Sixth generation farmer Toby Field has his future on the land all mapped out.
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His love of all things agriculture has led the twelve-year-old to discover a new passion - flying drones.
Toby, the son of Andrew and Heidi, has been interested in drones since he was 10.
“I saw one in action at the paintball fields and then at the Parkes Show Farmers Day,” he said.
Toby decided he wanted a drone and set about saving up to buy one.
He bagged and sold manure, raised poddy lambs and worked for his father during harvest to fund his purchase.
Toby raised 12 poddy lambs last year.
“The best price I got was $175, and the worst was $98,” he said.
“I usually get around $130.
“When I first started I bought eight lambs from dad for $30 and sold them for $98.
“I didn’t make much profit but they weren't poddy lambs.
“Then I bought some ewes from another farmer who retired and borrowed dad's ram.”
Toby said now he wants to buy an alpaca to protect his sheep.
“Foxes get the lambs and the ewes really can’t do much about it,” he said.
After months of saving and research Toby bought a DJI Phantom 4 drone.
“I went into the shop about 10 times to look at it and ask questions,” he said.
Toby said his drone flies up to 500m high and about a distance of 3km, it has a flight time of 25 minutes and can fly up to 80km an hour.
“If you stop using the controls it will just hover, that’s what you get for $2,000,” he said.
“If it loses signal it turns around and comes home and lands exactly where it took off from.”
Toby uses the drone around the farm to check water troughs and gates and check on the ewes when they are lambing.
He has had a couple of jobs taking photos or footage with his drone.
A family member who is building a new home asked him to take some before and after shots and he has taken a group photo at a wedding.
“Dad’s agronomist, Peter Yelland, asked me to take pictures of the frost damage in the paddocks one day,” Toby said.
“The ABC were here interviewing some local farmers and they didn’t have their drone with them.
“They contacted Peter and asked if he knew anyone with a drone.”
What Toby is considering doing with his drone involves Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) technology to analyse crop health and vigour.
“The camera connects to the drone and takes images of a paddock on a special flight path,” he said.
“The image tells you how much nitrogen the soil needs in different areas of the paddock.”
Software in a tractor then delivers different amounts of spray to different sections of the paddock depending on need.
“It will save you heaps more chemical, that’s the good thing about it,” Toby said.
“You can get them to detect weeds as well.”
Toby would like to be able to work for other farmers on weekends.
“I would get this camera and I’m still thinking on it, but the thing is farmers have to buy the technology that turns the sprays on and off and that costs a lot,” he said.
Heidi and Andrew said Toby has been passionate about farming since he was old enough to follow Andrew around.
“He loves driving tractors with his dad and enjoys sheep work with the dogs,” Heidi said.
“He’ll go out on the motorbike and bring in a mob of sheep.”
Toby is looking forward to starting high school at the Christian School next year and is thrilled agriculture is offered to Year 7 students.
