Wheatbelt farmer ventures into brave new world with hi-tech drone

In a stubbly paddock east of Northam, farmer, engineer and drone pilot Jared Steinohrt is taking his expensive new toy for a test flight. Mr Steinohrt recently became the first person in WA to be endorsed by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to fly the new DJI Agras T40: a hi-tech drone designed with broadacre farming in mind. As the 101kg aircraft whirs into action, kicking up a cloud of dust, the self-professed “technology enthusiast” explains what he will be using it for. “We can spray fungicide, pesticide and herbicide — so you can kill weeds with it — or you can switch the spray tank out and put a spreader tank on,” Mr Steinohrt says. “Then you can spread fertiliser or mouse baits, or any type of bait, really. “It’s good if you’ve got weeds that you want to spot spray: one, because it’s cheap to run, and two, it’ll go straight to the spot where the weeds are.” Mr Steinohrt acquired the T40 — an upgraded version of the T30 — soon after it was released around late November. The drone, as well as the three batteries, charger and remote control required to fly it, cost him $45,000. “So far, it’s been pretty good. It’s fairly cheap to run, too, because most of it just runs off the generator, and the generator only uses about two litres an hour,” he said. After growing up on his family’s beef cattle farm at Dalby, Queensland, Mr Steinohrt studied microelectronic engineering at Griffith University, majoring in communication systems, and graduating with honours. He now skips between the Dalby farm and WA, where he helps a local farmer with their canola, lupin, barley and wheat program. “We’ve had trouble getting planes the last couple of years to do spraying and spreading and things like that, so last year, we hired a T30 and we thought we’d try it spreading mouse baits,” he said. “We did that and it was quite successful, so we thought we might as well buy one and have it in the shed ready in case we need it.” While anyone can fly a drone weighing up to 2kg without a licence, anything heavier requires a remote pilot’s licence. Though he was already experienced with the older models, CASA guidelines required Mr Steinohrt to undergo the type endorsement process to fly the T40. “If I went and bought a newer model drone, I’d have to get CASA to come and endorse me to fly that, too,” he said. “You have to do a remote pilot’s licence, then you have to do an aerial radio operator’s certificate, and then you need to have a drone specific-type endorsement from CASA, as well as a Remote Operator Certificate. “CASA come out, they give you a whole heap of guidelines you have to follow for the exercise, and quiz you about the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) manuals that they have. “Based on whether you pass or fail, it will determine whether they allow you to fly this thing or not. “The other thing you need to have is endorsement seven of the pesticide technician’s licence; there’s six nationally recognised courses you have to complete before the Department of Health will allow you to use it for spraying chemicals.” Thankfully, actually flying the T40 is more straightforward. Mr Steinohrt described it as “quite intuitive to use”, with a simple user interface on the remote control. “They’ve done quite a good job of making it easy to operate, and most of the functions you can operate autonomously,” he said. “So I can put in the map, it’ll generate the run lines, and it’ll determine when the best time to come back and land and refill it, so that you’re not trafficking too far across the paddock, wasting battery. “We’ll probably use it a lot more come April, May, June and July. “The plan, eventually, is to run multiple drones with one remote pilot operating them. CASA have verbally said I can do it, but I need to write procedures for that and have them approve it.”