Aerial seeding
Drone cover crop seeding and grass reseeding
Cover crops into a standing crop before harvest, grass and wildflower mixes onto stubble or wet ground, sown from the air by our pilot at £14 an acre.
Cover crops into a standing crop before harvest, grass and wildflower mixes onto stubble or wet ground, sown from the air by our pilot at £14 an acre.
Our DJI Agras T70P broadcasts seed from the air: cover crops into a standing crop before harvest, grass reseeds onto stubble, and wildflower mixes onto margins and banks a drill cannot reach. Aerial seeding starts from late October 2026, once the CAA grants our Operational Authorisation. Crop mapping is available now.
Arable farms that want cover established before the combine has left the field, so the ground is never bare over winter. Livestock farms with a tired ley to stitch up, or a field too wet to travel with a drill when the window comes. Anyone putting in wildflower margins, pollinator strips or herbal leys under an environmental scheme, where the awkward shape of the ground makes a tractor pass more trouble than it is worth.
It is also useful after a wet autumn, when the ground will not carry a tractor but the seedbed is there and the calendar is not waiting.
We can sow: cover crop mixes, grass seed for reseeding and overseeding, wildflower and pollinator mixes, and herbal ley mixes. We can also spread granular fertiliser on the same visit if your adviser wants a starter dose on. Tell us what is in the mix and our pilot will confirm it suits the spreader before the day.
We cannot apply plant protection products. No pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, because UK law does not currently permit applying them from a drone, and we do not know when, or whether, that will change. The detail is on can drones spray crops in the UK?
Establishment is not guaranteed. Seed broadcast from the air lands on the surface, as it does from a spinner. Whether it takes depends on the seed, soil contact, moisture and the weather in the fortnight after sowing. Your agronomist sets the mix and the rate; we put it where they ask.
Five steps from the first call to the record in your portal.
Field names, acreage, the mix and the window you have in mind. Quote form, phone or WhatsApp. A written quote comes back within 24 hours, Monday to Saturday.
Seed rate and timing come from your agronomist or FACTS adviser. If it is for a scheme, check the action rules with them first; our grants page gives an overview.
Our pilot checks the boundary, obstacles and access, and plans a route with RTK (centimetre-accurate GPS) positioning so every pass joins the last.
Seed goes through the spreader on the DJI Agras T70P, refilled at the field edge. Nothing drives on the crop or the ground.
The GPS-logged application record, the map and the invoice sit in your Farmers Portal, which is useful evidence if a scheme inspector asks when and where the seed went on.
Cover crops, grass and wildflower mixes. You supply the seed.
Granular fertiliser on the same visit if your adviser wants it.
No travel charge within our 21 counties, and a minimum job of £150 rather than a minimum field size. Prices are shown without VAT. HarvestHawk is not currently VAT registered, so nothing is added today; if we register, VAT will be added on top at the standard rate. Every price is on our pricing page.
We work from three bases: Cornwall, Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, and Hertfordshire. There is no travel charge within the 21 counties they cover, and a minimum job of £150 rather than a minimum field size.
We are insured for public liability to £5 million with Coverdrone, subject to policy conditions. The details are on our compliance page.
Yes. That is one of the main reasons farmers ask for aerial seeding. The seed goes on over the top of the standing crop in the weeks before the combine, so the cover is already away by the time the straw is cleared and you are not waiting on a drill in the busiest month of the year.
Establishment depends on the seed, the seedbed and the weather after sowing, exactly as it does with a broadcaster. Seed sown onto a dry surface with no rain behind it will struggle however it was put on. We do not guarantee establishment, and we would not trust anyone who did.
Cover crops, herbal leys and wildflower margins appear in several Sustainable Farming Incentive actions. Aerial seeding is one way of getting them in. Which actions apply and what the rules require is between you and your adviser; our grants page gives an overview.
Aerial seeding is £14 an acre, with no travel charge within our 21 counties, and a minimum job of £150 rather than a minimum field size. You supply the seed. Prices are shown without VAT. HarvestHawk is not currently VAT registered, so nothing is added today; if we register, VAT will be added on top at the standard rate.
Field names, acreage and what you want on. A written quote comes back within 24 hours, Monday to Saturday. No obligation.