Will Bignell
Farmer and Agricultural Scientist, Thorpe Farm pty Ltd

Biography

Will Bignell is a farmer and agricultural scientist who has worked across several disciplines ranging from a PhD in enhancing omega-3 in sheep meat, value adding to salmon waste and flying drones commercially. Will is a 7th generation farmer from Bothwell in Tasmania and the family farm is well known for pioneering and innovating a number of new and emerging Australian industries. He runs the 2300Ha farm with his parents and produce wool, poppies, lamb, venison and a number of boutique specialty root vegetables. Will is highly regarded for his skills at breaking down complex problems and bringing together people and resources to create simple, effective and economical solutions for his clients that work.

Drone Technology

Drones – The big buzz word in Ag but what are we doing with them, who is using them and is anyone making money with or from them? The marketing hype is slowly dying down and the uptake of precision ag tools is still quite low despite the hype. My presentation aims to empower farmers and businesses to take another look at UAV tech and how it can be applied to help make economical returns and demonstrate it using my own multimillion-dollar irrigation development which used a wide range of precision ag tools on a shoe string budget and challenging terrain.

Demonstration:

Everyone has seen a drone fly around by now but what about taking the next step? I will have my “farmer drone” on display and shall capture some data around the event site and demonstrate some of the ways we can manipulate, learn and apply the information captured onsite. I will also share my tips on “farm flying” and my golden rules to keep your machine flying and within the rules.