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With more and more technological advancements over the years, the lives of the farmers and the farming methods have become easier, faster, and more efficient with the help of drones. These drones offer many different options and services depending on what you need.
With drones becoming more accessible, a lot of farmers are opting to use them to aid their work. So, if you are in that line of work and you are interested in buying a drone for yourself, we recommend you stay and read the review.
Intro
It is undeniable that drone technology is becoming more and more advanced as the years go by with new, more efficient parts. A longer-lasting battery, a more durable exterior, better mobility and speed, and much more contribute greatly to the overall experience and usage in general.
The market for farming drones is vast, so it can prove quite challenging to find the drone that is best suited for you as well as your business. For that reason, we wrote this review with the goal of helping you find what you need.
Best drones for agriculture, NDVI spraying, surveying, crop scouting and more
Here we have compiled a list of drones that we think are the best on the market and will greatly help anyone in the farming business. So, without wasting any more time, let’s begin the review.
DJI Matrice 100
The DJI Matrice 100 is a farming drone that is considered to be top of the line quadcopter. The drone possesses a dual battery option that allows for an extended flight time of as much as 40 minutes. Additionally, the drone offers a lot of different programming options that are sure to ease as well as improve the overall management of the farm for its user.
The already existing features of the DJI systems enable the user to operate the drone to achieve even the most complicated and enduring tasks. These features include a flight controller, DJI Lightbridge and GPS.
Given that DJI Matrice 100 is not one of the beginner drones, it might deter some people from buying it. That being said, it does not mean that a novice pilot should be discouraged from buying one. The guidance system offers tremendous help when it comes to the controlling and operating of the drone so you can focus on what you need to do.
What makes the DJI Matrice 100 great is its compatibility with third-party sensors. This allows the user to customize the drone to their liking and optimize it to their needs.
The one thing that separates the DJI Matrice 100 from the rest is that it can be connected to the OculusRift. This allows the pilot to control the gimbal direction by just moving their head.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 2,431 g
- Battery Life: 23 minutes, 40 minutes for dual batteries
- Max Speed: 49 mph
Pros ✅
- Dual UART and CAN ports
- Very fast
- Fully Programmable
- High-Precision Vision Positioning
Cons ❌
- Expensive
- Not a beginner level drone
DJI AGRAS MG 1S
DJI AGRAS MG 1S is not just a camera drone, it is a top-of-the-line quality drone used for crop spraying. The drone is capable of spraying 4 – 6,000 square feet in a couple of minutes.
Same as the other DJI products, this model does not take a long time to assemble, and it does not require special training before you use it. The drone can be used on larger farms with multiple cycles as well as on smaller farms.
The eight-rotor propulsion system is definitely a great addition to the model as it can carry up to 10 kilograms of chemical solutions. Additionally, the drone can capture data of up to 10 acres in less than an hour.
Furthermore, the company stated that this new system surpasses manual crop spraying as it is as much as 40 times more efficient.
When it comes to spraying, the drone has a feature that is capable of adjusting to the flight conditions and regulating the spraying accordingly. The drone can achieve a flight speed of 26 mph. In addition, when it comes to atomizing spray nozzles, you do not have to worry about them as they are chemical-resistant and will last for a long time.
The drone possesses three different flying modes. First is the smart mode best suited for beginners, second is the manual mode, and third is the manual plus mode. With these three modes, you have the freedom of choosing the best one for the task at hand.
The drone is made from quality materials that are durable as well as dust, water, and corrosion-resistant. Lastly, you don’t have to worry about transporting as the drone can be folded, making transport a piece of cake.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 10,000 g (without the battery)
- Battery Life: 22 minutes (without load)
- Max Speed: 26 mph
Pros ✅
- Different flying modes
- Durable
- Resistant
- Easy to transport
Cons ❌
- Very expensive
Sentera NDVI Upgrade For DJI Drones
DJI Drones can be upgraded with the Sentera NDVI camera. It is available for many different DJI models such as Mavic Pro, Phantom, Inspire 2, and many more. By installing the camera on your drone, you can get all near-infrared photos.
The NDVI camera has been tested by certified professionals and is considered to be the lightest precision agriculture sensor available for purchase. The camera has 1.2MP and will certainly make your work easier.
The fully-gimbaled color camera can be used to capture scouting as well as indexing photos, and when it comes to installing, you do not have to worry as Sentera will personally install it for you.
