Ranches Are Using Drones To Better Care For Their Cattle

In our country, more than 2.5 million cattle die each year due to issues of health.

Joshua Jackson, is a rancher in Lexington, Kentucky, who is using a drone to monitor his cattle. A serious problem for many cattle farms is that cattle typically graze out in fields most of the day, which makes it difficult for farmers to check on them as frequently as they should to keep their cattle healthy and safe.

By “keeping an eye” on Mr. Jackson’s cattle, the drone is able to ascertain the health of the herd on a continual basis, as one of the most common issues for cattle is pink-eye, which sometimes is deadly.

In addition, Jackson utilizes a drone by monitoring their overall well being. By taking photos from various angles, it is possible to create a 3D model which enables a drone to estimate the approximate weight of the cows. This frees farmers from having to go into the field and manually check the cows’ weight.

Because a drone can be equipped with GPS, it is possible to monitor the cows’ heart rate also. According to Jackson, the cows became used to the drone after about a week of regular flights. They tested this by attaching a heart-rate monitor to the cows while the drones were flying overhead.

In China, scientists are utilizing drones, combined with facial recognition technology to track cows, and images from these drones are used to build comparisons, and figure out which cow is which.

Drones & Wildlife

It is not unusual for drones to be used in monitoring wildlife, such as learning more about their migration patterns, assisting in freeing koalas stuck in trees, and various animals surviving Australian bushfires.

Future

The combination of drone technology and software clearly streamlines the farming process and makes it more efficient. It is clearly a very helpful combination to farmers who are able to gather more information easily, quickly, and safely.Farmers are also freed up from some of their laborious tasks and helped with the health and safety of their cattle. Such a combination also saves finances for farmers.