Business & Council
16 August, 2025
Grow More Grass with Drone and Ag Solutions
Rob and Leonie Sweedman own a block at Beebo and two years ago they were just about ready to sell as they were struggling with the cost and short-term effectiveness of regrowth control. They had tried using a dozer, slashing, spraying, and using different grazing methods, which made a big difference for the first six months but then the country became angry, and the regrowth came back tenfold.
The Seedman's had tried spreading pellets by hand; however, this was labor intensive and ineffective as they didn’t know where they’d been and missed a lot, or the rate was inconsistent. These methods were expensive, ineffective and not long term.
After scouring the internet for a different solution they found that drones could spread pellets. As they knew the Tebuthuiuron 200 pellets worked, but they were too hard to get out on a big scale, they looked into it and took a risk and paid a contractor to come in and spread 200 acres worth of the pellets.
This was last September, and by February they could see a solution had been found.
The regrowth was dying, the moisture content in the soil was increasing and the grass cover was thickening and growing.
The pellets are quoted as being active for up to five years and are activated by rain.
Their personal experience has seen them triple their stocking rate, starting from a very conservative light rate.
As a result of their success they decided to buy their own drone so they could finish renovating their property and offer a solution to other graziers with the same issue.
After completing their Remote Pilot Operators License and Leonie obtaining her Chief Pilots License with CASA and having nearly 12 months of trialling on five different properties, they are now ready to provide farmers with long term regrowth control.
GPS mapping allows the drones to pinpoint the property boundary lines accurately and can even cut out exclusion zones around dams, watercourses and tree lines. They have the ability to overlay vegetation maps on their drone console and accurately map waypoints alongside the vegetation line ensuring no environmental laws are broken.
Ag and Drone Solutions can also provide their clients with a link that will show the drone flight lines over their property via Google Earth. This way the grazier knows when, where and at what rate the pellets were spread. Call Rob & Leonie today (contact details in link below) for a quote.
