighbor up
there a couple of years ago that was using a
drone to create more fertility amongst his land that he
couldn't access by foot or by vehicle. And it was
the first time I'd really been exposed to drones in agriculture.
And it really fascinated myself and my two business partners,
who are also my brother in law. So from there,
(02:06):
we began a real six month period of flat out
research on how they were used and some of the
synergies and impacts it could have. And like you said,
even from your research, it just opened up our eyes
as to the possibilities that we could achieve together. And
we also like that it was Australian. We could impact
the very things in our own backyard, and it was
technology that was designed for a really good purpose, not
(02:27):
just changing things for the sake of changing. There's real
value in what drone technology can add in agriculture. So
that was sort of how it came about. And we
decided to launch into business together.
S3 (02:37):
So just for a start, for our listeners, can you
tell me more about what type of drones they are
there are available on the market? What do they do
and how much do they cost?
S2 (02:48):
Okay, so the simplest way to probably explain it is
that there's a variety of different models and makes. At
drone land, we sell specifically DJI products. We just find
their workflows are seamless and very user intuitive. So from
a first time user all the way to a seasoned professional,
they've just got a really diverse and comprehensive range of
products that are very easy to use. We tend to
(03:09):
split them up into two categories. You've got your smaller
sort of mapping drones and then your larger spraying, spreading,
applying drones, particularly in agriculture. So with the enterprise series,
which is your smaller mapping drones, it's a drone that's
probably the size of the palm of your hand, maybe
a little bit bigger. And they're equipped with different sensors
and payloads. Some might have thermal capabilities so you can
see animals at night. Some have lidar, which is good
(03:32):
for surveying and topography. They're all equipped with pretty high
end cameras. So any form of photography very good. And
then obviously 3D models and rendering and also variable rate
applications for those farmers that want to be a bit
more specific with what they spray and where they spray it.
That's where that workflow comes into the application of the
spraying and spreading drones. So the agri series, which is
(03:53):
the DJI Agras T50, which is the hallmark drone at
the moment, it's a 50 litre drone. It can spray
and spread and map, so quite a large piece of equipment,
but very versatile in its offering. So the enterprise drones,
depending on the payload, they vary from anywhere from around
sort of the $5,000 mark to the $15,000 mark, depending
on what application you're after. And then the agro series.
(04:15):
Drones start at around 25,000 and can go up to
60 to 70,000, depending on the package that you want
to build around them. But that's a ballpark of where
they sit.
S3 (04:24):
So the little ones, they're about the size of your
palm of your hand. That's quite small. So what kind
of things are they mapping Adam?
S2 (04:31):
Typically, our most popular form of mapping at the moment
is boundary mapping. So customers may want to go and
fly their farm and create paddock boundaries that can then
be uploaded into the larger spreading drone. So they'll go
and do a very quick map. They might map half
a dozen paddocks, they'll create a boundary file or a
shapefile that will then be super accurate sort of centimeter accuracy,
(04:52):
and then upload it into the larger spraying drone. That's
a plug and play scenario where they just swipe to
execute the mission, and the drone will go off and
start spraying at a predetermined rate. One of the other
benefits that the smaller ones can offer is the variable
rate application. For example, a multi-spectral drone, which will have
different sensors on the top, will be able to determine
variations in crop health. Or there might be an area
(05:13):
of deficiency that needs further attention. So you can then
create a map that's specific to your paddock. So there
may be an area where 50% of the yield is
really high. And you think, I don't need a blanket
approach and blanket spray this entire paddock. I only need
to focus my efforts on the 20% or the 25%
that really requires it, and we might just back that
off on the other. So at the end of the day,
(05:33):
it's about saving a lot of chemical and just being
a bit more targeted in your approach.
S3 (05:38):
So are you talking ndVi maps, Adam, or are you
talking ndVi and other maps to determine how you're going
to treat those different areas in the paddock?
S2 (05:46):
It can be a combination of both, really. A boundary
map essentially is just mapping the perimeter of the boundary
to create a geo zone for the larger drone to
stay within its limits. Variable rate application can use ndVi data,
which can be captured on the smaller drone as well.
And that's the benefit. So one drone can do all
of these things that we're talking about. And then it's
just essentially plugged in and uploaded into the larger drone
(06:09):
to go out and apply whether it's spray or spread.
S3 (06:12):
If I was to say, yep, I want to map
my whole farm. Adam, how long can these drones go
before they need to go back and charge? Do they charge?
S2 (06:22):
They do. So they're all battery. And the smaller drones.
The enterprise series can fly around 45 minutes and they
cover quite a bit of area, particularly if you're at
an elevation of around 100 or 120m, quite an area
it can cover in a short amount of time.
S3 (06:37):
They go 45 minutes and then they come back to
their docking station. Do I have to be there?
S2 (06:42):
You don't have to be. Depending on the type of
drone you got, there's new ones coming out all the time.
But essentially, yeah, the pilot would send it up, they
would stay there because you're supposed to maintain line of sight,
and they would stay there for the duration of the flight.
S3 (06:54):
I see. So these aren't autonomous drones. They're being flown.
S2 (06:58):
Particular ones we're talking about are, but there are products
that have just been brought out that are docking stations
that are automated flight. But we'll get into that a
bit later.
S3 (07:06):
Cool. That sounds good because I mean, if I don't
have to be there, I'm happy. So they've got a
50 litre tank, these big ones. Um, what kind of
spraying are they doing? Are you using these to spray
the paddock, or are you using these to sort of
be more like, you know, going to go check paddocks
and you're going to check that one for what I
would like is for a drone to go, well, I've
(07:28):
got to check these paddocks, I've got a bit of
spraying to do. Can you check and see how many
weeds there are? Can you check and see if any
of the paddocks are, if they're a bit poor in
some of the areas, whether they need a bit more
nitrogen or something like that, can you check and see
if there's any disease, and can you tell me is
there any insects or something? And then can you report
back to me? Because I'm pretty busy and this is
(07:48):
what I'm paying you for. Drone. Can they do that?
S2 (07:51):
Essentially, yeah, there's a few different offerings at the moment,
and it largely depends on the software that goes on
the back end behind the scenes that you don't often see.
And that's where we'd encourage everyone just to come in
or pick up the phone and have a chat before
you go in to make a purchase, just to make
sure that you're across it. Because, yeah, as you know,
the space is evolving so quickly and there are always
(08:12):
different offerings on the market. So some of the softwares
can be quite expensive too. So again, we just want
to make sure that you're getting exactly what you've asked for.
So if you wanted to go and pick a specific
weed out, there are probably better software products than others,
depending on the weed that you're trying to determine.
S3 (08:28):
Okay, so you could use algorithms to search out depending on,
but that's a product that you would put on that drone.
S2 (08:36):
Correct. So there are some aftermarket products. So typically we
would go and fly the paddock or the farmer might
fly the paddock. And there are other options. So if
you didn't want to necessarily spend the thousands of dollars
for a software program to do that because it might
be a once off, that's something you might just send
to us and say, hey guys, can you analyze it
for me? I don't have time. We can do that.
If it is a regular occurrence, we'd probably suggest you
(08:58):
start to look at it in-house just to save on costs.
But there are programs that you can send online as well,
so you can send them away for analysis. Go about
your normal job and by the end of the day
or early the next morning, the results should be there
for you.
S3 (09:12):
That sounds good. So I could say, could I say
check for all of those things? Is there an app
or a plugin or software that would check for each
of those things? And then. Because that's what I was thinking.
It'd be really cool if not only do I not
have to check the paddocks, I'd like them to be autonomous.
And then they tell me all these things and but
(09:32):
I don't want to have to go back and look
at all these maps myself. They want I want something
that's going to synthesize it for me and say, these
are our recommendations. So can it do that? And within
the day it could.
S2 (09:43):
Yes it could. And I suppose not to throw a
spanner in the works, but probably something just to consider
is also depending on what you're trying to analyze. So
some people may want to perform a stand count for
example on a really small germination. Obviously at 120m that's
a long way up. So you just want to make
sure that whatever height we're flying at can capture all
the things that you're talking about. So it's not always
(10:05):
a one size fits all. But generally speaking, there's a
lot of data that can be captured and managed in
one flight.
S3 (10:11):
Might take more than one pass. Is what you're saying?
S2 (10:13):
Not more than one pass, but you can fly a
bit slower, a bit more high resolution. So the more
we can zoom in and and capture imagery and the
greater the GSD, which is ground sampling distance. So every
pixel of a photo represents a distance on the ground.
So the the lower and slower you fly the more
high resolution you get.
S3 (10:31):
So if I had 150 hectare paddock Adam, how long
would it take the drone operator to survey that paddock?
For all the things that I mentioned.
S2 (10:40):
As a rule of thumb, I would say around an
hour and a half to give you a rough time frame.
The good thing about the drone is we can determine
all of this before we even get to your place.
Or the drone operator can, the farmer can. So you
can actually plug this into your controller, sitting it in
the comfort of your house and do a quick map
and say, here's the area that I want to fly.
It will come out with the amount of photos. The
(11:00):
duration where you're going to take off from all the
information is in the palm of your hand, so you'll
know ahead of time, which is also good for quoting purposes,
because you've got an accurate data set that you're going
to use. You're not just having a guess, it'll tell
you ahead of time.
