In the height of the season, the DroneUA group of companies held a field demonstration of agricultural drones, during which they gathered partners, customers and all interested farmers to once again visually confirm the high efficiency and innovation of XAG agricultural technologies. The event took place on May 24 in Kagarlyk (Kyiv region).
Participants had the opportunity to see each stage of the implementation of XAG's unmanned innovations in agricultural production in field conditions - from mission preparation to spraying, as well as hear expert comments from experienced practitioners of PPE application by drones. In addition, visitors were among the first to see new XAG products that have just appeared on the Ukrainian market.
Prospects for the 2023 agricultural season
This year, the need of farmers to optimize production is more urgent than ever before. Taking into account the rapid increase in the price of resources, there is a need to reduce their costs in each agronomic operation, in particular, in the protection of crops, which requires a significant amount of pesticides, water, and fuel. Advanced developments make it possible to reduce the amount of required resources and at the same time improve the quality of the operation.
The use of XAG agrodrones allows:
- save up to 90% of water resources thanks to the discharge rate of 5-7 l/ha;
- reduce fuel consumption by 20 times, compared to traditional land-based equipment;
- reduce drug costs by up to 30% due to the ultra-small volume of drops;
- exclude mechanical damage to plants (+10% of the harvest);
- work without technological tracks (+2-4% of the productive area);
- to process fields with a complex configuration immediately after the rain;
- perform operations much faster thanks to the mobility of the equipment.
"Given the numerous advantages of XAG agricultural drones, they are critically needed by farmers this season. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a single mechanism for obtaining permits for flights with agricultural drones, which will simplify and speed up the process of introducing PPE. Last year, such a mechanism was created between the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, thanks to which agricultural drones could fly and the season took place. We have already held several meetings with the specialized association UKAB and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine regarding the repeated development of such a mechanism. We are working on the possibility of working with agricultural drones in the 2023 season for the timely implementation of crop protection, obtaining the planned yield of crops and supporting the economy of Ukraine and the food security of the world," says Volodymyr Ogiychuk, XAG brand manager.
Ecosystem of XAG solutions. Practical experience of a partner
The flagship of agricultural drones and a favorite of the European market is the XAG V40 twin-rotor drone sprayer, which has conquered farmers with its mobility and high maneuverability.
“The XAG V40 is very easy to control and create a mission. The main task is to correctly set all parameters of operation (field contours, speed and flight height), then the agrodrone flies clearly along the route and returns to the starting point by itself. A minimum of 3 batteries and a generator are required for productive work. Up to 15 hectares can be processed in an hour," says Dmytro Martynyuk, chief sales manager of precision agriculture components at the Agro-Solar company.
"Agrosolar" company has been applying agricultural drones for more than three years. At the beginning of its activity, for each sale of equipment, it was necessary to perform a demo, because it was a new niche in the market and farmers needed more practical demonstrations of the technology. To date, the effectiveness of the introduction of pesticides by drones has been proven by the integrators of unmanned technologies on several million hectares of Ukrainian fields. During this time, "Agro-Solar" tested different discharge rates, depending on the fields and crops - from 3 to 12 l/ha. And they came to the conclusion that the most optimal application rate is 5-8 l/ha.
"Also, we compared herbicide application on corn with a self-propelled sprayer, 36 m wide, and a XAG V40 sprayer drone. The self-propelled sprayer worked at a rate of up to 180 l/ha, the agricultural drone – 5-6 l/ha. After 4 days, we arrived and the effect on both sites was equally positive, at the same time, the client saved a lot of money, on the site where the XAG V40 drone was operating", - noted Dmytro Martyniuk.
The XAG P100 agricultural drone, the most powerful on the market, attracted the attention of the participants with its high-tech and large-scale design. The main feature of the XAG P100 is a flying platform with a changeable functional module:
- XAG RevoSpray (liquid tank capacity 40 l);
- XAG RevoCast (tank capacity for bulk/granulated/seeds – 60 l);
- XAG Terra (module for operational mapping).
Now it is possible to switch between operations as simply as possible in the field, while guaranteeing a high quality result depending on the specifics of the operation. At the same time, the XAG P100 agricultural drone sets new performance standards:
- total productivity 25 ha/h;
- maximum spray productivity up to 12 l/min of working solution;
- maximum spreading productivity 80 kg/min;
- duration of work on one battery charge – up to 280 kg of bulk material application and up to 7 ha of processing with a working solution.
Technological novelties of XAG
The participants of the demonstration were presented with a new product from XAG – the autopilot system and the AutoPilot Console thruster. This is a mobile thruster that can be equipped with any self-propelled vehicle within 20 minutes. Autopilot has a number of advantages compared to analogues. First of all, it is the ability to work with various accurate signal sources and independence from the Internet. The autopilot does not have its own monitor, as it works from an ordinary smartphone with the Android operating system. One of the main advantages of this modern equipment is a fairly aggressive price in the range of $3-4 thousand. And it is already available for order on the Ukrainian market.
Demonstration of XAG V40 and XAG P100 agricultural drones
The participants had the opportunity to observe the preparation of all the equipment for the flight, see how the spraying drones work, then inspect all the equipment in detail, talk to the experienced pilot-trainers of the DroneUA company, who told and showed how they measure the area, create a mission, connect and launch the drones to work
