K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
When Jeffery Luttrell needed to spray fungicide on his corn this summer, he decided to take to the air himself.
However, he wasn’t piloting a typical crop dusting airplane but a $35,000 drone that he navigated from the ground with his laptop.
Before planting this spring, Jeffery Luttrell said he mapped out the fields with GPS coordinates that set the exact course, which includes avoiding obstacles such as power lines, for the drone.
“I just push a few buttons and it will take off and then come and land wherever it starts off at,” he said. “…I can control it if I have to but I prefer not to.”
Jeffery Luttrell, who farms in Ohio County with his father, Darren Luttrell, said he was looking for a way to spray the edges of his fields that were missed by traditional sprayers.
He said the more precise spraying and the overall cost savings compared to contracting a crop dusting service were what attracted the Luttrells to investing in the drone technology.
“…It’s cheaper for me to go do it than to hire an airplane,” said Jeffery Luttrell, who sprayed about 1,300 acres of corn with the drone this summer. “The airplanes can do more in a day than I can. But I figured us saving about $10 an acre doing it like this.”
Darren Luttrell added that crop dusters are limited when crops are surrounded by wooded areas.
“Airplanes, especially in the fields like we have around here with trees around them, they can only get about 80% of the crop,” Darren Luttrell said. “With this (drone), you can get 90 to 95% of the crop coverage.”
The Luttrells purchased what’s called an AgroDrone manufactured by Hylio — a Richmond, Texas-based agricultural service company.
Continue reading: https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/features/aerial-application-demand-for-drones-increasing-among-farmers/article_c698fb90-d7e0-5f3a-a641-e7a2fcb003d3.html
However, he wasn’t piloting a typical crop dusting airplane but a $35,000 drone that he navigated from the ground with his laptop.
Before planting this spring, Jeffery Luttrell said he mapped out the fields with GPS coordinates that set the exact course, which includes avoiding obstacles such as power lines, for the drone.
“I just push a few buttons and it will take off and then come and land wherever it starts off at,” he said. “…I can control it if I have to but I prefer not to.”
Jeffery Luttrell, who farms in Ohio County with his father, Darren Luttrell, said he was looking for a way to spray the edges of his fields that were missed by traditional sprayers.
He said the more precise spraying and the overall cost savings compared to contracting a crop dusting service were what attracted the Luttrells to investing in the drone technology.
“…It’s cheaper for me to go do it than to hire an airplane,” said Jeffery Luttrell, who sprayed about 1,300 acres of corn with the drone this summer. “The airplanes can do more in a day than I can. But I figured us saving about $10 an acre doing it like this.”
Darren Luttrell added that crop dusters are limited when crops are surrounded by wooded areas.
“Airplanes, especially in the fields like we have around here with trees around them, they can only get about 80% of the crop,” Darren Luttrell said. “With this (drone), you can get 90 to 95% of the crop coverage.”
The Luttrells purchased what’s called an AgroDrone manufactured by Hylio — a Richmond, Texas-based agricultural service company.
Continue reading: https://www.messenger-inquirer.com/features/aerial-application-demand-for-drones-increasing-among-farmers/article_c698fb90-d7e0-5f3a-a641-e7a2fcb003d3.html