S3 (11:13):
Okay, but you or I still have to fly the drone. Correct? Okay.
So the 50 liter tank, is that going to do
optical spraying for me? Because I don't feel like 50l
is a big tank. How does that work? Does it
keep going back and filling up.
S2 (11:27):
Yes it does. So it's actually I slipped up before.
It is a 40 liter tank but a 50 kilo spreader.
So the hopper comes out when you spread and then
when you spray the tank goes back in. So the
T 50 has four nozzles on it as opposed to
the old model which only had two. So it increases
the liter per minute. But one thing farmers are finding
is the application rates can be severely and drastically reduced
(11:51):
using a drone, and a lot of agronomists are starting
to get really familiar with drones and their application rates.
So I think you'll find and hopefully over the next
sort of 6 to 12 months, we'll have a label
rate specifically for drones on a lot of the chemicals
or applications that need to go out there, which will
help everyone in the industry. Okay.
S3 (12:10):
And you're saying that's going to be less. Why is
that going to be less? Adam.
S2 (12:13):
More efficient, greater coverage on the leaf as well. And
if you ever see a drone go over, say for example,
a corn crop, you'll see it really the rotors wash
the foliage and it really penetrates very well and very efficiently.
And there are other additives that can be added as
well to make sure that it sticks on the leaf
at a greater rate. It's just a bit of feedback
we've had from farmers and agronomists that the rates can
(12:35):
be dropped. But again, we always refer back to the
agronomists as they know best.
S3 (12:39):
What kind of farms and in what kind of situations
are farmers using these. The bigger drones for spraying or spreading?
It's a good.
S2 (12:44):
Question. And look traditionally we started out by spraying blackberries
more than anything, just on really hilly country. People weren't
wanting to walk in snake infested areas or they'd be
really jagged rocks. It was just really undulating terrain and
they said, we don't want a bar of it. We
need to use a drone to get in there. So
a lot of our flying early days was targeted, areas
like that up on hills and inaccessible areas. But there's
(13:07):
also a big push for getting on straight after a
heavy rain or spreading anything where it's just too wet.
We can't get on, uh, in Victoria. We've had quite
a bit of rain lately, so we spray quite a
few turf farms as well where they've got to be
sprayed regularly, and it's just too wet to get on.
They don't want tractor marks or any impact or compaction
on the, on the turf. Essentially anywhere that's being sprayed
currently can be used by a drone. Obviously, you've got
(13:30):
to weigh up the pros and cons against, like you said,
a 40 litre tank versus a 4000 litre boom sprayer.
There's a bit of difference, but it can be quite
efficient to take 3 or 4 drones out in one hit.
As a contractor and blanket spray and just go with
four different pilots and just move from paddock to paddock.
If you scaled up to do so, which we are.
S3 (13:50):
That's really interesting. I didn't really think about using a
number of them. What do you guys charge?
S2 (13:55):
So for just as an example, we're around the $40
mark for a broad acre. I think we're doing canola
next week and that's around that $40 mark per hectare.
Again it's a bit of a where is it located.
Is the access clear? Are there obstacles or is it
truly broad acre and open? There's a few things that
we factor in, but we tend to go out and
map the property first for a small fee, depending on
(14:17):
where it is. That just gives the client the choice
ultimately to say, we can say, here it is, here's
how long it's going to take us. We can present
all the data in front of them, and then they
can really see it, rather than just someone on the
phone saying, yeah, I think it's going to be around
about this. And then they come out and they say,
oh no, it's this.
S3 (14:34):
Can drones crash into things? Say, if the operator wasn't concentrating?
S2 (14:38):
Absolutely. At the end of the day, the answer is yes.
They've got a lot of safety features that are built
in the obstacle avoidance. Almost every sensor you can picture
is on a drone. The best way to put it
is we compare it to driving a car. No one
relies on lane assist to drive their car for them.
If you're driving the car, you drive the car. Same
with the drone. It's got every feature under the sun
to help you avoid a crash, but if you haven't
(15:00):
checked it, some of those settings are on. It might
be as simple as toggling a switch to make sure
they are on. If you do the right things, it's
highly unlikely you will ever have an issue. We haven't
to date, but again, it's just making sure you're thorough
enough just to go through the checklist before you fly
and you're good to go.
S3 (15:16):
Very cool. So what else can they do in the
cropping space Adam? So you've talked about spreading, spraying, you
talked about mapping. How do they do insects?
S2 (15:27):
So I would fly the multi-spectral drone which has a
variety of different sensors on there. You can scale back
the various vegetation indices to basically determine that there's an
issue there. So it won't necessarily detect what type of
infestation you've got or what issue there is. But from
that vantage point being straight up above, you will see
(15:47):
a drastic difference in one area of the crop compared
to another. And again, using the multi-spectral sensors, you'll be
able to see it ahead of time. So things you
might miss if you're on the ground looking with your
naked eye. The sensors will be able to pick them up.
It's just about trying to be a bit more proactive
and manage an outbreak or an issue before it becomes
a real prominent issue.
S3 (16:06):
So is that the same technology for disease then? Yes. Okay.
So what else? Is there anything else that I've missed
in terms of cropping?
S2 (16:13):
There is stand count. There's plant figure, chlorophyll content, biomass measurement.
All these things can be done. Some will use different
sensors than others, but essentially the software that plugs in
behind the scenes as well is what will then go
and run the analysis. And that is ever changing. We're
currently talking with a pineapple grower that's measuring their stand
count and flower count. So as an example, they've got
(16:36):
quite an area of plantation that is measured by just
ground passes. So they will drive past and see that
there's a percentage of the field flowering at any given time,
and one of the tools they're using it for is
to assess production and yield. So their yield counts are
way out because of some of the weather conditions that
they've had and weather events they've had. So by getting
(16:56):
up over the top of it and giving them a
real understanding of exactly what the stand count is, one
area I probably haven't touched on enough is the biomass
measurements and the vegetation indexes that can be derived. So
one of the best things about LiDAR technology, which we
use in the enterprise series drones, is we can lift
all of the vegetation off the land as well to
(17:17):
create contour lines to develop flow patterns. So if you
have a heavy downpour on the farm or where you
want to potentially build a dam or some sort of
infrastructure around it, some of these drones can again lift
the densest of vegetation up and give you a really
accurate terrain model of your property. Again, just by flying
a farm, you'd be amazed at what can be captured
if you were to do just one pass with the
(17:38):
3D flyover. People using it for insurance purposes as a
bit of a timestamp on how their property looks at
any given time, so they can then go through for
insurance claims. There's all these sort of things that have
been tabled by various farmers and said, oh, what if
we do this? What if we do that? And it's
all encompassing. So it's just the more data you can collect,
the more informed decision making power you're going to have.
S3 (18:00):
I think what makes these things stand apart is what
I'm hearing is that they're not actually just collecting more data,
as you say. They're synthesising it, which I think is
really important because there's a lot of data capturing going on,
but it's actually being able to to pull all those
figures together and help farmers to make a decision, isn't it?
S2 (18:19):
100%, absolutely.
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S3 (18:58):
Are they transported on the back of a trailer?
S2 (19:00):
We've got trailers that we use. We've got yurts. Tool boxes.
They fit in the back of a ute if you
did want to do that. But if you're spraying hundreds
and hundreds of hectares in a day, then you need
quite a bit of water supply. Your chemical mixer, your
batch mixer, things like that. And obviously making sure that
you've got the system to be able to power up
your batteries all day long.
S3 (19:18):
Yeah, that's a good point. So you need the generators
as well to to power those. So the other thing
that I was interested in was can you use these
for seeding. And how do you do that.
S2 (19:29):
Yes you can. So the Agri series does have a
spreader and a hopper on there. So again 50 kilos
of seeds. There are just two opposing discs that spread
out Oppose each other. Spread the seed quite uniformly across
a certain area. So typically most people will go and
plow their field. Go and spray. And then they would
just irrigate following that event. I have heard and seen
(19:50):
some other drones overseas that almost fire the seeds into
the ground in a little enclosure, and they sort of
they're like an arrow shape. I've seen them.
S3 (19:58):
That was the one that I saw where it was. Yeah.
Firing them into the ground. And I was had all
these questions. I was thinking, how do they know how
deep they're going and how do they know, like the
seeding rate. And I just was I thought that was
really interesting. So that's something that's perhaps around the corner.
Another thing that I was thinking about is fire. Are
drones being used to fight fires.
S2 (20:18):
I have seen cases where they're used commercially, not so much.
I would say agriculture, just because of the size and
the scale of it. We have had some experience in
helping to prepare fire management plans by assessing what sort
of foliage is there currently on a site. So where
to put fire breaks, things of that nature. So we
will go and conduct a lidar flight, which is a
(20:38):
different type of flight, but essentially it's where we can
measure the biomass of an area. We can highlight areas
that may be of concern because there might be higher
or more dense ladder fuel type systems in place, and
then as it gets more sparse or canopy heights differ
and become lower, they may be less of an issue.
LiDAR is a phenomenal tool. A bit more of a
commercial application, but we're using it more and more in agriculture.
(20:58):
What
S3 (20:59):
What is LIDAR?
S2 (20:59):
Lidar is a laser point system. So basically no different
than your laser tape measure that people have at home.
