As farmers focus on protecting land from weeds and pests, even in wet conditions and on challenging terrain, drones have become an in demand item.
Drone Agricultural Remote Technology remote pilot Tom O'Donnell said DART aimed to help farmers achieve the eradication of pests and weeds that would not otherwise be possible.
"The drones basically fills in a bit of a gap for farmers," he said.
"It allows them to attack any sort of woody weed that might be cleared after the drone's applied it's application. Once the woody weed has been cleared, farmers are able to use more for land production other than grazing."
By using drones, farmers will be able to access weeds they would not normally be able to reach. The use of the DART drones was common during wet seasons when farmers had paddocks engulfed in water.
"Often during the wet times, like July this year, when there was a lot of rain around, we were spreading a lot of fertiliser," he said.
"That was really good for a lot of farmers who couldn't get off the land, because their paddocks were so wet and their tractors would just get bogged."
Mr O'Donnell said DART could use their drones to apply fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, along with snail and mouse bait with the spreader.
The capabilities of drones has been drastically improving and in five years the speed and efficiency of drones is expected to progress significantly, with new drones constantly getting unveiled, he says.
"At the moment, if we wanted to do 300 litres a hectare we can only travel at eight kilometres an hour," Mr O'Donnell said.
"With the new drones you can go a bit faster and get the job done a bit quicker for the landowners.
"It's hard to keep up with the latest trends and obviously people need the money to keep evolving."
While the DART spray application could be applied to different crops, Mr O'Donnell said it was most effective on high growing plants.
"With the faba beans and canola because the stalk is so high, it's hard for a boomspray to get in there and apply," he said.
"We come in and can travel a metre and a half above the crops and the downforce from the crop wash opens up the plant and moves across them. The spray goes right down to the bottom and it covers the whole plant from the ground up."
While DART focused on chemical spraying and fertiliser spreading, Mr O'Donnell said they also did land mapping.
