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April 11, 2023

YDQA: Ep 5 - "How are drones being used in agriculture?"

YDQA: Ep 5 -

In this episode of "Your Drone Questions. Answered.", our host John discusses the use of drones in agriculture with Grant Puckrin, founder and head pilot of 19th UAS Precision. They explore the benefits of using drones for mapping, crop health analysis, stand counts, and spraying, and how they can reduce costs and increase yield. Grant shares his experience using DJI Phantom 4 RTK for crop health analysis and DJI T30 for spraying. They also discuss the potential of AI in agriculture and how it can be incorporated into ground sprayers. Overall, the episode provides valuable insights into the benefits of using drones in agriculture and their potential for the future.

Transcript

YDQA 5

John Dickow: Talk about, um, some pain points within the agriculture industry where drones could really come into play. Where, you know, maybe 10, 20 years ago, they weren't an option. The way

Grant Puckrin: like A D G I T 30 S designed it creates a air vortex that pushes the product down, much like a crop duster, but we're moving at a slower rate, allowing the droplet to actually hit and be effective to every.

John Dickow: Hi, and welcome to your drone. Questions answered. Today we're answering the question, how are drones used in agriculture? I'm joined today by Grant Pran. He's founder and head pilot of 19th U a s Precision Grant. How you doing?

Grant Puckrin: I'm doing well, John. How are you?

John Dickow: Great, thank you. Thanks for being here with me today.

Thank. Grant, could you kinda introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about you, um, what you do with 19th u a s precision, how you deal with drones, particularly in the agriculture

Grant Puckrin: industry. I have a background personally in farming. We [00:01:00] farm, um, just shy of a thousand acres, so for me, this felt like a natural niche industry.

I broke into the agriculture spraying and mapping application of drones, um, while I was mapping a property for a develop. While I was there, I met in Ohio, department of Agriculture representative and we kind of had this discussion about where we see agriculture as a whole and where the industry is heading.

Um, and then he's like, you know, if you could take and map these fields for farmers and identify things like tar rust and then provide them with a spot, spot spring solution. You'd have a really good market because it would take time off their hands, provide them with a lower cost of operations and increased yield, and it just kinda lit this fire.

I'm like, this makes so much [00:02:00] sense. Let's just go for it. Can

John Dickow: you kind of tell me, talk about, um, some pain points within the agriculture industry where drones could really come into play where, you know, maybe 10, 20 years ago they weren't an option.

Grant Puckrin: The application are drone. In agriculture still relatively new, and it's also evolving relatively quickly.

While you have your mapping for like stand count analysis, crop health, disease identification, you also have the whole other spectrum of the spraying and the

John Dickow: seeding. Can you talk a little bit more about that and you know, why, why that's needed in the first place and how drones can, can really be there to.

Grant Puckrin: There is this push to have more of a precision agriculture industry because farmers are finding out that they're, yeah, maybe they're losing acres to development. Maybe they just can't afford the cost of operations that they once could because the cost of product and gas and diesel [00:03:00] and maintenance is so high right now.

They need some other solutions, and that's kind of where we come into play as pilots. We aim to provide them solutions. Reduce their cost to operations. So by doing that, we can map their fields, provide them with crop health analysis, stand count, which is when they plant in the, um, seed just emerges into stages of V to v1.

Um, this is important so they can understand where they may need to replant if they had a wash. And things like that. Now, if we shift into the spraying application of things, this is where it gets really interesting and the mapping starts playing hand in hand with it. We have the software, it's out there.

It needs, in my opinion, we need a little bit more advancement in the software to properly spot spray, but we have the capability to map their set fields. Say we have a hundred acre corn field, okay, it, maybe it's July, and that's a target time for a. [00:04:00] Fungus infestation known as tar. So you're allow, you can then map that field and run it through a series of using a Multispectral camera payload or software like Aro Scout or Greeno.

And you can then identify the trouble areas and you can export a file type and upload it to your drone. And that drone can then go spray 20 acres of. That field corn field, instead of the a hundred acres reducing the total amount of product they need to purchase drastically, um, it's still relatively new.

So on the sales side of things, you kind of have to educate the market, um, more so than you would for like solar industry, you know, that, that they understand the benefits. Farmers, they just want, you know, education

John Dickow: on that. Do you. Experience any [00:05:00] pushback? I mean, uh, I, I'm assuming the farmers are delighted once they understand how much money they could save with a technology

Grant Puckrin: like this.

Regarding the mapping, I in this area, I'm in northern Ohio in this area, people don't understand it yet. I know there's people out in like California where it's like huge. But those are two completely demographics regarding the spraying application. We've seen manned crop dusters spray for decades now, and it works, it's efficient.

Where drone spraying lies is like white right in the middle. Um, we're not ground sprayers, we're not crop dusters. We are basically just as precise as backpack sprayer that spring directly on the. We aren't as efficient as a crop duster, but we may be more effective because we're only flying 18 to 22 miles an hour at six to eight feet above the crop canopy.

The way like A D G I T 30 S designed it creates a air vortex [00:06:00] that pushes. The product down, much like a crop duster, but we're moving at a slower rate, allowing the droplet to actually hit and be effective to every Oh yeah. In reducing crop damage where Mann crop duster could cause crop damage by going so fast.