It's millions and millions of laser measurements that are shot
out from the drone in any given direction, and then
all stitched together to make a model. But the benefit
of lidar is because it can penetrate vegetation. So it
(21:20):
has five points of return. So basically we can fly
over a large area using lidar, and it will just
basically spray the area with millions and millions of measurements
and points that can then be stitched back together to
create a 3D render or a 3D model.
S3 (21:35):
Now, one other question that I had regarding the seating
was I'd love to be able to plant trees, drop
trees and vegetation. Go. I want a shelter belt there.
How effective is it to do that?
S2 (21:46):
Great question. It's not something we've tackled before. I'd be
very interested to see how we could do that. I
would say the spreading system, if it was a tree
of decent size, that would be an interesting one because
the spreading couldn't do it. But I dare say there's
a way that we could incorporate drones into the workflow
in some way, shape or form.
S3 (22:04):
So if I was going to think about getting a drone, Adam,
I'd want to know, what's the return on my investment?
Can you do you have any statistics on that?
S2 (22:13):
Not off the top of my head. I dare say
you would compare it to obviously traditional methodology versus if
I adopted a drone. So one would be labor costs.
Labor component is obviously always a big one. One drone
per pilot is something to consider. Versus depends how many
people you need for this other role. I suppose the
other thing to consider is people that have bought drones
(22:34):
in the past have bought them for one specific purpose,
and then once they've got more confident in the capability
of their drone, they've realised, oh, I can actually also
do it for this application. I've got quite a big
area to manage myself. It might be a thousand acres
or a thousand hectares. We've got cases of farmers just
going to check troughs, flying it out to go and
check if gates have been left open or find some
(22:55):
cattle or livestock. So that's quite a basic operation for
a drone. But then they've also doubled up and said, oh,
the same drone can also give me a variable rate
application over here that I want to achieve.
S3 (23:05):
Would that be your recommendation to start with one?
S2 (23:08):
I would always go and start with the smaller mapping
style drone first. Just get your legs, understand what the
process is about. If you are considering doing it for
a commercial purpose, you will need a licence, which is
still relatively straightforward. It's called a ripple, which is it
allows you to fly up to a 25 kilo weight,
and that takes generally about five days to achieve. And
(23:28):
then you can work on someone else's Rioch, which is
the company business licence. But what you need to know is,
if you're interested in flying a drone on a property
that's not yours, you're going to be up for a
license that takes around five days to get.
S3 (23:40):
So I don't need a license if I'm flying my
own drone on my own property.
S2 (23:43):
Correct. But if it's over 25 kilo, you will.
S3 (23:46):
Where are drones most being used in Australia and what industries?
S2 (23:51):
I would say it's around the land topography as well.
So particularly areas that aren't probably broadacre just yet. A
lot of people are starting to use fixed wing drones,
which can fly a lot further, but that's a bit
of a slower adoption than what we're talking about now,
which is multi-rotor drones, the traditional drones that you see
with propellers. So I would say areas that are quite
(24:11):
heavily prone to being wet, quite often rocky. And in
terms of areas, I would say it really varies from
cropping to cattle. Lots of sheep. It's not a specific industry.
I'd say it's probably more the geographical location of the place.
S3 (24:25):
I was really interested when you said the flat winged
drones because, oh, there's a different type. What are they about, Adam?
S2 (24:32):
So they're called fixed wing. Essentially they take off vertically
and then they're like a little model airplane. They're quite lightweight,
but they can't hover like a traditional drone can. They
have to be moving forward. So they are very good
for larger applications and broadacre. There are other licenses that
you can get as well where you don't have to
be just visual line of sight. You can fly beyond that.
(24:52):
That's handy for broad acre applications where you can cover
great distances very quickly.
S3 (24:57):
Okay, so are they bigger?
S2 (24:58):
They're slightly bigger. They're actually quite light. A few of them,
they're just a different technology. But similar sensors can be
attached to those as well.
S3 (25:06):
So the Multi-rotor drones we talked about the little drones
and their battery life. What's the battery life of the
bigger ones?
S2 (25:14):
They spray anywhere from around 10 to 15 minute duration,
and they take about 10 to 12 minutes to recharge.
So it's almost a like for like swap out. So
once it's empty with its payload, it comes back in,
you swap the battery and you're up in the air
again within a matter of maybe a minute and a half.
S3 (25:29):
In terms so you're talking about Licenses? What are some
of the things that you aren't allowed to do? So
what were the what are some of the things that
they'll be teaching you in the license?
S2 (25:39):
So you'll learn straight away? Obviously, the ultimate authority in
Australia is Casa, the civil aviation safety authority for first
time users. You'll go through this five day licence and
they'll educate you largely around aeronautics and some of the
things you've got to know as a pilot. But then
more specifically, I guess at the end of the day,
it's just about making sure your records are up to date,
(25:59):
that your drone is in good shape before you operate it,
that you are operating visual line of sight, which means
you have to be able to determine the orientation of
your drone at all times. So if you lose sight
of your drone, not good. You've got to make sure
you can see it. One pilot per drone. So one
operator can't take five drones and fly them all at once.
It's 1 to 1 ratio. And then probably the most
important one is the 30 metre rule. So in agriculture
(26:22):
it's great because you tend to not be near anyone.
But if you were in a built up area, you
are supposed to maintain a 30 metre clearance from any personnel.
S4 (26:30):
Do.
S3 (26:30):
Drones ever go rogue and just fly up into the
air and you can't see them anymore?
S2 (26:35):
Wouldn't go rogue unless they've been programmed to do so.
So again, that's that pre-check that I was talking about.
Drones have a lot of safety features. What if the
signal cut out when I was flying my drone? What happens?
There are settings that you can select. One might be
return to home. So it will come back. The minute
it loses signal, it will fly exactly back to where
it started. But some people might have it on hover
(26:56):
where it just sits there. If you don't get the
signal back, it will sit there forever until it runs
out of battery. So again.
S3 (27:02):
That's from the sky.
S2 (27:03):
Then it would eventually, if that's the situation it was in.
S3 (27:06):
So if I don't need a license on my farm,
how am I going to keep myself and everybody else safe?
S2 (27:12):
I would say there's probably two things. One, think about
your flight before you're going to do it. So if
you know you're going somewhere where there are transmission towers
or power lines, just be wary. I wouldn't chance it,
I never would. Infrastructure costs a lot, so avoid it
as best you can and then just stay clear of
any built up areas. So if there was a common
area that people are sort of loitering at, I would
(27:33):
avoid that altogether. Just go have a bit of a
joy flight in an open area. Get the feel for it.
The drones nowadays are very good and pretty easy to fly.
I think in your tests you will be asked to
fly in attitude mode, which basically takes off a lot
of the guidance for you. So if there's a high wind,
the drone will drift with the wind to make sure
that you're skilled enough as a pilot to go and
(27:53):
then refly it and drop it down. So once it's
in an automatic sort of mode, it will sit there
and hover in some pretty high winds. So they are
very versatile units. So it's getting away from and I
think getting the mentality of these aren't toys anymore. These
are real pieces of equipment and machinery, especially in AG
and the enterprise sector. When you're paying north of 5000
(28:14):
for a small drone, it's not a toy, so you
don't want to chance it. Okay.
S3 (28:18):
And so you talked about power lines and not being
able to chance it. Would you as a contractor, if
someone had a transmission line in their paddock, would you
just say, we're not doing that paddock. Or would you
just stay well clear of it?
S2 (28:31):
No, we would still tackle the paddock. There's just different
measures you can take. So obviously depending on the height,
you may choose to fly under it again. If they
are around maybe five metres off the ground and we
fly at three, that would be too close for us.
But we can then split up the paddock on the
controller and have north and south of the paddock, and
there might just be a small line under the power
line that you don't target. But the swath on a
(28:53):
drone at about three metres off the crop height can
reach 8 to 10m wide. So if you do it
well enough and again, our pilots do it day in,
day out, they will know what they can and can't achieve,
and normally it hasn't been an issue for us. However,
part of your JSA before you start, which we will
probably touch on later in in the conversation, but we
(29:13):
do a lot of preparation ahead of time so we
can map out all of those obstacles, which is hence
why we tend to map our jobs. First, send the
little one up, do its thing, mark out obstacles, and
we'll just sit there and have a bit of a
toolbox ahead of the job, and then we go out
and spray.
S3 (29:28):
What about noise pollution? Adam, how loud are they?
S2 (29:31):
Some of the larger scale. The aggregates do have a
bit of noise, but to be perfectly honest, it hasn't
been an issue for us. We always wear PPE and
have earmuffs and radios to communicate with one another anyway.
But the benefit of drones, and something I didn't really
mention before was the chemicals being taken away from you.
So it's being applied at a long distance away from
where you're set up. Whereas opposed to when you're on
(29:53):
a sprayer, you're right amongst what you're spraying. So that's
another safety aspect of a spraying drone, is we're taking
the chemical hundreds of meters away from you, and you're
applying it at a distance, and then it's coming back
when it's empty. So we probably park the drones maybe ten,
15m away from us when we're operating, wait for it
to shut down, power down, get a battery, go over,
fill it up, salt the battery, and away it goes again.
(30:14):
So it hasn't been an issue for us. If you're
doing maybe more of a commercial or, you know, potentially
work for councils where you're around people, things of that nature,
you'd want to be just wary of it. And there
are times of the day that are better suited to
operating than others.
