Reading Time: 3 minutes Agricultural drone contracting was highlighted at Fieldays as one of the primary sector’s fastest growing business opportunities. Craig Simpson, president of the Ag Drone Association, said demand for operators is increasing as farmers look for more efficient ways to use land with difficult terrain and hard-to-reach areas. Simpson, who spoke about agricultural drones at a Fieldays tent talk, said the technology had moved quickly from being a specialised tool to a more widely used contracting service. “It’s fast becoming one of
the best contracting businesses for a rural person to start,” Simpson said. He said drones are filling a gap on many New Zealand farms and orchards, where terrain or block size can make access by vehicle, helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft difficult, costly or unsafe. “Twenty-two people died in the last five years from vehicle rollovers on farms. So the more that we can use aircraft like drones to do certain jobs in New Zealand, the safer it becomes,” he said. Simpson said strong results over
recent seasons had boosted confidence in drone technology, driving growing demand from farmers, growers and orchardists for specialist drone services. “We’ve got this constant supply of people coming up wanting work done with a drone.” Unlike a lot of new farm technology, the biggest opportunity for drone use may not necessarily be for farmers themselves. Simpson said most agricultural drones being sold in NZ are purchased by contractors rather than farmers. “If I look at the last 120-odd drones that I’ve supplied over the last
five years, seven or eight of them would have been to farmers. The rest have all gone to contractors.” A major barrier to on-farm drone ownership is the cost and regulatory requirements involved. Becoming a certified agricultural drone operator requires extensive training, compliance accreditation and Civil Aviation Authority approval. According to Simpson, an agricultural drone contracting business can be created with an investment of around $150,000 (which includes the certification process) and operators are typically billing between $400 to $500 per hour. “The return on
investment for the capital investment of a drone contracting business is much, much better than some other contracting businesses.” He said some contractors who operate traditional machinery businesses have already begun to shift over into drone operations due to the stronger profit margins. “There’s been this massive shift where drones have become commonplace.” The recent rapid growth in tech is also making drone businesses more practical. Simpson said agricultural drone tech has evolved extremely quickly in just a few years. “Five years ago we had
a 10 litre drone and it was kind of useful. The drones we’re selling now are 100 litres.” Alongside drone hardware, improvements in batteries, software, mapping systems and application accuracy are helping operators to cover more ground while allowing for more precise results. Simpson said New Zealand is well behind other countries in agricultural drone adoption. He said the certification process, which can take around 12 months and cost about $15,000, is a major barrier to entry. Australia has about 5000 agricultural drone operators, compared
with around 250 in New Zealand. “There’s room for at least a thousand ag drone operators in contracting before we even start to reach saturation.”
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