Just three years after buying his first drone and venturing into contract spraying, Newmerella’s Anthony James has made a bold move, adding two 100-litre capacity drones to his fleet.
“A lot of people haven’t seen drones in action, a common question is ‘Does it work?’,” Anthony said.
“But people seem to be embracing the technology.
“We bit the bullet and bought bigger machines, the T100s, so we can do as much as we can in the limited weather windows we get.
“These new machines are more advanced and cover more ground.
“In the early days people were sceptical but now we’re almost struggling to keep up with demand.”
Since the purchase of the T100s in October, Anthony has done nearly 2000ha, sometimes flying two drones at once when his offisder, Nick helps change batteries, fill tanks and land drones.
He said vegetable flats had
less obstacles for the drone and spraying was faster, whereas in a paddock with obstacles like trees and powerlines, often a mapping drone was run prior to the
spraying drones.
The computer then processes the information and pre-determines the route for the spray drone, which means there is less risk and the process is more streamlined.
The drones are also capable
of spot spraying, going from blackberry bush to bush, rather than blanket spraying.
Anthony has also used his drones to spray out spots 1-metre to 1.5m apart for tree planting, going back over exactly the same place after the trees are planted to target grass growing near the trees.
He purchased his first frone in January, 2023, spraying about 150ha as he learnt his craft. In 2024 Anthony covered 2228ha, spraying out more than 120,000 litres and also spreading almost 13 tonnes of
granular fertiliser.
In 2025 he did 3672ha, plus 300ha from a sub-contractor, and their overall record is 175ha in one day.
Business varies with the season, but Farm Forest Drones are becoming more popular with vegetable and cropping farmers.
“We’re doing maize and sweet corn for the veggie farmers on the Lindenow Flats and we’re also taking on canola, wheat and barley crops as well,” Anthony said.
“It seems popular with cropping farmers because they don’t need to drive on their crops with a tractor and lose crop percentage to the wheel tracks.
“They’re dessicating crops so they dry at the same time, and the grain runs through the harvester well.”
Farm Forest Drones has also become a dealer, helping others to set themselves up with
their own drones and also fixing them if needed.
