Cost per acre, itemized
- Batteries & power: a pack is good for ~200–400 cycles; spread $700–$1,200/pack over its life plus generator fuel → roughly $0.75–$1.50/acre.
- Wear & maintenance: pumps, nozzles, props, crash reserve → $0.50–$1.50/acre is a sane budget.
- Insurance & licenses: $3–8k/year fixed; at 3,000 acres that's $1–$2.70/acre.
- Labor & truck: you plus a loader, fuel, travel → $1–$2/acre at decent utilization.
Stack it up and a well-run single-drone operation lands near $4–$6/acre all-in — which is why $12/acre pricing works and $8/acre pricing quietly doesn't.
Acres per day, honestly
Spec sheets say 40+ acres/hour. Real days: mobilize, mix, swap batteries, refill every ~5 acres, move fields. Operators consistently report 150–350 acres/day for one large drone with a dialed ground crew — plan on the low end your first season.
Break-even, two ways
For your own farm: setup ÷ (custom rate − your cost). A $35k setup ÷ ($12 − $5) = 5,000 acres of passes to pay off — i.e., 1,000 acres × 5 seasons, or faster if you also spray for neighbors.
As a business: fixed costs ÷ contribution per acre. $20k/year fixed ÷ $7/acre contribution = ~2,860 acres/year just to break even; everything above that is profit. Interactive version: unit economics and the ROI calculator.
The three mistakes that sink year one
- Buying capacity before customers. Sell acres first; a deposit list beats a demo reel.
- Pricing off hope. Match the local custom-application rate sheet, not a forum post.
- Ignoring the second battery set. Downtime waiting on charge kills your acres/day — batteries are capacity.
Figures are operator-reported ranges and our own model — validate locally. Next: the startup checklist.
Want it flown for you?
FAA Part 107 licensed. Applicator licence and Part 137 in progress — we fly the moment we’re cleared. Lock in a price now, or keep learning.