S3 (30:28):
So what are some of the current challenges that farmers
are facing using a drone?
S2 (30:32):
I would say one of the biggest challenges and hurdles
is the fear of change. People are less likely to
adopt something if no one else around them is doing it.
Being the first one at it is always a bit
of a hurdle and a bit of a risk to overcome.
The technology now has been around for quite a number
of years and it's getting more and more affordable as well.
So even as recent as 2 or 3 years ago,
(30:52):
some of this technology was over twice the price of
what it is now. So I think it's a bit
of a combination between the manufacturer also listening to the
end user and just having a bit of time between
to really get together. And obviously a lot of the
feedbacks came back and forth. So early days it was
maybe the price is too high or it's not viable
for my business. DJI have obviously listened to that. They're
(31:14):
creating different product lines and different services and different packages
and different offerings to be able to support the farmer.
So for someone to go completely uneducated, never have flown
a drone within the space of a few weeks, can
have their drone license their business up and running. My
only advice to anyone doing that would just be to
just be a little bit patient. There is a lot
to learn. We're still learning every day, and just be
(31:36):
open to suggestions and getting as much feedback from people
as you can that are in the industry already doing it,
because it'll save you a lot of headaches, a lot
of time.
S3 (31:43):
Good advice Adam. I think now moving into livestock, can
you tell me how drones are being used by farmers
with livestock?
S2 (31:52):
Quite a number of our clients have actually purchased thermal drones,
because they want to go and count some of their
stock as well at any time of day or night.
So they will then fly them up. And obviously some
of the technology as well that's coming in. As you
probably have seen, a lot of the cattle now have
markings on their ears or little chips inserted. So again
that's got other benefits to it. So if they go
(32:13):
up to a trough there's certain apparatus now that can weigh.
See how much the calves drank. See what it's eaten
that day. And drones are almost the overview where they
can go and scan the entire premises and basically collate
all that data in a uniform fashion. Other than that,
it's very similar to the cropping where you can still
again spread map spray. All those applications are still relevant
(32:34):
in livestock.
S3 (32:36):
So could they deliver feed?
S2 (32:38):
They could. I haven't seen it done in Australia personally
just yet. There are drones that can carry quite a
bit of weight and they're more for transporting. But I
think traditionally farmers, particularly here in Victoria, have already got
all the infrastructure that they need to be able to
do it on a larger scale. So I think the
weight is always going to be that issue with the
drones that we've got currently, where they're not going to
be able to transport, I would say more than 100
(33:01):
kilos or something like that.
S3 (33:02):
Okay. So going back to your first story and how
you were inspired. Can you tell me how were they
using drones to increase fertility?
S2 (33:11):
So they had there was a lot of hilly area
that was just basically unused. And it wasn't a broad
acre sense. This was quite a small property, a few
hundred hectare, but there was just very dense scrub and
lantana and I just needed a real good clean up,
but there was no real way of accessing it. It
was so thick and dense, this this scrub that was
around this place. Again, it was either wait for a helicopter,
(33:34):
but they didn't want some of the vegetation killed, so
they didn't want the chopper coming in and just bombing everything.
They wanted to be a lot more specific and targeted
in their approach. And that's where the drone came in
is okay. I can actually hover right over exactly what
I want to spray, apply the chemical. But I don't
necessarily want to kill all this. Some of the wattles
and different trees that are around the place.
S3 (33:53):
So what about in terms of research. So I know
BCG has got some nice drones. How are we using
them in research and how are they being used in
research in general.
S2 (34:04):
Yes. So Burchett has purchased the Mavic three multi-spectral that
I mentioned before basically for their trial plots. So using
those different vegetation indices to peel back and analyze specific
crops that they're planting, there is also a pix 4D license,
which is one type of software that we offer so
it can go through and determine plant vigor. It can
(34:25):
do some stand counts, things like that. And you also
did purchase a T25, which is the T25. So a
smaller version of the drone I was talking about before.
So 25 liter tank, essentially all the other features are
quite similar. So smaller scale spreading, but again a very
versatile and nimble drone. So there is just on that.
There is another product. It's called the dock two. So
(34:46):
it's essentially a drone in a box and it is automated,
but it's only just been released. So it will basically
open up at a predetermined time, do its map and
come back and park up, close up for the night.
And people are sending them out every day to collect data.
It's in a weatherproof station that sits outside a shed.
As long as it's got internet and power, you can
then plan flights at any time of the day so
(35:09):
it will open up. It's got its own little weather
station inbuilt, so if it is too windy it won't
take off. So there are some safety measures in place
as well.
S3 (35:17):
How do they fit into the licensing regulations, then that's
a good question.
S2 (35:22):
And that's one that's involved. So that is beyond visual
line of sight. So that's another separate license that you need.
S3 (35:28):
And how reliable are they Adam. Because my robot vacuum
cleaner isn't very reliable.
S2 (35:33):
No I would trust this. Absolutely.
S3 (35:35):
That is good. I'm pleased that you've said that. What
about irrigation? Can they irrigate crops?
S2 (35:41):
They can. That model can spray crops depending on what
you're spraying it with. If it's just water, anything that
can come out of a nozzle, essentially it can do.
I haven't heard of them just spraying water only, but
I'm sure it could do it.
S3 (35:54):
Okay. What is the lifespan of a drone, particularly the
big ones? If I'm going to buy a big one? Adam,
I want it to last a while.
S2 (36:01):
That's a good question. They've got a couple of years warranty,
but ultimately I've never seen one perish yet because they
probably haven't been out long enough. So I would say
you'd want to get at least ten years out of
one of these bigger drones. But yeah, the warranty is
quite comprehensive as well. But batteries go off life cycles,
so they tend to be I think it's 1500 cycles
off the top of my head before they become unserviceable.
(36:24):
They'll still work, but highly recommended to replace them. But
the general wear and tear and maintenance of these drones,
they're all quite modular, so they're relatively easy to get
parts for their plug and play a lot of the time.
S3 (36:35):
Do you find they break down a bit?
S2 (36:37):
No. I think the most common item we have go
is propellers. And sometimes that's clients taking them off from
potentially rocky areas or gravel roads where stones flick up
once the rotors start up. That tends to be one
of the first things that shows signs of wear. So
we either use a mat, a landing pad, or we
will fly them off the paddock deck where it's just
got some grass or something around it, but they are
(36:59):
pretty reliable and durable. Normally consumables washes a couple of
little bits and pieces, but no, they are pretty robust.
S3 (37:06):
Okay, Adam, so once you leave and the next day
I'm trying to fly it and having some trouble, is
there support available?
S2 (37:12):
Absolutely. We definitely won't leave you high and dry or
drop it at your doorstep. We'll be there to walk
you through it and hold your hand every step of
the way.
S3 (37:19):
And is that included in the cost of the drone? Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Was there anything else, Adam, that you thought our listeners
might be interested in?
S2 (37:30):
One thing to probably mention is a lot of the
questions that you're probably feeling. If you are a first
time listener, you want to reach out. And we spoke
earlier about people potentially being a bit timid and not
wanting to ask those questions. You do need to, and
it's the easiest way to get ahead of it and
leapfrog you forward six months down your journey. Because a
lot of people have the same issues. We get asked
a lot of the same questions, so there is no
stupid question. I still ask them all the time myself.
(37:52):
So yeah, just don't feel too precious about it. Come
see us, give us a call, have a chat, talk
to anyone else that's in the industry as well. Get
some really valuable advice. And we've actually just released a
YouTube channel a few months ago, and we've got some
user friendly content on there that people have been asking for.
S3 (38:07):
Like a helpful YouTube channel. So that's that's one we
might put in the show notes. Speaking of advice, that
might be a nice segue. Adam. What is the best
advice that you've been given in life or in business.
S2 (38:20):
I love these ones because I could talk for hours,
but as funny as it is, the simplest piece of
advice I ever got given was just be good to people.
And I know that sounds really basic, but it just
makes so much sense and not doing it because you're
told to do it, but do it because you want
to do it and approach life like that. And it's
something I instill in my kids quite a bit. Manners
cost nothing. Just be good to people in general if
(38:42):
they've got an issue and you can help them, help them.
Whether that's walking down the street and opening the door
for someone. Just do right by people and things work
out pretty well in the end. If you're what goes
around does come around.
S3 (38:54):
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S1 (39:03):
BCG drives the prosperity of Australian farmers, communities and landscapes
through applied research, innovation and events. To find out more
about what we're up to, our team and events near you,
visit BCG website.
BCG acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and
their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our
respects to their elders, past and present.
S2 (00:14):
So it's essentially a drone in a box and it
is automated, but it's only just been released, so it
will basically open up at a predetermined time, do its
map and come back and park up and close up
for the night. And people are sending them out every
day to collect data. It's in a weatherproof station that
sits outside a shed. As long as it's got internet
and power, you can then plan flights at any time
(00:36):
of the day so it will open up. It's got
its own little weather station inbuilt, so if it is
too windy it won't take off. So there are some
safety measures in place as well.
S3 (00:49):
Hello and welcome back to Shared Solutions by BCG. I'm
Janine Batters and in the last episode of our series
on the Horizon Farm Tech sponsored by GE silos, we're
speaking with Adam Mitchell from Drone Land, and he's going
to be talking to us about how drones are being
used in agriculture. Welcome, Adam.
