Building Drought Resilience with Drone Technology in Viticulture
- Azrina Iqbal
- Jul 31
- 3 min read
Overview
Robert Fenwick, owner of Heritage Estate Wines in Cottonvale, QLD, is navigating the challenges of viticulture in an increasingly variable climate. Through the F2F TEKFARM® program and advisor support from SQNNSW Innovation Hub, Robert adopted a DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral drone from Prisma Technologies equipped with NDVI imaging for plant health and a speaker for non-lethal bird control. His journey reflects how a producer-driven approach to agtech adoption can improve decision-making, reduce risk, and strengthen drought preparedness.
Adopting Drone Technology
Robert was already familiar with drone operations, flying a Mavic 2 Enterprise Zoom for bird scaring, so transitioning to the Mavic 3 Multispectral felt like a natural progression. The opportunity presented a chance to integrate two powerful capabilities:
Non-lethal bird control to protect crops and reduce yield loss.
NDVI plant health mapping to make more informed irrigation and vineyard management decisions.
As part of his early exploration into plant health mapping, Robert was experimenting with WebODM, an open-source platform that rectifies and tiles drone imagery into maps. While the tool provided early plant health insights using visible light sensors, Robert quickly realised a key challenge in viticulture:
“The vines themselves only cover 300 - 500mm of a 3m spacing, so filtering out the inter-row data is critical. I’d be really interested in talking to others in viticulture about how they handle that challenge.”
This insight highlights the practical considerations of using drone imagery in vineyards, where accurate data interpretation directly impacts irrigation and replanting decisions.
Challenges & Learnings
Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Even with prior drone experience, Robert saw the value of advisory support to help producers translate raw imagery into actionable insights.
Data Precision Matters: The need to filter inter-row data and potentially integrate RTK systems became clear to improve NDVI mapping accuracy for vine-level decisions.
Seeing ROI Differently: The drone’s bird control capabilities alone justified the cost, safeguarding yield and revenue while the NDVI insights are refined.
Technology Isn’t a Silver Bullet: The wet season reinforced that drought resilience is about combining tools, training, and timing - not just hardware.
Key outcomes
Better Water Decisions:
NDVI maps are helping Robert identify stressed vines earlier, which will be critical in dry years when efficient irrigation matters most.
Strategic Vineyard Management: Using drone data, Robert removed underperforming Merlot vines. Replacing them with more suitable varieties is a long-term drought resilience strategy that maximises water and land use efficiency.
Protecting Yield and Effective Bird Control: The drone effectively scared away birds, protecting crops and justifying its cost by preventing severe damage.
The project has already given Robert increased confidence in using data to guide vineyard management decisions. Insights from the drone are being incorporated into his irrigation planning and replanting strategies, helping him make more informed choices for the future. The experience has also highlighted the importance of advisory support, demonstrating that expert guidance is essential to turn raw drone data into practical, on-farm outcomes.
Looking Ahead
Robert plans to integrate drone NDVI data with his Athena-IR irrigation technology to create a holistic water management system. Prisma Technologies Co-founder Rav Phull has been supporting Robert and identified future potential to integrate Robert’s drone workflow with DJI Dock 2 automated operations and specialised bird deterrence technology, demonstrating how initial deployments can pave the way for more advanced, scalable solutions.
His experience highlights that agtech adoption is not just about purchasing tools; it’s about building capability, learning through challenges, and embedding technology into everyday decision-making to prepare for a drier future.
This program/project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
It’s inspiring to see how Robert is blending traditional Buckshot Roulette vineyard knowledge with cutting-edge drone tech to tackle climate challenges. His focus on both crop protection and smarter water use shows real forward thinking for long-term sustainability.