Erosion control in maize on slopes through underseeding with a drone – this was the use case addressed by the thesis of two students from HTL Ried, in cooperation with the Agro Innovation Lab and RWA specialist departments. The diploma thesis, along with its findings, is now complete and has been winning one award after another.
Applications with drones in agriculture are versatile. They are often used for detection tasks such as wildlife damage, fawn rescue, or weed detection, but also for spreading beneficial insects or seeds.
In their thesis, Benedikt Ortmaier and Sebastian Schäffer explored how underseeding in maize using a spreader drone can protect against erosion on slopes. The result of their drone flight test series, conducted with their supervisors Martin Anzengruber and Jürgen Roithner, is clear: using a drone for spreading is a viable alternative to traditional sowing methods.
This method offers the primary advantage of spreading underseed crosswise to the maize rows and slope inclination, a configuration that reduces the risk of runoff during rainfall and is typically only possible by hand. The seeding is independent of the main crop’s vegetation status and can be done even on waterlogged soils. This optimizes soil moisture and significantly reduces soil compaction. After analyzing the vegetation index, a ryegrass-white clover mix was spread on three test plots. At a flight altitude of five meters and a speed of four meters per second, the drone distributed seeds at a density of two to six grams per square meter (nearly 20 kilograms per hectare) in three passes, one, two, and three weeks after soil treatment, to determine the optimal seeding time.
The main challenge for the duo was to align the sensitive drone flights with weather conditions, such as wind and rainfall. Additional optimizations were achieved through constructive adaptations of the spreader plate and batteries. “This was foundational work, as there had been no previous experience with seeding using a spreader drone,” says thesis advisor Martin Anzengruber. The diploma thesis has won multiple awards, most recently the first place at the “Farmification Award” in a competition by the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. The two HTL Ried students are also finalists in the nationwide “Jugend Innovativ” competition.
Thanks also go to the RWA departments “Farming Innovations,” “Plant Protection,” and “Die Saat,” which were involved in the project. The service of underseeding with a drone is now available through Lagerhaus. More information is available at onfarming.at or through direct inquiries at smartfarming@rwa.at.
Photo: Peter Herzog