S2 (01:06):
Afternoon, Janine. Thanks for having me.
S3 (01:07):
So very excited to have you on the show today, Adam,
because drones are getting pretty big in agriculture. So looking
forward to having this conversation with you, Adam. Just for
a start, can you give our listeners a bit of
a background on who you are and why you're so
passionate about drones?
S2 (01:24):
Sure thing. So our business is Drone Land Australia, so
we are end to end solution providers for training, sales
and basically anything to do with drones. So that's that's
our business model. Um, we got into business. Our family
owns cattle farms and have been involved in cattle farming
for a little while. We've got a family property up
(01:44):
in Gympie in Queensland, and where it really came about
was pretty organic by nature. There was a neighbor up
there a couple of years ago that was using a
drone to create more fertility amongst his land that he
couldn't access by foot or by vehicle. And it was
the first time I'd really been exposed to drones in agriculture.
And it really fascinated myself and my two business partners,
who are also my brother in law. So from there,
(02:06):
we began a real six month period of flat out
research on how they were used and some of the
synergies and impacts it could have. And like you said,
even from your research, it just opened up our eyes
as to the possibilities that we could achieve together. And
we also like that it was Australian. We could impact
the very things in our own backyard, and it was
technology that was designed for a really good purpose, not
(02:27):
just changing things for the sake of changing. There's real
value in what drone technology can add in agriculture. So
that was sort of how it came about. And we
decided to launch into business together.
S3 (02:37):
So just for a start, for our listeners, can you
tell me more about what type of drones they are
there are available on the market? What do they do
and how much do they cost?
S2 (02:48):
Okay, so the simplest way to probably explain it is
that there's a variety of different models and makes. At
drone land, we sell specifically DJI products. We just find
their workflows are seamless and very user intuitive. So from
a first time user all the way to a seasoned professional,
they've just got a really diverse and comprehensive range of
products that are very easy to use. We tend to
(03:09):
split them up into two categories. You've got your smaller
sort of mapping drones and then your larger spraying, spreading,
applying drones, particularly in agriculture. So with the enterprise series,
which is your smaller mapping drones, it's a drone that's
probably the size of the palm of your hand, maybe
a little bit bigger. And they're equipped with different sensors
and payloads. Some might have thermal capabilities so you can
see animals at night. Some have lidar, which is good
(03:32):
for surveying and topography. They're all equipped with pretty high
end cameras. So any form of photography very good. And
then obviously 3D models and rendering and also variable rate
applications for those farmers that want to be a bit
more specific with what they spray and where they spray it.
That's where that workflow comes into the application of the
spraying and spreading drones. So the agri series, which is
(03:53):
the DJI Agras T50, which is the hallmark drone at
the moment, it's a 50 litre drone. It can spray
and spread and map, so quite a large piece of equipment,
but very versatile in its offering. So the enterprise drones,
depending on the payload, they vary from anywhere from around
sort of the $5,000 mark to the $15,000 mark, depending
on what application you're after. And then the agro series.
(04:15):
Drones start at around 25,000 and can go up to
60 to 70,000, depending on the package that you want
to build around them. But that's a ballpark of where
they sit.
S3 (04:24):
So the little ones, they're about the size of your
palm of your hand. That's quite small. So what kind
of things are they mapping Adam?
S2 (04:31):
Typically, our most popular form of mapping at the moment
is boundary mapping. So customers may want to go and
fly their farm and create paddock boundaries that can then
be uploaded into the larger spreading drone. So they'll go
and do a very quick map. They might map half
a dozen paddocks, they'll create a boundary file or a
shapefile that will then be super accurate sort of centimeter accuracy,
(04:52):
and then upload it into the larger spraying drone. That's
a plug and play scenario where they just swipe to
execute the mission, and the drone will go off and
start spraying at a predetermined rate. One of the other
benefits that the smaller ones can offer is the variable
rate application. For example, a multi-spectral drone, which will have
different sensors on the top, will be able to determine
variations in crop health. Or there might be an area
(05:13):
of deficiency that needs further attention. So you can then
create a map that's specific to your paddock. So there
may be an area where 50% of the yield is
really high. And you think, I don't need a blanket
approach and blanket spray this entire paddock. I only need
to focus my efforts on the 20% or the 25%
that really requires it, and we might just back that
off on the other. So at the end of the day,
(05:33):
it's about saving a lot of chemical and just being
a bit more targeted in your approach.
S3 (05:38):
So are you talking ndVi maps, Adam, or are you
talking ndVi and other maps to determine how you're going
to treat those different areas in the paddock?
S2 (05:46):
It can be a combination of both, really. A boundary
map essentially is just mapping the perimeter of the boundary
to create a geo zone for the larger drone to
stay within its limits. Variable rate application can use ndVi data,
which can be captured on the smaller drone as well.
And that's the benefit. So one drone can do all
of these things that we're talking about. And then it's
just essentially plugged in and uploaded into the larger drone
(06:09):
to go out and apply whether it's spray or spread.
S3 (06:12):
If I was to say, yep, I want to map
my whole farm. Adam, how long can these drones go
before they need to go back and charge? Do they charge?
S2 (06:22):
They do. So they're all battery. And the smaller drones.
The enterprise series can fly around 45 minutes and they
cover quite a bit of area, particularly if you're at
an elevation of around 100 or 120m, quite an area
it can cover in a short amount of time.
S3 (06:37):
They go 45 minutes and then they come back to
their docking station. Do I have to be there?
S2 (06:42):
You don't have to be. Depending on the type of
drone you got, there's new ones coming out all the time.
But essentially, yeah, the pilot would send it up, they
would stay there because you're supposed to maintain line of sight,
and they would stay there for the duration of the flight.
S3 (06:54):
I see. So these aren't autonomous drones. They're being flown.
S2 (06:58):
Particular ones we're talking about are, but there are products
that have just been brought out that are docking stations
that are automated flight. But we'll get into that a
bit later.
S3 (07:06):
Cool. That sounds good because I mean, if I don't
have to be there, I'm happy. So they've got a
50 litre tank, these big ones. Um, what kind of
spraying are they doing? Are you using these to spray
the paddock, or are you using these to sort of
be more like, you know, going to go check paddocks
and you're going to check that one for what I
would like is for a drone to go, well, I've
(07:28):
got to check these paddocks, I've got a bit of
spraying to do. Can you check and see how many
weeds there are? Can you check and see if any
of the paddocks are, if they're a bit poor in
some of the areas, whether they need a bit more
nitrogen or something like that, can you check and see
if there's any disease, and can you tell me is
there any insects or something? And then can you report
back to me? Because I'm pretty busy and this is
(07:48):
what I'm paying you for. Drone. Can they do that?
S2 (07:51):
Essentially, yeah, there's a few different offerings at the moment,
and it largely depends on the software that goes on
the back end behind the scenes that you don't often see.
And that's where we'd encourage everyone just to come in
or pick up the phone and have a chat before
you go in to make a purchase, just to make
sure that you're across it. Because, yeah, as you know,
the space is evolving so quickly and there are always
(08:12):
different offerings on the market. So some of the softwares
can be quite expensive too. So again, we just want
to make sure that you're getting exactly what you've asked for.
So if you wanted to go and pick a specific
weed out, there are probably better software products than others,
depending on the weed that you're trying to determine.
S3 (08:28):
Okay, so you could use algorithms to search out depending on,
but that's a product that you would put on that drone.
S2 (08:36):
Correct. So there are some aftermarket products. So typically we
would go and fly the paddock or the farmer might
fly the paddock. And there are other options. So if
you didn't want to necessarily spend the thousands of dollars
for a software program to do that because it might
be a once off, that's something you might just send
to us and say, hey guys, can you analyze it
for me? I don't have time. We can do that.
If it is a regular occurrence, we'd probably suggest you
(08:58):
start to look at it in-house just to save on costs.
But there are programs that you can send online as well,
so you can send them away for analysis. Go about
your normal job and by the end of the day
or early the next morning, the results should be there
for you.
S3 (09:12):
That sounds good. So I could say, could I say
check for all of those things? Is there an app
or a plugin or software that would check for each
of those things? And then. Because that's what I was thinking.
It'd be really cool if not only do I not
have to check the paddocks, I'd like them to be autonomous.
And then they tell me all these things and but
(09:32):
I don't want to have to go back and look
at all these maps myself. They want I want something
that's going to synthesize it for me and say, these
are our recommendations. So can it do that? And within
the day it could.
S2 (09:43):
Yes it could. And I suppose not to throw a
spanner in the works, but probably something just to consider
is also depending on what you're trying to analyze. So
some people may want to perform a stand count for
example on a really small germination. Obviously at 120m that's
a long way up. So you just want to make
sure that whatever height we're flying at can capture all
the things that you're talking about. So it's not always
(10:05):
a one size fits all. But generally speaking, there's a
lot of data that can be captured and managed in
one flight.
S3 (10:11):
Might take more than one pass. Is what you're saying?
S2 (10:13):
Not more than one pass, but you can fly a
bit slower, a bit more high resolution. So the more
we can zoom in and and capture imagery and the
greater the GSD, which is ground sampling distance. So every
pixel of a photo represents a distance on the ground.
So the the lower and slower you fly the more
high resolution you get.
