Drones in cattle measurement
A recent USDA cattle behavior-based grant focused on beef production decentralization, especially among small farmers. As most producers hold down full-time off-the-farm jobs, they often have little time left to maintain healthy and profitable herds.
“We wanted to make their lives easier with this grant,” says Michael Sama, a professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Kentucky. “Initially, it was through simple monitoring and counting, but this led to thermal cameras and other image processing aspects for health problems.”
This primary research led to a subsequent three-year, $1 million USDA grant funding a multidisciplinary project using 3D modeling of the cow. The model makes weight and volume estimates, plus uses drones to herd animals.
“With 3D modeling, we coordinate multiple drones, causing animals to move in a certain way,” Sama says. “We’re refining this modeling and making comparisons to the actual weight measurements we take to confirm weight and gain accuracy.”
Sama says the photography and video aspects are advanced, but image processing is still a work in progress. Computer vision and facial recognition hold promise but will take time to function optimally with increased automation.
Current uses such as inventory measurements and counting are available but require software tools unavailable with off-the-shelf drones. Sama believes integration there is potential for technologies like smart eartags, although proximity limitations will be a barrier.
“Having the right connections between the drone and the tags to pull and relay information such as temperature measurements in real time would be slick,” he says. “From a technological standpoint, it’s not difficult to do, but there’s no consumer product to accomplish this.”
Cost and regulations have also hindered these technologies’ potential long-range roles. Multirotor systems fly up to an hour covering hundreds of acres but are still expensive. FAA and state regulations also demand “line-of-sight” capabilities and prohibit night flying unless special exemptions are obtained. Sama says over the next decade, these exemptions will become more commonplace as enough demonstration repetitiveness will prove these operations safe and routine.
Trade tariffs and embargoes are already in place or approaching a ban on Chinese-manufactured models.
“In my crystal ball, average producers might regularly use a small drone to do inventory, estimate weights, assess pasture growth or identify health problems,” Sama says. “Reaching this point is a people problem. The technology and tools are there. It’s piecing them together and developing a model to generate useful opportunities. We’re underserved on the animal side at this point.”
Drones in feed analytics
“Our core focus has been measurement tools,” says Adam Durrin, owner and founder of Aurox Drones. “We’re also moving into image analysis, with our primary solution being silage and forage management.”
Aurox began operations by providing a full-service experience but evolved into support and analytics. Typically, farms, feed companies or nutritionist groups arrange a fully automated 10- to 15-minute flight, automatically collecting images of silage piles and feed inventories uploaded to the Aurox web platform. The data is measured and added to a live web dashboard, where users view metrics including total inventory, density and forecasts, all with 3D capabilities.
“It’s a huge opportunity for improvement to reduce dry matter (DM) loss and feed shrink, especially considering their enormous cost,” Durrin says. “The average beef lot has a couple million dollars of total silage. If it loses 10, 15 or 20 percent in dry matter, it’s significant.”
The Aurox software creates a virtual 3D inventory pile calculating dimensions and slopes. The pile maximizes density and minimizes DM loss.
Durrin says people think of drones as complex technology, but due to application ease advancements, it’s often as simple as turning it on, hitting a button and watching it fly. A low level of training is needed, with the largest barrier being multiple-choice FAA test certifications for commercial purposes.
“It’s a mobile camera,” he says. “It creates efficiencies in what can be done and provides different viewable farm process data. It also reduces time and labor needs while improving safety, as workers don’t need to measure inventories manually.”
Durrin believes agriculture is becoming more comfortable with tech adoption.
“With AI image and data analysis advancing by leaps and bounds, more applications will enhance farm data,” Durrin says. “The complexities and dollars involved in these operations are eye-opening. Drones allow for almost-real-time decision-making, which tremendously impacts savings.”
Drones as a traceability tool
John Church, an associate professor in the natural resource sciences department of Thompson Rivers University at Kamloops, British Columbia, says drones are currently the most efficient way to manage what we measure.
“They can be used in many different ways including as an observational tool,” Church says. “We might watch pasture calving, search over a ridge or in bushes, and even measure heat stress levels by hovering nearby and viewing flank movements and respiration rates.”
Camera capabilities have advanced to read eartag numbers from 100-meter distances. Flight times and battery charges have made huge jumps during the past five years. Most drones feature integrated cameras and controller screens. Thermal camera options even deliver night vision.
Church believes this technology will soon allow the marriage of individual traceability and smart devices such as virtual fencing, wireless collars and smart eartags. The combination of GPS location coordinates and accelerometers will make it possible to receive a text alert of non-typical activity, enter the related coordinates and autonomously send a drone to investigate if an animal is sick, dead, calving or being pursued by a predator.
“Imagine what could be done about predators,” Church says. “We could potentially ward off attacks or at minimum photograph mortalities for compensation purposes.”
Innovations include marking cattle with paintball projectiles and forage biomass measurements. These capabilities make decisions about pasture rotation timing more accurate. Feedlot bunks are monitored, sick animals identified and photos uploaded to yard veterinarians.
“[Drones are] only going to get better but are already fantastic,” Church says. “Drones can be a game-changer for the cattle production sector sooner rather than later.”
