Rural
31 July, 2026
Field Air: Innovative crop damage solutions
Field Air is a diverse aerial agricultural business with operational bases at Ballarat, Finley, Deniliquin, Hay, and Sea Lake. Field Air specialises in the precision application of sprays and fertilisers to all cropping types including rice, cotton, cereals, legumes, pastures and forestry.
Their diverse range of applications includes fertilisers (both solids and liquid), granular herbicide application, insecticide and herbicide sprays, seeding and baiting, as well as locust spraying.
Aerial application has several advantages over ground-based application, including zero crop damage and disease transfer, professional, accurate application, zero soil compaction and timeliness of operation.
In the past, it was believed that aerial application was the more expensive option for treating crops, however taking into account the above factors, this is certainly not the case in many situations.
“Often a farmer will be faced with a decision as to whether to treat their crop by ground application or aerial application.
"As a general rule, the more advanced the crop and /or the wetter the ground, the greater the damage.
"When crops are more advanced, the damage is multiplied, as the vehicle chassis tend to damage the crops as well as the wheel.
"Damage will be greatest as tyre width increases and boom width decreases.
"Crops often recover visually from being run over, but often these areas lag behind the rest of the paddock, and grain ripens later or not at all.
"Damage will obviously vary with crop type, crop stage and other variables but a rule of thumb seems to be an average of 40% damage (ie yield loss) to areas that are run over”, says Field Air.
To assist when choosing aerial vs ground application, you can visit Field Air’s website to use their online calculator, which assesses potential wheel track damage.