Um, they averagely, they typically fly anywhere from 95 to 150 miles an hour.

John Dickow: Wow. So, I mean, it really seems more efficient.

Grant Puckrin: More effective for sure.

John Dickow: Yeah. Um, and you kind of touched on this a little bit, but I mean it's, that's really cool that it's, the drone is applied to not just the mapping out and surveilling of the area and identifying, you know, parts within crops, but also it does the actual work, like the spraying.

Right. That's pretty interesting. And so is there a particular drone that you use in order to do this?

Grant Puckrin: So right now I'm using the D Phantom four r t k with the multi-spectral camera payload that is good to, for crop health analysis. Now [00:07:00] we are seeing software come out that uses AI to suffice for an RGB camera, which is how we see and whatnot, but it's using AI to read the map and.

Developed the data that you would get from the multi spector payload. So I'm currently weighing my options mapping wise, and maybe I need to get a different drone with a different, maybe some interchangeability on the camera payload. But regarding the spray drone, um, D G I just released their T 40 last fall, some late summer.

Um, it did get approval by the FA for aircraft um, operations, but I'm currently using a D G I T 30. Will most likely purchase another T 30 this August, July. Um, that's dependent on things, but so with those two combined, the phantom, multi-spectral and the T 30, it's kind of a beginner, sweet spot. Um, until you understand your [00:08:00] market and what you do business more for, if you're gonna do more spraying, maybe you need to get a T 40.

If you're gonna do more mapping, maybe go a different route. And with those two, you can provide the stand counts, the crop health analysis, um, and all those things. But you can also take and use that to enable spot spring with the T 30 by, like I previously said, um, exporting that file and uploading it to, um, the T 30.

You can then reduce their overall cost and spots by certain areas and not the entire.

John Dickow: That's, that's pretty impressive. I mean, all this work, all this data that you're collecting, collecting the data to analyzing the data, to delivering it back to the farmer, uh, how long would that

Grant Puckrin: typically take? So there's a few variables that play into that quite a bit.

Um, first one right off the bat would be your drone and camera payload, which is the [00:09:00] initial part of getting that data. Um, so with the Phantom four RTK Multispectral, Depending on the quality of data they need on your flight, your flight height of our for the operation sets, the amount of time you'll need.

Um, now we have other drones out there, like the Matrice 300 art, um, or the WinGen two, the vertical takeoff and landing napping drone that will cover larger acres than it would for the phantom. But for like, for instance, the Phantom, I've found personally with the settings I've run that a 50 acre field, depending on your flight height, can take anywhere from 40 minutes to two hours.

Um, these are just ballpark numbers. So I'm kind of looking at maybe like, you know, if I need to, I wanna provide more detailed [00:10:00] reports, maybe I need to get a different mapping. To increase the efficiency on the higher detailed side of things.

John Dickow: Wow. Okay. And so kind of talking sort of outside, I mean, moving forward here, you, you, we talked about mapping and, and and spraying.

Is there anything outside of that that drones are being used for in agriculture

Grant Puckrin: down the road? I would most likely say yes. I, I do think we'll see other applications for the drones to be used in agriculture outside of spring. Um, There's a lot of unknowns to that and how they would be applied. We're seeing AI actually be incorporated into ground sprays.

John Deere just released their new technology that's called, I think they called it Sea and Spray or something. That's kind of using the same method as we are trying to apply with mapping and then spot spraying. I think we'll see a lot of different avenues discovered within the next three to five years for sure.

As this technology becomes more [00:11:00] efficient and effective and as software. Developed stronger with ai.

John Dickow: I'm curious, I mean, 10 years from now, would you say drones would have a much greater role in the agriculture

Grant Puckrin: industry? I, in my opinion, I'm just one person, but in my opinion, I think within five years, 10 years even, you know, we're gonna see a lot of shift into more not automated operations for farms, but we're gonna.

Drones being used more so like how we have, you know, self-driving tractors become more common knowledge and common use. I think we're gonna see that same shift with drones within the next three to five years.

John Dickow: Yeah. Well now you're right, it seems like, not even outside the drone, but AI in general is really, uh, growing

Grant Puckrin: and, and it's, it's scaling up relatively.

John Dickow: Wow. Well, grant, I really appreciate you taking the time here to talk today. [00:12:00] Thanks for the knowledge here. Oh,

Grant Puckrin: absolutely. I'm happy to, happy to share.

John Dickow: Thank you. And, uh, good luck as you continue, uh, as founder and, and head pilot of a 19th u a s precision. And hopefully we'll get to talk to you again here.

Uh, in a future

Grant Puckrin: episode, I would be more than happy to hop on a feature episode. Thank you, John. I appreciate it. Thank.

Grant Puckrin

Grant Puckrin is the visionary founder and CEO of 19th UAS Precision, a leading drone service provider that offers innovative aerial media solutions for various industries. His company provides a wide range of services, including agriculture, construction, infrastructure, solar, mapping, and other aerial media solutions. At 19th UAS Precision, safety and professionalism are top priorities, and all flights are conducted by skilled, certified, and insured licensed pilots. Grant takes pride in his company's state-of-the-art fleet of drones and is always eager to share his knowledge and expertise with his clients. If you're looking for a local drone service provider, look no further than 19th UAS Precision.