S3 (10:31):
So if I had 150 hectare paddock Adam, how long
would it take the drone operator to survey that paddock?
For all the things that I mentioned.
S2 (10:40):
As a rule of thumb, I would say around an
hour and a half to give you a rough time frame.
The good thing about the drone is we can determine
all of this before we even get to your place.
Or the drone operator can, the farmer can. So you
can actually plug this into your controller, sitting it in
the comfort of your house and do a quick map
and say, here's the area that I want to fly.
It will come out with the amount of photos. The
(11:00):
duration where you're going to take off from all the
information is in the palm of your hand, so you'll
know ahead of time, which is also good for quoting purposes,
because you've got an accurate data set that you're going
to use. You're not just having a guess, it'll tell
you ahead of time.
S3 (11:13):
Okay, but you or I still have to fly the drone. Correct? Okay.
So the 50 liter tank, is that going to do
optical spraying for me? Because I don't feel like 50l
is a big tank. How does that work? Does it
keep going back and filling up.
S2 (11:27):
Yes it does. So it's actually I slipped up before.
It is a 40 liter tank but a 50 kilo spreader.
So the hopper comes out when you spread and then
when you spray the tank goes back in. So the
T 50 has four nozzles on it as opposed to
the old model which only had two. So it increases
the liter per minute. But one thing farmers are finding
is the application rates can be severely and drastically reduced
(11:51):
using a drone, and a lot of agronomists are starting
to get really familiar with drones and their application rates.
So I think you'll find and hopefully over the next
sort of 6 to 12 months, we'll have a label
rate specifically for drones on a lot of the chemicals
or applications that need to go out there, which will
help everyone in the industry. Okay.
S3 (12:10):
And you're saying that's going to be less. Why is
that going to be less? Adam.
S2 (12:13):
More efficient, greater coverage on the leaf as well. And
if you ever see a drone go over, say for example,
a corn crop, you'll see it really the rotors wash
the foliage and it really penetrates very well and very efficiently.
And there are other additives that can be added as
well to make sure that it sticks on the leaf
at a greater rate. It's just a bit of feedback
we've had from farmers and agronomists that the rates can
(12:35):
be dropped. But again, we always refer back to the
agronomists as they know best.
S3 (12:39):
What kind of farms and in what kind of situations
are farmers using these. The bigger drones for spraying or spreading?
It's a good.
S2 (12:44):
Question. And look traditionally we started out by spraying blackberries
more than anything, just on really hilly country. People weren't
wanting to walk in snake infested areas or they'd be
really jagged rocks. It was just really undulating terrain and
they said, we don't want a bar of it. We
need to use a drone to get in there. So
a lot of our flying early days was targeted, areas
like that up on hills and inaccessible areas. But there's
(13:07):
also a big push for getting on straight after a
heavy rain or spreading anything where it's just too wet.
We can't get on, uh, in Victoria. We've had quite
a bit of rain lately, so we spray quite a
few turf farms as well where they've got to be
sprayed regularly, and it's just too wet to get on.
They don't want tractor marks or any impact or compaction
on the, on the turf. Essentially anywhere that's being sprayed
currently can be used by a drone. Obviously, you've got
(13:30):
to weigh up the pros and cons against, like you said,
a 40 litre tank versus a 4000 litre boom sprayer.
There's a bit of difference, but it can be quite
efficient to take 3 or 4 drones out in one hit.
As a contractor and blanket spray and just go with
four different pilots and just move from paddock to paddock.
If you scaled up to do so, which we are.
S3 (13:50):
That's really interesting. I didn't really think about using a
number of them. What do you guys charge?
S2 (13:55):
So for just as an example, we're around the $40
mark for a broad acre. I think we're doing canola
next week and that's around that $40 mark per hectare.
Again it's a bit of a where is it located.
Is the access clear? Are there obstacles or is it
truly broad acre and open? There's a few things that
we factor in, but we tend to go out and
map the property first for a small fee, depending on
(14:17):
where it is. That just gives the client the choice
ultimately to say, we can say, here it is, here's
how long it's going to take us. We can present
all the data in front of them, and then they
can really see it, rather than just someone on the
phone saying, yeah, I think it's going to be around
about this. And then they come out and they say,
oh no, it's this.
S3 (14:34):
Can drones crash into things? Say, if the operator wasn't concentrating?
S2 (14:38):
Absolutely. At the end of the day, the answer is yes.
They've got a lot of safety features that are built
in the obstacle avoidance. Almost every sensor you can picture
is on a drone. The best way to put it
is we compare it to driving a car. No one
relies on lane assist to drive their car for them.
If you're driving the car, you drive the car. Same
with the drone. It's got every feature under the sun
to help you avoid a crash, but if you haven't
(15:00):
checked it, some of those settings are on. It might
be as simple as toggling a switch to make sure
they are on. If you do the right things, it's
highly unlikely you will ever have an issue. We haven't
to date, but again, it's just making sure you're thorough
enough just to go through the checklist before you fly
and you're good to go.
S3 (15:16):
Very cool. So what else can they do in the
cropping space Adam? So you've talked about spreading, spraying, you
talked about mapping. How do they do insects?
S2 (15:27):
So I would fly the multi-spectral drone which has a
variety of different sensors on there. You can scale back
the various vegetation indices to basically determine that there's an
issue there. So it won't necessarily detect what type of
infestation you've got or what issue there is. But from
that vantage point being straight up above, you will see
(15:47):
a drastic difference in one area of the crop compared
to another. And again, using the multi-spectral sensors, you'll be
able to see it ahead of time. So things you
might miss if you're on the ground looking with your
naked eye. The sensors will be able to pick them up.
It's just about trying to be a bit more proactive
and manage an outbreak or an issue before it becomes
a real prominent issue.
S3 (16:06):
So is that the same technology for disease then? Yes. Okay.
So what else? Is there anything else that I've missed
in terms of cropping?
S2 (16:13):
There is stand count. There's plant figure, chlorophyll content, biomass measurement.
All these things can be done. Some will use different
sensors than others, but essentially the software that plugs in
behind the scenes as well is what will then go
and run the analysis. And that is ever changing. We're
currently talking with a pineapple grower that's measuring their stand
count and flower count. So as an example, they've got
(16:36):
quite an area of plantation that is measured by just
ground passes. So they will drive past and see that
there's a percentage of the field flowering at any given time,
and one of the tools they're using it for is
to assess production and yield. So their yield counts are
way out because of some of the weather conditions that
they've had and weather events they've had. So by getting
(16:56):
up over the top of it and giving them a
real understanding of exactly what the stand count is, one
area I probably haven't touched on enough is the biomass
measurements and the vegetation indexes that can be derived. So
one of the best things about LiDAR technology, which we
use in the enterprise series drones, is we can lift
all of the vegetation off the land as well to
(17:17):
create contour lines to develop flow patterns. So if you
have a heavy downpour on the farm or where you
want to potentially build a dam or some sort of
infrastructure around it, some of these drones can again lift
the densest of vegetation up and give you a really
accurate terrain model of your property. Again, just by flying
a farm, you'd be amazed at what can be captured
if you were to do just one pass with the
(17:38):
3D flyover. People using it for insurance purposes as a
bit of a timestamp on how their property looks at
any given time, so they can then go through for
insurance claims. There's all these sort of things that have
been tabled by various farmers and said, oh, what if
we do this? What if we do that? And it's
all encompassing. So it's just the more data you can collect,
the more informed decision making power you're going to have.
S3 (18:00):
I think what makes these things stand apart is what
I'm hearing is that they're not actually just collecting more data,
as you say. They're synthesising it, which I think is
really important because there's a lot of data capturing going on,
but it's actually being able to to pull all those
figures together and help farmers to make a decision, isn't it?
S2 (18:19):
100%, absolutely.
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S3 (18:58):
Are they transported on the back of a trailer?
S2 (19:00):
We've got trailers that we use. We've got yurts. Tool boxes.
They fit in the back of a ute if you
did want to do that. But if you're spraying hundreds
and hundreds of hectares in a day, then you need
quite a bit of water supply. Your chemical mixer, your
batch mixer, things like that. And obviously making sure that
you've got the system to be able to power up
your batteries all day long.
S3 (19:18):
Yeah, that's a good point. So you need the generators
as well to to power those. So the other thing
that I was interested in was can you use these
for seeding. And how do you do that.
S2 (19:29):
Yes you can. So the Agri series does have a
spreader and a hopper on there. So again 50 kilos
of seeds. There are just two opposing discs that spread
out Oppose each other. Spread the seed quite uniformly across
a certain area. So typically most people will go and
plow their field. Go and spray. And then they would
just irrigate following that event. I have heard and seen
(19:50):
some other drones overseas that almost fire the seeds into
the ground in a little enclosure, and they sort of
they're like an arrow shape. I've seen them.
S3 (19:58):
That was the one that I saw where it was. Yeah.
Firing them into the ground. And I was had all
these questions. I was thinking, how do they know how
deep they're going and how do they know, like the
seeding rate. And I just was I thought that was
really interesting. So that's something that's perhaps around the corner.
Another thing that I was thinking about is fire. Are
drones being used to fight fires.
S2 (20:18):
I have seen cases where they're used commercially, not so much.
