Does a drone pay on your acres?

What to enter

The calculator opens with sample numbers. Replace them with yours.

Crop and aircraft

Row or specialty crops, then the I-19 or the R-40. Not sure which aircraft? Compare them side by side.

How you cover acres today

Owned ground rig, manned aerial service or custom application hire. Each starts at a regional average per acre. If you know your own cost, enter it under Customize assumptions. On the Payback ROI tab, enter it again under Comparison benchmarks.

Acres and passes

Your farmland size and how many application passes you make in a year.

Your season

On the Payback ROI tab, choose whether you spray your own acres or sell application as a service. Then set your spray days per year and acres per day.

How to read the result

Each tab answers a different question. Start with the savings, then look at payback.

Yearly cost savings

Your yearly application and fuel cost with a drone, next to your current method. This is operating cost only. The drone purchase is not in it.

Payback ROI

This tab adds the start-up cost: the drone package at starting MSRP, generator, operation platform, training, and FAA certification and pilot license. The result is how many acres and spray days it takes to earn that back. The producer view shows it against all three current methods. The custom application view shows it against the price you charge per acre.

Reading payback in seasons

Spray days are not calendar days. To see how many seasons payback takes, compare payback acreage with annual sprayed acres on the same tab. Set spray days and acres per day to match your season first, because that tab does not use the acres from the first tab.

60-second fit check

Four questions on your acres, what you apply, whether you want to run the drone yourself, and when. It suggests a path, and hiring the work out is one of the answers.

What moves the number

Most of these are fields you can change, so try the numbers you are unsure of both ways.

Sprayed acres per year

The start-up cost stays the same whether you spray a little or a lot. More sprayed acres a year means fewer seasons to reach payback.

What you pay today

The regional averages may not match your rig or your local rates. Field conditions, operator skill and local pricing all change real costs, so your own cost per acre gives a truer comparison. On the Payback ROI tab, enter it again under Comparison benchmarks.

Crop and aircraft

Row and specialty crops start from different rates. The I-19 and R-40 have different starting MSRPs and cover acres at a different pace. Additional configurations are available, so call for details.

Operation platform

This line means your trailer, mixing or water tank, and pump. If you plan to buy a Field Flyer trailer, change this line. Field Flyer MSRP starts at $31,250.

Training and FAA

Both are start-up lines you can edit. Terraplex has an in-house compliance team for the FAA filings.

Interest

The payback figure does not count interest on the money. If you finance the aircraft, figure that cost separately.