10K Drone Acres & Ground Rigs: Newt's Florida Ag Grind & First-Flight Disaster | DroneOn Show Ep 38
Thu Jan 22 2026
In this episode of the DroneOn Show, host Mike chats with Newt, a Florida cattle farmer with 150 mama cows across three ranches who's also a veteran applicator branching into spray drones after years in the business with ground rigs and spreaders. Newt shares how he jumped into drones to secure his customer base when a client switched to aerial spraying for tall corn that ground rigs couldn't handle without damage, leading him to buy a full rig and spray at least 10,000 acres in his first season—enough to cover costs and stay in the black. They break down the realities of the application game: slim 5-8% profit margins after factoring in trucks, labor, insurance, and hidden costs; the need to travel for more corn work; trailer tweaks like plumbing upgrades and inductions for guys coming from ground rigs; and why drones shine in Florida's wet, humid fields where rigs get stuck or create ruts. Newt dishes on efficiency tips like marking obstacles for better autonomous flights, and a hilarious first-flight crash where his T50 sucked up the controller and exploded props—but survived with just blade swaps to rack up 5,000 acres. If you're eyeing the spray drone life, from startup costs and customer retention to crash lessons and landing pro tips, this raw field talk from a cattleman-turned-drone op delivers.
Chapters
(00:00:00) - How To Round Up Cattle(00:00:40) - How to Run Drone Applications on a Trailer(00:03:59) - Do You Need a Drone to Spray Your Fields?(00:07:00) - How to get 11,000 acres planted in 24 days(00:07:41) - What was the biggest challenge of learning the drone system?(00:09:27) - Urea Applications, High Volume(00:12:57) - Chemical Salesmen and Cropping Consultants(00:13:50) - How To Weed Your Pastures(00:16:37) - Farmers Talk About Drone Spray(00:20:03) - Be Careful With Your Field(00:23:27) - Drones on the job: Night Spray(00:27:10) - T60X Spray Drone(00:29:59) - How To Survive A Drone Crash(00:35:00) - Flying a drone in the corn(00:38:08) - How To Hydrate a T50(00:41:08) - Don't Land Your Drone On a Trailer
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In this episode of the DroneOn Show, host Mike chats with Newt, a Florida cattle farmer with 150 mama cows across three ranches who's also a veteran applicator branching into spray drones after years in the business with ground rigs and spreaders. Newt shares how he jumped into drones to secure his customer base when a client switched to aerial spraying for tall corn that ground rigs couldn't handle without damage, leading him to buy a full rig and spray at least 10,000 acres in his first season—enough to cover costs and stay in the black. They break down the realities of the application game: slim 5-8% profit margins after factoring in trucks, labor, insurance, and hidden costs; the need to travel for more corn work; trailer tweaks like plumbing upgrades and inductions for guys coming from ground rigs; and why drones shine in Florida's wet, humid fields where rigs get stuck or create ruts. Newt dishes on efficiency tips like marking obstacles for better autonomous flights, and a hilarious first-flight crash where his T50 sucked up the controller and exploded props—but survived with just blade swaps to rack up 5,000 acres. If you're eyeing the spray drone life, from startup costs and customer retention to crash lessons and landing pro tips, this raw field talk from a cattleman-turned-drone op delivers. Chapters (00:00:00) - How To Round Up Cattle(00:00:40) - How to Run Drone Applications on a Trailer(00:03:59) - Do You Need a Drone to Spray Your Fields?(00:07:00) - How to get 11,000 acres planted in 24 days(00:07:41) - What was the biggest challenge of learning the drone system?(00:09:27) - Urea Applications, High Volume(00:12:57) - Chemical Salesmen and Cropping Consultants(00:13:50) - How To Weed Your Pastures(00:16:37) - Farmers Talk About Drone Spray(00:20:03) - Be Careful With Your Field(00:23:27) - Drones on the job: Night Spray(00:27:10) - T60X Spray Drone(00:29:59) - How To Survive A Drone Crash(00:35:00) - Flying a drone in the corn(00:38:08) - How To Hydrate a T50(00:41:08) - Don't Land Your Drone On a Trailer