In short:
Farmers in parts of Western Australia are managing their crops from the sky because their paddocks are too flooded to drive on.
It is in stark contrast to last year when the same region endured one of its driest seasons.
What’s next?
Farmers are using planes, helicopters and drones to apply essential fertilisers and chemicals to their paddocks.
Farmers in WA’s northern Wheatbelt are managing their crops from the sky after the region received its average annual rainfall in just eight weeks.
Helicopters, planes and drones have replaced tractors to apply essential fertilisers and chemicals to flooded paddocks near Geraldton.
Andrew and Stuart Vlahov purchased a drone to cover their inaccessible paddocks after tipping out 420 millimetres from gauges at Nabawa and Ellendale, 400 kilometres north-east of Perth, since the beginning of June.
“This year, the rain is so concentrated, and with our bigger machinery, it has made it difficult to do any spraying or spreading,” Andrew said.
Weighing about 50 kilograms and carrying about 50 kilograms of fertiliser, the drone is much slower than a conventional sprayer but allows the Vlahovs to apply products to crops without getting bogged.
“You basically just fill it up to spray or spread, press a button, and it takes off; it makes its own run lines in the paddock,” Stuart said.
The drones cost $40,000 and cover about 20 hectares an hour, so they are not cheap or fast, but the Vlahovs believe they will pay for themselves when they cover 1,000 hectares.
“We just don’t want to bog tracks or wheel tracks; there will be a lot of repairs later on, and some people will be spending all summer filling their tracks in,” Andrew said.
Demand for planes ‘sky-high’
John Warr grows grain and operates an aerial aviation business at Yuna and Moree in New South Wales.
While he had clients who used planes to apply fungicides and pesticides to crops each year, Mr Warr said demand for planes to apply chemicals and fertilisers in the northern agricultural region this season was “sky-high”.
He has seven planes operating in WA, about double the annual average, and some farmers are using a plane for the first time.
“Instead of being out spreading or spraying like they usually are, [farmers are] building airstrips … they then have to cart the water and the fertiliser and nitrogen to be able to get the product out there,” he said.
Mr Warr said that while demand was high this season, an increasing number of farmers were using aeroplanes each year for their grain-growing operations.
“One of the reasons why we bought Rural Air Work at Moree was because demand was getting bigger, and a lot of that comes down to educating growers that the plane is a tool in the toolbox,” he said.
First time for everything
Zac Grima farms at Pindar, 120km east of Geraldton, have recorded 300mm of rain this season.
For the first time in his life on the farm, he has had to use a plane to deliver fertiliser and chemicals to his paddocks.
“The plane will do the whole program for a herbicide application,” he said.
“We’ve had to go and put in a landing strip, which held up for nitrogen application, but it’s about buggered now, so we’ve had to go and find another spot to put planes down and get the product to them.
“Logistically, it has been very challenging … but we are in a marginal area; you never turn down rain.”
It’s a sharp contrast to last year when he received 150mm for the year.
Further south at Mingenew, farmers such as Ben McTaggart have used helicopters to apply fertiliser to paddocks that cannot be driven on.
Despite an increased cost, he said the helicopter could work in areas where trees and other obstacles made it too difficult to cover with a plane.
“I think the chopper will be able to stay a bit lower and get into those areas,” he said.
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