JUNE 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


33


Drones ride a sky-high range in search of cattle Aerial ranch-hands promising


by MARGARET EVANS Managing cattle on


rangeland can be difficult and ranch managers may not always be up to speed on the


Research by MARGARET EVANS


location of some of their herd or whether a cow has a health or birthing issue. Compared to the open prairie, finding cattle grazing on Crown land in BC can be even more challenging as they meander through thick bush and forest, across cut blocks or into mountain areas. But drones could change all


that. Drones, or unmanned aerial


vehicles (UAVs), are rapidly buzzing their way from being a toy to a valuable tool in the hands of farmers, ranchers, land managers and foresters. Drones can track plant growth and health, check fence lines, water sources and weather event damage, survey pastures and woodland, monitor the spread of weeds, and keep track of livestock. Drone technology has been


the research focus of John Church, associate professor and BC Innovation Chair in Cattle Industry Sustainability at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.


Applying the concepts of


precision agriculture to precision ranching, Church was awarded a three-year, $663,940 grant in September 2016 which, along with additional contributions from partners, provides $1.1 million to further drone research. He is working with Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Jeff Braisher of Kingsclere Ranch in Golden who, through his research company, has been working with SAIT since 2014 on an ear tag development project. Their research focuses


on higher strength, longer lasting polymers, integrating next generation UHF inlays and improving retention so that the tag would not fall off the ear.


“Dr. Church and


myself started talking about being able to read tags from UAVs,” says Braisher. “We were talking about some of the challenges that I had experienced with network infrastructure to remotely monitor animal movements as well as their visits to mineral feeders. Any time there was a congregation point, we went and put UHF readers in that location and we were seeing which animals were going to these locations and for how long.”


Along with SAIT, Braisher


designed a completely new ear tag that could integrate UHF inlays right into it, stayed in place and was still below the weight threshold. They couldn’t use tags over 15 grams on a calf and a tag over 13 grams would digress into the ear. It was an animal welfare issue. “The new tags we are


working on we are still field- testing and checking to make sure that our original hypothesis will remain true,” says Braisher. “So far, the data is extremely encouraging.” Today’s drones are small (some models fit into a saddle bag), tough and fast with active collision avoidance, vertical take-off and landing, and a return-to-home function. But until now, battery life and flying distance have been limiting factors. “When I started, battery life was 10-15 minutes,” says Church. “We’re now getting 25-30 minutes. Our secret is to have lots of batteries and charge them as needed.” According to Transport


Canada, drones must be operated within a continuous line of sight but in ranch country away from urban


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Cattle ear tags could be more than just ID tools for ranchers. Researchers at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary are studying the potential of chip- equipped ear tags to relay valuable herd information to drones that can give ranchers insights into the whereabouts and behaviour of individual animals. FILE PHOTO


areas, this opens up a wide expanse of landscape. “Right now, we can do


between five and seven kilometres but we can potentially go much further with a specialized antenna,” says Church. “We have a special flight operations certificate from Transport Canada. We could go over 16 kilometres. That’s a 32- kilometre search circle. But to go further, we need to use spotters. Some of the big ranches I work with like Douglas Lake Ranch have a lot


of cowboys on horses so we have a lot of spotters.” Both Church and Braisher


believe there is an incredibly bright future for drone use. “You see what the drone sees and [it’s like] you’ve got your own helicopter,” says Church. “The quality of cameras is unbelievable. We were doing tests with ear tags and we could see them at 100 metres. We could read that tag without too much trouble. The technology, even as it stands now, is fabulous. Ranchers can extend their vision. There are


at least half a dozen ranchers with their own drones and they are using them to find cattle.”


Braisher agrees and what surprises him is that drones attract all ages. “What surprises me are the


demographics of those asking,” he says. “Sometimes it’s people at the latter part of their career, those in their 50s and 60s. My dad is in his 70s and he loves these things. It’s a toy. Then they realize they can take images of their cattle and the toy becomes a tool.”


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