Ep 15: Drones with Single Ag

EPISODE 15:

In this episode we’re talking about drones. Many farmers have gone out and bought a drone with big plans, only for it soon to be sitting on the shelf collecting dust. But in this episode, we hear about some of the ways that farmers are using the technology effectively on-farm.

We speak to Fiona Lake, who runs drone workshops for farmers across Australia, about improving adoption by busting the myths that surround drones.

We also hear from Ben Single of Single Agriculture whose drone technology is used to identify weeds, allowing farmers to target the use of expensive herbicides.

And we chat to Darling Downs grower Wade Bidstrup who says using Single Shot drones has helped him get on top of chemical-resistant weeds.

Thanks to episode sponsor Farmers 2 Founders.

FEATURING:

FIONA LAKE – DRONE TRAINER 

Fiona Lake runs drone workshops and one-to-one training sessions across the continent, from capital cities to the most remote areas. She says mythbusting is an essential part of regional ag drone workshops – explaining other kinds of agtech that are better for certain tasks. Fiona was one of the inaugural inductees into the Women in Emerging Aviation Technologies Hall of Fame, at CES (Las Vegas). She is also the Australian Advisor for Women and Drones and on two working groups for Australia’s largest drone organisation, AAUS.

BEN SINGLE – DIRECTOR, SINGLE AGRICULTURE

Ben Single is the inventor and majority owner of Single Shot – a UAV based weed mapping system. A simple conversation between Ben and his father, John, in 2010 about an old Detect Spray system hanging up in their shed led to the thought of “I can make our own”. Ben’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering combined with growing up on a cropping property outside of Coonamble, NSW allowed him to understand both the technical and real-world requirements for such a system. The Single Shot technology was commercialised in 2020 with systems across NSW, QLD and the US.

WADE BIDSTRUP – SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND GROWER

Wade Bidstrup and his family are dryland farmers from Warra, between Dalby and Chinchilla, on the Darling Downs in Queensland. The Bidstrups’ grow both summer and winter crops, including sorghum, corn, mung beans, millets, field peas, faba beans, chickpeas, wheat and barley. Their farming methodologies include zero-till and control traffic farming and they have been using Single Agriculture’s weed detection drone technology successfully for the last 12 months.