Albury’s Blair’s Produce Co’s AG Eagle, an unmanned remote controlled drone, can photograph 300 hectares with 45 minutes flying time, as part of its agronomist service.

Senior agronomist Anthony Muhlebach pilots the Ag Eagle, one of only six in Australia and the only one is south-east Australia.

He said it helps take a lot of guess work out of decision-making, which can deliver big savings to farmers.

“It gives the client a better picture of what’s going on,” Mr Muhlebach said.

“When you’re talking about spending money on nutrition, such as urea as an example, a farmer has 300 hectares and is going to put 100 kilos of urea on.

“I can fly over and see it will be a waste, you could leave 100 hectares out the crop doesn't need it.

“So that’s a saving of $4000 … in the long term it must save farmers money.”

Mr Muhlebach said the drone is a tool to help, much the same as GPS tracking and similar technology like yield monitoring headers are the norm in farming.

Field co-ordinates are plotted on a computer so the drone works through seven reference points.

A computer-generated image can then be analysed to pin-point field issues, such as early frost damage or nutrient deficiencies.

“It will make my job a lot easier because I can pick up problems well before you can normally see it,” he said.

“If a farmer gets a bad frost paddock I can fly over and see which section is damaged and needs cutting for hay, and he can leave the rest, rather than cut the whole paddock.

“It can pick up specific issues, such as aphid damage. It will show that a plant’s not healthy so this helps you to know where to look.”