I would say agriculture, just because of the size and
the scale of it. We have had some experience in
helping to prepare fire management plans by assessing what sort
of foliage is there currently on a site. So where
to put fire breaks, things of that nature. So we
will go and conduct a lidar flight, which is a
(20:38):
different type of flight, but essentially it's where we can
measure the biomass of an area. We can highlight areas
that may be of concern because there might be higher
or more dense ladder fuel type systems in place, and
then as it gets more sparse or canopy heights differ
and become lower, they may be less of an issue.
LiDAR is a phenomenal tool. A bit more of a
commercial application, but we're using it more and more in agriculture.
(20:58):
What
S3 (20:59):
What is LIDAR?
S2 (20:59):
Lidar is a laser point system. So basically no different
than your laser tape measure that people have at home.
It's millions and millions of laser measurements that are shot
out from the drone in any given direction, and then
all stitched together to make a model. But the benefit
of lidar is because it can penetrate vegetation. So it
(21:20):
has five points of return. So basically we can fly
over a large area using lidar, and it will just
basically spray the area with millions and millions of measurements
and points that can then be stitched back together to
create a 3D render or a 3D model.
S3 (21:35):
Now, one other question that I had regarding the seating
was I'd love to be able to plant trees, drop
trees and vegetation. Go. I want a shelter belt there.
How effective is it to do that?
S2 (21:46):
Great question. It's not something we've tackled before. I'd be
very interested to see how we could do that. I
would say the spreading system, if it was a tree
of decent size, that would be an interesting one because
the spreading couldn't do it. But I dare say there's
a way that we could incorporate drones into the workflow
in some way, shape or form.
S3 (22:04):
So if I was going to think about getting a drone, Adam,
I'd want to know, what's the return on my investment?
Can you do you have any statistics on that?
S2 (22:13):
Not off the top of my head. I dare say
you would compare it to obviously traditional methodology versus if
I adopted a drone. So one would be labor costs.
Labor component is obviously always a big one. One drone
per pilot is something to consider. Versus depends how many
people you need for this other role. I suppose the
other thing to consider is people that have bought drones
(22:34):
in the past have bought them for one specific purpose,
and then once they've got more confident in the capability
of their drone, they've realised, oh, I can actually also
do it for this application. I've got quite a big
area to manage myself. It might be a thousand acres
or a thousand hectares. We've got cases of farmers just
going to check troughs, flying it out to go and
check if gates have been left open or find some
(22:55):
cattle or livestock. So that's quite a basic operation for
a drone. But then they've also doubled up and said, oh,
the same drone can also give me a variable rate
application over here that I want to achieve.
S3 (23:05):
Would that be your recommendation to start with one?
S2 (23:08):
I would always go and start with the smaller mapping
style drone first. Just get your legs, understand what the
process is about. If you are considering doing it for
a commercial purpose, you will need a licence, which is
still relatively straightforward. It's called a ripple, which is it
allows you to fly up to a 25 kilo weight,
and that takes generally about five days to achieve. And
(23:28):
then you can work on someone else's Rioch, which is
the company business licence. But what you need to know is,
if you're interested in flying a drone on a property
that's not yours, you're going to be up for a
license that takes around five days to get.
S3 (23:40):
So I don't need a license if I'm flying my
own drone on my own property.
S2 (23:43):
Correct. But if it's over 25 kilo, you will.
S3 (23:46):
Where are drones most being used in Australia and what industries?
S2 (23:51):
I would say it's around the land topography as well.
So particularly areas that aren't probably broadacre just yet. A
lot of people are starting to use fixed wing drones,
which can fly a lot further, but that's a bit
of a slower adoption than what we're talking about now,
which is multi-rotor drones, the traditional drones that you see
with propellers. So I would say areas that are quite
(24:11):
heavily prone to being wet, quite often rocky. And in
terms of areas, I would say it really varies from
cropping to cattle. Lots of sheep. It's not a specific industry.
I'd say it's probably more the geographical location of the place.
S3 (24:25):
I was really interested when you said the flat winged
drones because, oh, there's a different type. What are they about, Adam?
S2 (24:32):
So they're called fixed wing. Essentially they take off vertically
and then they're like a little model airplane. They're quite lightweight,
but they can't hover like a traditional drone can. They
have to be moving forward. So they are very good
for larger applications and broadacre. There are other licenses that
you can get as well where you don't have to
be just visual line of sight. You can fly beyond that.
(24:52):
That's handy for broad acre applications where you can cover
great distances very quickly.
S3 (24:57):
Okay, so are they bigger?
S2 (24:58):
They're slightly bigger. They're actually quite light. A few of them,
they're just a different technology. But similar sensors can be
attached to those as well.
S3 (25:06):
So the Multi-rotor drones we talked about the little drones
and their battery life. What's the battery life of the
bigger ones?
S2 (25:14):
They spray anywhere from around 10 to 15 minute duration,
and they take about 10 to 12 minutes to recharge.
So it's almost a like for like swap out. So
once it's empty with its payload, it comes back in,
you swap the battery and you're up in the air
again within a matter of maybe a minute and a half.
S3 (25:29):
In terms so you're talking about Licenses? What are some
of the things that you aren't allowed to do? So
what were the what are some of the things that
they'll be teaching you in the license?
S2 (25:39):
So you'll learn straight away? Obviously, the ultimate authority in
Australia is Casa, the civil aviation safety authority for first
time users. You'll go through this five day licence and
they'll educate you largely around aeronautics and some of the
things you've got to know as a pilot. But then
more specifically, I guess at the end of the day,
it's just about making sure your records are up to date,
(25:59):
that your drone is in good shape before you operate it,
that you are operating visual line of sight, which means
you have to be able to determine the orientation of
your drone at all times. So if you lose sight
of your drone, not good. You've got to make sure
you can see it. One pilot per drone. So one
operator can't take five drones and fly them all at once.
It's 1 to 1 ratio. And then probably the most
important one is the 30 metre rule. So in agriculture
(26:22):
it's great because you tend to not be near anyone.
But if you were in a built up area, you
are supposed to maintain a 30 metre clearance from any personnel.
S4 (26:30):
Do.
S3 (26:30):
Drones ever go rogue and just fly up into the
air and you can't see them anymore?
S2 (26:35):
Wouldn't go rogue unless they've been programmed to do so.
So again, that's that pre-check that I was talking about.
Drones have a lot of safety features. What if the
signal cut out when I was flying my drone? What happens?
There are settings that you can select. One might be
return to home. So it will come back. The minute
it loses signal, it will fly exactly back to where
it started. But some people might have it on hover
(26:56):
where it just sits there. If you don't get the
signal back, it will sit there forever until it runs
out of battery. So again.
S3 (27:02):
That's from the sky.
S2 (27:03):
Then it would eventually, if that's the situation it was in.
S3 (27:06):
So if I don't need a license on my farm,
how am I going to keep myself and everybody else safe?
S2 (27:12):
I would say there's probably two things. One, think about
your flight before you're going to do it. So if
you know you're going somewhere where there are transmission towers
or power lines, just be wary. I wouldn't chance it,
I never would. Infrastructure costs a lot, so avoid it
as best you can and then just stay clear of
any built up areas. So if there was a common
area that people are sort of loitering at, I would
(27:33):
avoid that altogether. Just go have a bit of a
joy flight in an open area. Get the feel for it.
The drones nowadays are very good and pretty easy to fly.
I think in your tests you will be asked to
fly in attitude mode, which basically takes off a lot
of the guidance for you. So if there's a high wind,
the drone will drift with the wind to make sure
that you're skilled enough as a pilot to go and
(27:53):
then refly it and drop it down. So once it's
in an automatic sort of mode, it will sit there
and hover in some pretty high winds. So they are
very versatile units. So it's getting away from and I
think getting the mentality of these aren't toys anymore. These
are real pieces of equipment and machinery, especially in AG
and the enterprise sector. When you're paying north of 5000
(28:14):
for a small drone, it's not a toy, so you
don't want to chance it. Okay.
S3 (28:18):
And so you talked about power lines and not being
able to chance it. Would you as a contractor, if
someone had a transmission line in their paddock, would you
just say, we're not doing that paddock. Or would you
just stay well clear of it?
S2 (28:31):
No, we would still tackle the paddock. There's just different
measures you can take. So obviously depending on the height,
you may choose to fly under it again. If they
are around maybe five metres off the ground and we
fly at three, that would be too close for us.
But we can then split up the paddock on the
controller and have north and south of the paddock, and
there might just be a small line under the power
line that you don't target. But the swath on a
(28:53):
drone at about three metres off the crop height can
reach 8 to 10m wide. So if you do it
well enough and again, our pilots do it day in,
day out, they will know what they can and can't achieve,
and normally it hasn't been an issue for us. However,
part of your JSA before you start, which we will
probably touch on later in in the conversation, but we
(29:13):
do a lot of preparation ahead of time so we
can map out all of those obstacles, which is hence
why we tend to map our jobs. First, send the
little one up, do its thing, mark out obstacles, and
we'll just sit there and have a bit of a
toolbox ahead of the job, and then we go out
and spray.
S3 (29:28):
What about noise pollution? Adam, how loud are they?
S2 (29:31):
Some of the larger scale. The aggregates do have a
bit of noise, but to be perfectly honest, it hasn't
been an issue for us. We always wear PPE and
have earmuffs and radios to communicate with one another anyway.
But the benefit of drones, and something I didn't really
mention before was the chemicals being taken away from you.
