so ive been running an Agras T40 for about a year doing contract spraying for a few local farms around here, mostly soybeans and corn, and the machine is genuinely great but the operating costs are killing me on smaller jobs. like when someones got 40 acres they need spot treated for fungicide it just doesnt pencil out after you factor in the battery swap time and the maintenance overhead on the T40.

been looking at some of the XAG stuff and also a local reseller is pushing the Hylio AC-series pretty hard. anyone actually run Hylio on real production acres? the specs look decent on paper, 10L tank on the smaller one which is fine for most of what I do, but ive heard mixed things about the radar terrain following compared to what Agras does out of the box.

not trying to dump the T40 entirely, more thinking about a second platform for the smaller jobs where I dont need the 40L payload. just want to hear from people who've actually put hours on these machines in field conditions, not the youtube review stuff.

ran the AC-series for about a season and a half before I went back to XAG. the Hylio software isnt bad honestly but the terrain following gave me headaches on anything with significant elevation change - we have a lot of rolling ground in our area and it would occasionally do this weird altitude correction thing mid-pass that messed up your application rate consistency. might be a calibration thing but I never fully sorted it.

XAG P100 is where I landed and its been solid. customer support is actually pretty responsive which matters a lot when youre sitting at a field with a down machine and a farmer waiting on you. the mission planning tools are a step ahead too in my opinion. not cheap to get into though, thats the real problem with all of this.

dont sleep on the DJI Air 2S for scouting before you spray - completely separate thing I know but it changed how I approach jobs. do a quick NDVI pass the day before with something like that and youre not blanket spraying, youre only hitting the stressed zones. cut my chemical costs way down on a couple farms I work with regularly. anyway thats kind of a tangent but worth thinking about if you havent already layered that into your workflow.