WA STONEFRUIT drones
HORTICULTURAL
drone development
Due to a chance meeting at the WAHU Conference 2023, I was able to engage with David Magri from Skytronics about the need for a drone that could assist growers with the control of bird damage on farms.
Words Ross Anile, Project Officer and Value Chain Facilitator, WA Stonefruit
DAVID and I spoke at length on the need for such a drone and then put our minds together on the desired specifics and capabilities of such a drone.
Before any development of the drone could proceed, approval had to be given by David’s employer Robert Natham.
Robert the director/owner of Skytronics could see the need for such a drone, and due to Skytronics development of other agricultural drones, he knew it was a natural progression to initiate the development of this unique drone.
David and Robert have worked tirelessly alongside their technical staff at Skytronics for over two years to come to this point of having an operational drone in WA, which is being trailed on the Casuarina Farms owned by Maria Casotti. WA horticultural industry is fortunate, that WA is the test bed for this unique drone.
A great deal of time and Skytronics funds have been invested into this programme at no financial cost to WA Stonefruit, other than my time.
Currently, Skytronics are on prototype number 3 and will not go to market until they have the drone fully operational to meet the horticultural industry requirements to control the infestation of birds and minimise the damage on farms, which is impacting on-farm profitability. Once Skytronics is comfortable in marketing this drone to the WA Horticultural Industry, workshops will be organised for the southwest and metropolitan growing regions.