An agricultural drone company, AutoSpray Systems, have insisted they are not “competing” with traditional farming methods but “complementing” them.
An agricultural drone company insisted they are not “competing” with traditional farming methods but “complementing” them.
AutoSpray Systems began developing their technology five years ago and it is “beginning to take off”, with the devices used to help maintain soil structure and reaching areas of farmland during wet weather.
Managing director Rob Pearson told the BBC: “Everything grows in the soil. It is the farmer’s most valuable asset and the tractors compact it, they crush the ground, and this really damages the soil.”
Whereas a tractor compacts the soil, the drone is able to fly over fields after the company has mapped out the area and the device is able to work out the most efficient way to spray or apply seed before taking off.
The drones are able to fly over fields rather than compacting soil like a tractor
Mr Pearson said: “This isn’t here to compete with a tractor… when the fields are wet the tractors simply can’t get into the field, but critically they cause compaction and they cause crop damage.
“This really came into its own last year. It was a terribly wet harvest period, farmers had to keep their crops in the ground longer than they wanted until they were dry and ripened.
“We were able to put the next crop in three weeks before harvest effectively giving the farmer an extra month in its calendar year of growing.”
Jeremy Buxton, who runs Eves Hill Farm in Norfolk, is using AutoSpray Sstems to “farm with nature rather than against it”.
He said: “We work so hard at improving soil structure and soil biology… with a drone flying above it there is no impact on the soil, be it from compaction or just moving the soil.
“I love regenerative farming… we are farming with nature rather than against it.”
Agricultural drones employed to ‘complement’ traditional farming methods, not ‘compete’