Additionally, it possesses a global shutter making sure that there is no distortion when the images are taken. Furthermore, it offers a couple normalized differences in vegetative index maps as well as accurate normalized differences in red edge crop health maps.
Lastly, upon upgrading, you are offered a subscription for a year for field agent software that is available both on your smartphone as well as PC. You get generated NDVI maps that provide you with the necessary information about crop health, crop population analysis, elevation mapping, and weed detection zones mapping.
Feature Overview ✍️
- 1.2 MP Camera
- Fully-Gimbaled Color Camera
- Global Shutter
Pros ✅
- Precise
- Covers a large area
- Quality made
- Provides detailed information
Cons ❌
- Price
SenseFly eBee Q
Fixed-wing UAVs are the greatest solution for covering big regions fast. Fixed-wing drones may cover 10 times the area of a quadcopter in a single flight.
Speed, on the other hand, can have an impact on image quality. For example, fixed-wing drones are unable to record topographic information or survey-grade 3D.
It was created exclusively for the senseFLY 5spectrum sensor’s process. 4 spectral bands and 1 visible RGB band are present. The eBee SQ is a great fixed-wing drone that is simple to operate. It has all of the tools for flight planning and administration, as well as the best picture processing software.
It makes use of cutting-edge remote sensing technologies. Because it monitors crops at all phases, from planting to harvest, this drone might be an ideal precision agricultural investment. This drone is perfect for anyone who wants to swiftly cover a vast region of land.
According to experiments, it can traverse hundreds of acres in a single trip. Its speed is ten times that of conventional quadcopter drones. According to the company, it can do more than 30 000 missions every day. The eBee flight can record 3D maps, topography, soil temperature, and soil H2O levels, among other things.
Plant and other vegetative indicators can also be counted. You may use tools like AIRINOV, MicaSense Atlas, or Pix4Dmapper AG/Pro to make vegetative index maps.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 1,600 g
- Battery Life: Up to 90 minutes with the endurance battery
- Max Speed: 68 mph
Pros ✅
- Long lasting battery
- Can cover a large area
- Precise
Cons ❌
- Expensive
DJI Smart Farming Package
The DJI smart farming package allows you to customize existing precision agricultural drone technology to your needs. A regular DJI M100 drone with multispectral and visual sensors is included in the kit. The deal also includes a year of Data Mapper software.
This program allows you to make both 2D and 3D maps. The program may also be used to evaluate various crops and calculate various vegetative indicators.
Combining various analytical methods will provide you with a greater grasp of yield and crop conditions, giving you an opportunity to make the best choices possible. The flight is made easier using DataMapper Infield, a ground PC program, and a mobile app.
The new agricultural DJI package, according to experts, may be utilized to conduct a professional-grade assessment on your agriculture drones. It’s simple to fly and arrives fully constructed. The results are simple to interpret. On a single charge, the drone may last up to 35 minutes.
DJI Agras T16
The DJI Agras T16 is a superb investment for people who need to collect the most accurate data via sensors despite the high price. The 4K camera can identify data on thousands of acres of land in seconds.
The ability to live broadcast data straight to you is the DJI Agras T16’s most distinguishing feature. Whether it’s crop health, amount of crops, humidity, or really any information that’s important to your business, the DJI Agras T16 can feed data straight to you.
Agriculture can also benefit from the usage of automated drones. For example, using multispectral imaging instruments that farmers can effortlessly operate, certain wavebands may be collected to monitor plant health.
These DJI drones may also be used to take volume measurements and provide a bird’s-eye perspective of the surrounding area. Drones may now fly over routes and take images thanks to new technology. Post-programming is then used to construct 3D maps from the photos.
Farmers will profit from all of the new drone technologies since they can use a single drone to conduct several chores. All of the upgraded programming in 3D modeling software will also deliver correct plant watering and health findings.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 18,500 g
- Battery Life: 20 minutes
- Max Speed: 15 mph
Pros ✅
- Capable to carry a high payload
- Safe and reliable
- High-performance radar
Cons ❌
- Price
Precision Hawk Scouting Package
The Precision Hawk is another fantastic bundle. It can be used in agriculture to improve crop yields. DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Precision Hawk flight analytics software are included in crop scouting packages.
The package includes in-field flight monitoring software, visual scanners, data mapper light processing software, and a flight control app. It works on both desktop and mobile platforms. Your smartphone may be used to operate the entire drone.
