ERATH – Domingues Farms has come a long, long way from the days of “Brodie and Mitchell.”

Reista Domingues used to hitch up mules so they could do the heavy lifting, er, heavy pulling, soon after his sugar cane farm was established in 1919. “Mr. Reista, Brodie and Mitchell” would be shocked to see the newest addition flying over the Domingues Farms as the fourth-generation sugar cane farmers enter the harvest season for 2023.

Brothers ”Little Jim” Domingues, 56, and Errol Domingues, 51, decided to purchase the newest AgroDrone on the market from Houston-based Hylio Inc. The rapidly expanding technology first piqued their interest at an LSU AgCenter field day a few years ago, according to Errol.

The eighth of eight presenters, Al Orgeron, demonstrated a small drone’s capabilities. Errol said you could hear a pin drop during the presentation by the associate professor and resident coordinator with the LSU AgCenter.

Recently, “Little Jim” said, farming friends of his went to an event in Louisville, Kentucky, where the biggest and most popular presentation “by far” was the drone flight.

“We’ve been in the hunt for this since March. We’ll probably take possession in October,” his younger brother said in mid-August.

Why the delay to get the Hylio AG-272?

“There’s a very large demand for them across North America. We’re hopeful we get it early enough for next year’s crop. We may be able to do some with it this year, depending on when it gets here,” Errol said.

The new drone will be used for spraying fertilizer, insecticide and pesticide, Errol said. The product they’re buying has a spray speed of up to 20 mph with a carrying capacity of 18 gallons and lifting capacity of 220 pounds of payload, he said.

The 16-foot wide Hylio Ag-272 (its dimensions when fully deployed) weighs 180 pounds, so fully loaded, it’ll weigh 400 pounds.

“There are different sizes. We chose the larger dimensions when they’re ready to be deployed. It’s 16 feet in diameter. It’s big. I think it has six podson it. Yeah, it has six motors,” Errol said, noting the company demonstrated a smaller model at their farm early this year.

It operates on an RTK system, or Real-Time Kinematic positions, which increases the accuracy of GPS with the help of a fixed and stable base station application of surveying to correct for common errors in current satellite navigation.

Errol’s sons, Austin, 29, and Blake, 21, will be responsible for operating the Hylio AG-272, he said. They are fifth-generation sugar cane farmers.

“Little Jim” and Errol, sons of the late Corbet “Big Jim” Domingues, who died in May 2018, still have much to do to get the drone up in the air legally. There are many licenses to get.

“It’s a very stringent licensing process because anything over 50 pounds the same licenses a crop duster pilot has we have to have less the flight training. We have to have one additional license that a pilot doesn’t have because it’s unmanned,” Errol said.

In other words, Errol said, it’s ultra-precise during its flight path and that’s what he and his brother want going forward.

Domingues Farms hopes to reduce “out of pocket cost” of hiring helicopter or planes and instead spray the fields in-house. The brothers won’t be ruling out crop dusters entirely, they said.

Why the Hylio AG-272?

“It’s more precise. I think it’ll be more neighbor friendly than a larger aerial rig like a plane or helicopter,” Errol said. “It has a 1-inch accuracy. That means from pass to pass it won’t overlap 1-inch direction of swath.

“The way those things work, you control how fast it goes … the slower and lower you fly you narrow the spray pattern and the higher and faster it widens. It’s going to be accurate in areas we were unable to spray before. I don’t want to cause anybody harm.”

Sugar cane farm neighbors, he said, already patiently deal with the mud on the roads and smoke when the fields are burned.

“I feel we need to do whatever we can to mitigate. I think any part you can do to help society tolerate what we do is a plus,” he said.

Who knows, the brothers said, the younger brothers could obtain mosquito spraying licenses to cover public events, parks, etc.

“I think it could be a neat sideline thing. I think it’s something that can grow, especially in southwest Louisiana,” Errol said.

The Domingues Farms’ 2023 sugar cane crop will be Little Jim’s 37th, Errol’s 34th.

The operation’s bookkeeper since “Big Jim” death has been “Big Jim’s” wife, Charlotte Quirk Domingues, who was an educator 24 years at Erath Middle School. The Domingues have two daughters, Catherine Blanchard of New Iberia, a nurse, and Caitlin Scalisi of Shreveport, a dental hygienist.

Errol is married to the former Jodi Mitchell of Delcambre. Their two sons are Austin and Blake.

On Jan. 7, 2018, the year before the 100th anniversary, Domingues Farms hauled 103 loads for the year for a record-breaking total of 2,750 pounds. It was a milestone that made the Domingues proud.

Five years later they’ll all be watching the Hylio AG-272. Perhaps they can name it Brodie or Mitchell.