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Sat in on a 90 minute farm drone demo near Fresno and the AI that spots sick plants sold me
A grower buddy dragged me out to a demo on his almond block outside Fresno last month, mostly because there was free tri tip. The drone flew the whole 40 acres in about 20 minutes and the AI flagged 11 trees as stressed before anyone walked a row. We checked four of them by hand and every single one had something going on, two with spider mites I never would have spotted from the truck. I signed up for a seasonal plan at $3 an acre, which is less than one spray rig pass, and it caught a hot spot three weeks later. Curious if anyone else is running drone scouting on smaller acreage or if it only pays off past a certain size.
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tessaperry11d ago
The part about catching spider mites you never would have spotted from the truck is what got me, because that was my exact experience with aphids in my young walnut block. I only run 18 acres and the drone found two hot spots last season that saved me from a full field spray, so for me it pays off even at that size. The flying is the cheap part, it's the walking and scouting you get to skip that really adds up.
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