So it's being applied at a long distance away from
where you're set up. Whereas opposed to when you're on
(29:53):
a sprayer, you're right amongst what you're spraying. So that's
another safety aspect of a spraying drone, is we're taking
the chemical hundreds of meters away from you, and you're
applying it at a distance, and then it's coming back
when it's empty. So we probably park the drones maybe ten,
15m away from us when we're operating, wait for it
to shut down, power down, get a battery, go over,
fill it up, salt the battery, and away it goes again.
(30:14):
So it hasn't been an issue for us. If you're
doing maybe more of a commercial or, you know, potentially
work for councils where you're around people, things of that nature,
you'd want to be just wary of it. And there
are times of the day that are better suited to
operating than others.
S3 (30:28):
So what are some of the current challenges that farmers
are facing using a drone?
S2 (30:32):
I would say one of the biggest challenges and hurdles
is the fear of change. People are less likely to
adopt something if no one else around them is doing it.
Being the first one at it is always a bit
of a hurdle and a bit of a risk to overcome.
The technology now has been around for quite a number
of years and it's getting more and more affordable as well.
So even as recent as 2 or 3 years ago,
(30:52):
some of this technology was over twice the price of
what it is now. So I think it's a bit
of a combination between the manufacturer also listening to the
end user and just having a bit of time between
to really get together. And obviously a lot of the
feedbacks came back and forth. So early days it was
maybe the price is too high or it's not viable
for my business. DJI have obviously listened to that. They're
(31:14):
creating different product lines and different services and different packages
and different offerings to be able to support the farmer.
So for someone to go completely uneducated, never have flown
a drone within the space of a few weeks, can
have their drone license their business up and running. My
only advice to anyone doing that would just be to
just be a little bit patient. There is a lot
to learn. We're still learning every day, and just be
(31:36):
open to suggestions and getting as much feedback from people
as you can that are in the industry already doing it,
because it'll save you a lot of headaches, a lot
of time.
S3 (31:43):
Good advice Adam. I think now moving into livestock, can
you tell me how drones are being used by farmers
with livestock?
S2 (31:52):
Quite a number of our clients have actually purchased thermal drones,
because they want to go and count some of their
stock as well at any time of day or night.
So they will then fly them up. And obviously some
of the technology as well that's coming in. As you
probably have seen, a lot of the cattle now have
markings on their ears or little chips inserted. So again
that's got other benefits to it. So if they go
(32:13):
up to a trough there's certain apparatus now that can weigh.
See how much the calves drank. See what it's eaten
that day. And drones are almost the overview where they
can go and scan the entire premises and basically collate
all that data in a uniform fashion. Other than that,
it's very similar to the cropping where you can still
again spread map spray. All those applications are still relevant
(32:34):
in livestock.
S3 (32:36):
So could they deliver feed?
S2 (32:38):
They could. I haven't seen it done in Australia personally
just yet. There are drones that can carry quite a
bit of weight and they're more for transporting. But I
think traditionally farmers, particularly here in Victoria, have already got
all the infrastructure that they need to be able to
do it on a larger scale. So I think the
weight is always going to be that issue with the
drones that we've got currently, where they're not going to
be able to transport, I would say more than 100
(33:01):
kilos or something like that.
S3 (33:02):
Okay. So going back to your first story and how
you were inspired. Can you tell me how were they
using drones to increase fertility?
S2 (33:11):
So they had there was a lot of hilly area
that was just basically unused. And it wasn't a broad
acre sense. This was quite a small property, a few
hundred hectare, but there was just very dense scrub and
lantana and I just needed a real good clean up,
but there was no real way of accessing it. It
was so thick and dense, this this scrub that was
around this place. Again, it was either wait for a helicopter,
(33:34):
but they didn't want some of the vegetation killed, so
they didn't want the chopper coming in and just bombing everything.
They wanted to be a lot more specific and targeted
in their approach. And that's where the drone came in
is okay. I can actually hover right over exactly what
I want to spray, apply the chemical. But I don't
necessarily want to kill all this. Some of the wattles
and different trees that are around the place.
S3 (33:53):
So what about in terms of research. So I know
BCG has got some nice drones. How are we using
them in research and how are they being used in
research in general.
S2 (34:04):
Yes. So Burchett has purchased the Mavic three multi-spectral that
I mentioned before basically for their trial plots. So using
those different vegetation indices to peel back and analyze specific
crops that they're planting, there is also a pix 4D license,
which is one type of software that we offer so
it can go through and determine plant vigor. It can
(34:25):
do some stand counts, things like that. And you also
did purchase a T25, which is the T25. So a
smaller version of the drone I was talking about before.
So 25 liter tank, essentially all the other features are
quite similar. So smaller scale spreading, but again a very
versatile and nimble drone. So there is just on that.
There is another product. It's called the dock two. So
(34:46):
it's essentially a drone in a box and it is automated,
but it's only just been released. So it will basically
open up at a predetermined time, do its map and
come back and park up, close up for the night.
And people are sending them out every day to collect data.
It's in a weatherproof station that sits outside a shed.
As long as it's got internet and power, you can
then plan flights at any time of the day so
(35:09):
it will open up. It's got its own little weather
station inbuilt, so if it is too windy it won't
take off. So there are some safety measures in place
as well.
S3 (35:17):
How do they fit into the licensing regulations, then that's
a good question.
S2 (35:22):
And that's one that's involved. So that is beyond visual
line of sight. So that's another separate license that you need.
S3 (35:28):
And how reliable are they Adam. Because my robot vacuum
cleaner isn't very reliable.
S2 (35:33):
No I would trust this. Absolutely.
S3 (35:35):
That is good. I'm pleased that you've said that. What
about irrigation? Can they irrigate crops?
S2 (35:41):
They can. That model can spray crops depending on what
you're spraying it with. If it's just water, anything that
can come out of a nozzle, essentially it can do.
I haven't heard of them just spraying water only, but
I'm sure it could do it.
S3 (35:54):
Okay. What is the lifespan of a drone, particularly the
big ones? If I'm going to buy a big one? Adam,
I want it to last a while.
S2 (36:01):
That's a good question. They've got a couple of years warranty,
but ultimately I've never seen one perish yet because they
probably haven't been out long enough. So I would say
you'd want to get at least ten years out of
one of these bigger drones. But yeah, the warranty is
quite comprehensive as well. But batteries go off life cycles,
so they tend to be I think it's 1500 cycles
off the top of my head before they become unserviceable.
(36:24):
They'll still work, but highly recommended to replace them. But
the general wear and tear and maintenance of these drones,
they're all quite modular, so they're relatively easy to get
parts for their plug and play a lot of the time.
S3 (36:35):
Do you find they break down a bit?
S2 (36:37):
No. I think the most common item we have go
is propellers. And sometimes that's clients taking them off from
potentially rocky areas or gravel roads where stones flick up
once the rotors start up. That tends to be one
of the first things that shows signs of wear. So
we either use a mat, a landing pad, or we
will fly them off the paddock deck where it's just
got some grass or something around it, but they are
(36:59):
pretty reliable and durable. Normally consumables washes a couple of
little bits and pieces, but no, they are pretty robust.
S3 (37:06):
Okay, Adam, so once you leave and the next day
I'm trying to fly it and having some trouble, is
there support available?
S2 (37:12):
Absolutely. We definitely won't leave you high and dry or
drop it at your doorstep. We'll be there to walk
you through it and hold your hand every step of
the way.
S3 (37:19):
And is that included in the cost of the drone? Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Was there anything else, Adam, that you thought our listeners
might be interested in?
S2 (37:30):
One thing to probably mention is a lot of the
questions that you're probably feeling. If you are a first
time listener, you want to reach out. And we spoke
earlier about people potentially being a bit timid and not
wanting to ask those questions. You do need to, and
it's the easiest way to get ahead of it and
leapfrog you forward six months down your journey. Because a
lot of people have the same issues. We get asked
a lot of the same questions, so there is no
stupid question. I still ask them all the time myself.
(37:52):
So yeah, just don't feel too precious about it. Come
see us, give us a call, have a chat, talk
to anyone else that's in the industry as well. Get
some really valuable advice. And we've actually just released a
YouTube channel a few months ago, and we've got some
user friendly content on there that people have been asking for.
S3 (38:07):
Like a helpful YouTube channel. So that's that's one we
might put in the show notes. Speaking of advice, that
might be a nice segue. Adam. What is the best
advice that you've been given in life or in business.
S2 (38:20):
I love these ones because I could talk for hours,
but as funny as it is, the simplest piece of
advice I ever got given was just be good to people.
And I know that sounds really basic, but it just
makes so much sense and not doing it because you're
told to do it, but do it because you want
to do it and approach life like that. And it's
something I instill in my kids quite a bit. Manners
cost nothing. Just be good to people in general if
(38:42):
they've got an issue and you can help them, help them.
Whether that's walking down the street and opening the door
for someone. Just do right by people and things work
out pretty well in the end. If you're what goes
around does come around.
S3 (38:54):
If you love the podcast and would like to show
your support, please rate us five stars. Wherever you listen
to your podcasts and share it with your friends.
S1 (39:03):
BCG drives the prosperity of Australian farmers, communities and landscapes
through applied research, innovation and events. To find out more
about what we're up to, our team and events near you,
visit BCG website.
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