An Iowa-based company is seeking to improve accuracy of aerial applications.
Rantizo precisely delivers agricultural solutions through use of drones. The Iowa City-based startup has a lot going for it, according to its owner, Michael Ott.
?We use large drones to apply liquids and solids where they need to go in fields,? Ott said. ?On the liquid side, we can do pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. We spray those at about 14 acres an hour, over 100 acres a day. We can also do solids, in terms of cover crop seeds, granular fertilizers, beneficial insects and pollen.?
The latest technology, out of Rantizo, is a spreader for seeding, granulars, micronutrients, as well as mites/bios. Ott shares how this technology is helping farmers all across the United States at a field day hosted in Washington, Iowa.
?We?re here with one of our first customers,? Ott said. ?Last year, he bought a cover crop seed application from a plane. The plane started too late and missed the first third of his field. All of these cover crop seeds missed the beginning and his neighbor?s field was beautiful and green. He paid for all of that and thought, ?There has to be a better way.? He?s now dropping precisely where things need to go.??
Rantizo attains precision through fully autonomous flights.
?We?ve programmed them out,? Ott said. ?The drone knows where to go; it flies itself. It knows when it?s low on application or battery. It will (then) return home, reload and go right back to that spot. We have to pour in liquids or solids, and we?re working on autonomous systems to reload so we can be out there with one or zero people.?
With standard broadband, the accuracy is good between one and three meters. Extended coverage can go up by 100-percent to three centimeters.