Most jobs may be accomplished using the Phantom 4 Pro camera drone. To make this product a full crop surveying machine, you will need to invest additional funds.
These unmanned aerial survey drones are supposed to increase the efficiency of precision farming operations. This agricultural drone is a cost-effective instrument that can assist producers in obtaining improved crop analysis and aerial picture data.
Feature Overview ✍️
- In-field flight monitoring software
- Flight control app
Pros ✅
- Complete kit
- Simple
- Easy to use
Cons ❌
- Expensive
Parrot Bluegrass Fields Agricultural Quadcopter
The Parrot Bluegrass field drone is a highly adaptable and ready-to-fly device. It can scan all of the crops to provide you with a more accurate picture of how the farming operation is going.
It provides useful information that can aid in increasing agricultural yield and improving crop quality. Agricultural spraying is done with the Parrot Bluegrass drone. It’s a drone with a fixed-wing.
Many farmers utilize this drone for crop spraying and other yield-increasing functions. This farm drone is simple to use and has a decent camera. This drone is capable of taking high-resolution photographs.
This fixed-wing drone is simple to control and includes a multispectral sensor as well as a 14MP front RGB camera. It also includes the Parrot Fields mobile application, which may be used to better comprehend the fieldwork process.
You will also have complete access to Pix4Dfields’ cloud and desktop applications. These programs are quite useful for assessing agricultural data. Only a year’s worth of software is offered.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 1,800 g
- Battery Life: 75 minutes
- Max Speed: 28.6 mph
Pros ✅
- High resolution camera
- Mobile application
- Quality made
Cons ❌
- Expensive
The best drone for agricultural mapping: The Delair UX11 Ag
The Delair UX11 Ag is a plant mapping drone that improves the accuracy and efficiency of land aerial intelligence collection. The drone has onboard data processing capabilities as well as WiFi and 3G/4G connectivity, which allows you to overlay maps for temporal analysis.
This is a fixed-wing drone, which means it can fly over greater distances and for extended amounts of time than other drones (up to 50 minutes, across 30 miles).
For plant-level measurements, the drone is equipped with a high-end multispectral camera.
Feature Overview ✍️
- Weight: 1,600 g
- Battery Life: 50 minutes
- Max Speed: 33.5 mph
Pros ✅
- High-end multispectral camera
- Easy to use
- Simple
Cons ❌
- None
What to consider when buying a farmer drone?
There are several factors to consider before buying a farmer drone.
First Decision: Fixed Wing or Multi-Rotor?
When it comes to choosing between Fixed Wing or Multi-rotor drone, first, we must mention that there is no definitive answer. Depending on your personal needs, both options can be good.
The pros of the multi-rotor design are greater maneuverability, cost-effective design, ease of use, increased payload capacity.
On the other hand, the pros of fixed-wing drones are increased range, greater stability, and the ability to recover from the complete power loss.
Cameras
The drone cameras provide centimeter-level accuracy in aerial photos. They may also provide you with specific information on the farm and crop.
It is important that the drone has a good camera for it to be more efficient and cost-effective.
Image Processing
Image processing software is an important part of the surveying process. You should always purchase Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with 4K sensors if you want to be able to see the whole region that your agriculture drone has recorded. The bulk of agriculture drones, on the other hand, can take 720p photos.
Software
Software is included with the majority of agricultural drones. If there isn’t, Pix4D, Precision Mapper, DataMapper, and Correlator3D have the most significant software.
Price
Depending on the quality of the drone, the price can vary from $2,000 all the way to $30,000 or even more.
FAQs
e able to gauge plant health because healthy plants reflect light in a different manner compared to unhealthy ones.
The most important thing about an agricultural drone is that it saves money, enhances efficiency, and ultimately brings more profits to the user.
Depending on the quality of the drone, for example, a mid-level drone can cover 0.25 to 2 miles.
Basically, Precision Agriculture is everything that aims to make farming controlled and more accurate.
Depending on the quality of the drone, it can cost anywhere from $2,000 up to $30,000 or maybe even more.
High-end drones can fly anywhere from 2,5 to 5 miles, but keep in mind that legally you need to keep your drone in sight at all times while flying it.
Yes, farmers do use drones to gather information, spray crops, and much more.
There are many drones that are amazing when it comes to cattle farming, for example, one of the best is the DJI Inspire 2 Drone.
I am interested in buying a drone to use in coffee plantation in Brazil. for poverisacao. do you work with these models?