Drones are hot property in agriculture right now – you might be using them to improve on-farm productivity through remote monitoring, or simply capturing awesome aerial harvest pics (like the many shots you send us via Instagram and Facebook).
Whilst we’re not planning on stocking the latest and greatest, we did jump aboard the wagon last month, with a drone on steroids. As part of our #KeepGrowing campaign we engaged aerial photography experts XM2. Armed with one of the world’s most advanced cinematography drones, they teamed up with Ballarat-based Pepper Brand Managers to capture #Harvest19 from lofty heights.
XM2 are experts in drone capability, with a range of aircraft available, depending on the needs of the job. The recommended solution for our requirements was the XM2 Tango | Heavy Lift Drone, one of several models designed and made in-house. According to XM2, Tango was primarily created for serious film makers, with the ability to carry bigger camera bodies and larger lenses. Since we know many of you are drone fans, we thought you’d be interested in a few stats…
Aircraft weight: 13.5kg
Maximum take-off weight 36kg
Max tested speed 72 km/hr
And the million-dollar question seems to be battery-life. It all depends on the weight carried by the Tango, ranging from 4-10 minutes. In our case the batteries needed changing every 7 minutes!
As for the weather conditions, like everything in agriculture, they needed to be just right. O’Connors is very grateful to Stephen and Leanne Meyer for allowing us to film on their farm. Like harvest, the project stopped, started and false-started as we waited for the optimum harvest temperatures to coincide with ideal lighting and flying conditions.
It’s been an eye-opening process to witness and we hope the finished product motivates many of our drone-loving customers to keep your footage and pics coming on Instagram and Facebook. In the meantime, here’s some behind the scenes shots from Pepper and XM2.
Click here to watch the #KEEPGROWING 30 second TVC.
Click here to watch the behind the scenes footage from Pepper.
