Olly Harrison and Quadrotor Services Pioneer Aerial Agriculture in the UK
In a groundbreaking collaboration, Quadrotor Services have recently partnered with renowned Merseyside arable farmer and agricultural YouTuber, Olly Harrison, to demonstrate the next generation of farming practices. The future of agriculture has arrived, and you can view it in the video above.
Planting a Bright Future
Quadrotor Services, the UK’s first agricultural drone service provider, joined Olly to showcase the powerful XAG P40 drone. This versatile drone rapidly planted a 1-hectare segment of oilseed rape via aerial application in a fraction of the time when compared with traditional methods.
But that’s not all – to demonstrate the flexibility of the drone, the XAG P40 broadcasted a cover crop of phacelia and mustard directly into a standing crop of winter wheat, before the cereal was harvested.
The potential of drone spraying in agricultural technology has not gone unnoticed, and the demonstration has been featured in an article in Farmers Weekly, which you can read here.
The XAG P40 Drone in Seed Configuration
The Future of Farming
Agricultural Drones are the future of farming, and the numbers speak for themselves. Operating at an average speed of 7.7 meters per second and boasting a 25-kilogram holding capacity, the XAG P40 drone was able to demonstrate it’s exceptional capabilities.
“We did three passes spreading the oilseed rape at a width of 8m and flew 6-7m above the ground. This took just under three minutes to complete,” says Olly.
Peter Johnson, co-founder of Quadrotor Services, explains that under optimum conditions dependent on wind speed, width of spread and drone weight, the device can fly up to an impressive 10m/sec. This is the equivalent of 20ha/hour which includes recharge time.
“Users can expect a battery life of about 10 minutes and a full recharge time of 8 minutes.
“The drone will fly back to base at 25% battery life, where we rotate a number of batteries and fit a new one in less than 90 seconds – it’s like a Formula One pitstop,” says Peter.
Legislation Lagging Behind
The capability of the XAG P40 Drone far exceeds what the current UK legislation permits, meaning agricultural drone technology is being handicapped.
Current UK legislation prohibits aerial application of any product which comes with a MAPP number, which includes all herbicide, fungicide and pesticide sprays.
The legislation was intended to prevent aerial application via crop-dusting planes, which can be inaccurate and result in pollution of nearby watercourses.
However, the XAG P40’s RevoCast & RevoSpray technology operates autonomously along a pre-planned route, accounting for obstacles, weather & wind conditions to ensure the route is followed precisely.
As the drone spreads at a rate of 10kg/ha and the OSR was spread at 2.1kg/ha, the rate was made up with 7.9kg/ha of urea starter fertiliser for the demonstration.
Furthermore, drones are not permitted to fly within 50m of uninvolved participants or fly as a swarm, hence Olly used the drone to plant a segment in the middle of the field.
Furthermore, only one drone is permitted to be flown per operator.
“I can really see the advantages of planting crops with drones, as it’s a better use of time and can avoid soil compaction but the legislation is too far behind the technology. This really needs to catch up if we are to scale-up,” says Olly.
If aerial establishment proves successful, Olly’s next step will be establishing a crop of millet into a standing crop of winter barley with the drone next June in order to gain an extra crop from the rotation.
