What the DJI Agras T100 Can Spread — and How Long 1 Ton of Fertilizer Per Acre Takes

The DJI Agras T100 is easy to think of as a sprayer. Swap on the spreading system and it becomes a dry-material machine for seed, fertilizer, and other granules.

DJI's Spreading System 4.0 uses a 150 L hopper (the tank that holds dry product), a screw feeder (an auger that meters material out of the hopper), and a centrifugal disc (a spinning plate that throws granules into a swath). The published max load inside that hopper is 100 kg. A separate figure, 75 kg, is the aircraft weight with the spreading system installed, not how much product the hopper can carry.

What the T100 can put out

From DJI's published T100 specs:

• Extra-large auger (standard): 0.5–10 mm granules, such as fertilizer, wheat, and feed
• Medium auger (standard): 4–6 mm granules, such as rice
• Optional large auger: 4–10 mm granules, such as rice and fertilizer
• Optional small auger: 0.5–4 mm granules, such as rapeseed (canola), granular herbicides, and granular insecticides

The effective spreading width is 3–10 m. The max discharge rate is 400 kg/min with compound fertilizer. Real flow changes with granule size, density, and how smooth the particles are, so that 400 kg/min figure is a ceiling, not a promise for every product.

Dense fertilizer often hits the 100 kg weight limit before the 150 L tank is full. Light, bulky seed usually fills the tank first. That is why DJI built a 150 L hopper instead of sizing it only to the weight limit.

Real-world jobs

Fertilizer. Topdress, pre-plant broadcast, or variable-rate passes over fields that are wet, standing, or awkward for a cart. The drone does not leave tramlines or compact the soil the way a heavy spreader truck does.

Cover crops and companion crops. Operators use the T100 to seed into standing crops, where a drill would damage what is already growing. Those jobs usually run at much lower rates than a fertilizer pass, so one load covers a lot more ground. The 150 L tank helps on low-density seed such as grass, which would otherwise force a refill every few acres.

Cereal and canola seeding. DJI lists wheat with the extra-large auger, rice with the medium (or optional large) auger, and finer seed such as rapeseed with the optional small auger. Starting points other operators use for barley, cereal rye, wheat, and canola still have to be calibrated on your actual seed. Mixed cover-crop blends can separate in the hopper, and copying someone else's speed and spinner RPM is not a recipe.

Feed and other granules. The extra-large auger is also rated for materials such as feed in that 0.5–10 mm range. DJI lists aquaculture among spreading scenarios. Match the feeder to particle size, then calibrate.

How long 1 ton of fertilizer per acre takes

1 US ton is 2,000 lb, about 907 kg. At 100 kg per load, that is about 9 loads on one acre. If density or the app's recommended load limits you to around 75 kg per fill, you are closer to 12 loads.

• Spreading: At 400 kg/min, a 100 kg load empties in about 15 seconds. One acre of actual spreading is only about 2–3 minutes.
• Turnaround: Fly back, refill, take off, and swap a battery every few loads. A tight ground crew can do a cycle in about 1.5–2 minutes. That is about 15–20 minutes per acre with full 100 kg fills, or about 20–25 minutes if each fill is around 75 kg.
• Per day: Roughly 2.5–3.5 acres per hour, or about 20–30 acres in an 8-hour day if reloading keeps up.

A ton per acre is a heavy, soil-amendment-style rate. Most fertilizer jobs and almost all seeding jobs put down much less, so you cover more ground per hour.

The hopper and the reload, not the spreader's peak speed, are what set the clock.

What makes a spreading day go well

Pick the right feeder for the particle size, calibrate with the product you will actually fly, and verify swath and rate before you treat the whole field. Stage material at the field edge, keep batteries in rotation, and treat refill time as part of the acre-count, because it is.

If you tell us the product, the rate, and the field size, we can work up a job estimate. To see the T100 in person, the DJI Agras T100 is on our site, or call 1-877-992-8279 (M–F 9–5 MT) or email sales@avarydrone.com.

Sources

• DJI AGRAS T100 specifications — spreading tank 150 L; max load inside the spreading box 100 kg; max discharge 400 kg/min (compound fertilizer); effective spreading width 3–10 m; compatible material diameters and auger options; aircraft weight with spreading system 75 kg