I’ll stick it in a thread so it doesn’t get lost…

Instead of chasing cattle and hassling them via noisy helicopters once in a while, could it be possible to train them to follow a drone helicopter? Send out drones to deliver treats, so eventually the cattle associate the drone with the treat. Get them to follow it for longer and longer distances before they get the reward. Then at muster time slowly bring them in closer and closer to the final open.

Are there any particular treats cattle might like enough to trek behind a drone for?

party_pants said:

I’ll stick it in a thread so it doesn’t get lost…

Instead of chasing cattle and hassling them via noisy helicopters once in a while, could it be possible to train them to follow a drone helicopter? Send out drones to deliver treats, so eventually the cattle associate the drone with the treat. Get them to follow it for longer and longer distances before they get the reward. Then at muster time slowly bring them in closer and closer to the final open.

Are there any particular treats cattle might like enough to trek behind a drone for?

Cattle tend to like a lot of chewy fruit and veg, once they get a taste for it. But how much could a drone carry? Some of those herds are very big.

Bubblecar said:

party_pants said:

I’ll stick it in a thread so it doesn’t get lost…

Instead of chasing cattle and hassling them via noisy helicopters once in a while, could it be possible to train them to follow a drone helicopter? Send out drones to deliver treats, so eventually the cattle associate the drone with the treat. Get them to follow it for longer and longer distances before they get the reward. Then at muster time slowly bring them in closer and closer to the final open.

Are there any particular treats cattle might like enough to trek behind a drone for?

Cattle tend to like a lot of chewy fruit and veg, once they get a taste for it. But how much could a drone carry? Some of those herds are very big.

lets say more than just a toy drone…

100 kg payload or something like that.

party_pants said:

I’ll stick it in a thread so it doesn’t get lost…

Instead of chasing cattle and hassling them via noisy helicopters once in a while, could it be possible to train them to follow a drone helicopter? Send out drones to deliver treats, so eventually the cattle associate the drone with the treat. Get them to follow it for longer and longer distances before they get the reward. Then at muster time slowly bring them in closer and closer to the final open.

Are there any particular treats cattle might like enough to trek behind a drone for?

https://modernfarmer.com/2016/07/swagbot/

A mate of mine does heli mustering.
He’s also fairly talented with a drone, he reckons drones will never replace actual pilots for mustering.

The 2 main issues are awareness of surrouondings, a pilot can look 360 degrees, any direction, whereas drones have a very limited field of view.
And he said you can’t get the same ‘feel’ of the cattle, what they are likely to do, how they are thinking from a screen as you can with your own eyes

Stumpy_seahorse said:

A mate of mine does heli mustering.
He’s also fairly talented with a drone, he reckons drones will never replace actual pilots for mustering.

The 2 main issues are awareness of surrouondings, a pilot can look 360 degrees, any direction, whereas drones have a very limited field of view.
And he said you can’t get the same ‘feel’ of the cattle, what they are likely to do, how they are thinking from a screen as you can with your own eyes

It is also about the fact that a helicopter is big and loud enough to male cattle move. A drone is like a big bot fly. The cows will swish their tails but not a lot more.

roughbarked said:

Stumpy_seahorse said:

A mate of mine does heli mustering.
He’s also fairly talented with a drone, he reckons drones will never replace actual pilots for mustering.

The 2 main issues are awareness of surrouondings, a pilot can look 360 degrees, any direction, whereas drones have a very limited field of view.
And he said you can’t get the same ‘feel’ of the cattle, what they are likely to do, how they are thinking from a screen as you can with your own eyes

It is also about the fact that a helicopter is big and loud enough to male cattle move. A drone is like a big bot fly. The cows will swish their tails but not a lot more.

Well put, both of you. The cattle would have to be almost as tame as dairy cows for a drone to work.

360 degrees? I suppose pretty near that if it looks like this. I wish cars had vision like this.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Stumpy_seahorse said:

A mate of mine does heli mustering.
He’s also fairly talented with a drone, he reckons drones will never replace actual pilots for mustering.

The 2 main issues are awareness of surrouondings, a pilot can look 360 degrees, any direction, whereas drones have a very limited field of view.
And he said you can’t get the same ‘feel’ of the cattle, what they are likely to do, how they are thinking from a screen as you can with your own eyes

It is also about the fact that a helicopter is big and loud enough to male cattle move. A drone is like a big bot fly. The cows will swish their tails but not a lot more.

Well put, both of you. The cattle would have to be almost as tame as dairy cows for a drone to work.

360 degrees? I suppose pretty near that if it looks like this. I wish cars had vision like this.

f cars had vision like that they would need some strong chassis subframe protection unless we suddenly develop a transparent material as strong as steel.

Diary cattle need to be milked. They will walk in and be milked by robots willingly. Beef cattle have no such tendencies.

roughbarked said:

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

It is also about the fact that a helicopter is big and loud enough to male cattle move. A drone is like a big bot fly. The cows will swish their tails but not a lot more.

Well put, both of you. The cattle would have to be almost as tame as dairy cows for a drone to work.

360 degrees? I suppose pretty near that if it looks like this. I wish cars had vision like this.

f cars had vision like that they would need some strong chassis subframe protection unless we suddenly develop a transparent material as strong as steel.

Diary cattle need to be milked. They will walk in and be milked by robots willingly. Beef cattle have no such tendencies.

Some clear plastics can take repeated blows from a sledge hammer without damage. A falling helicopter can hit the ground just as fast as a car hits a brick wall, and the wall has more give.