Not if but when

[Bob Kinford]

All well and good until it doesn't work. Got in on the tail end of a larkspur wreck in Nevada last year. Didn't spot it with the drone until they spotted the dead cows. Tried moving the 1,800 pair out of the area with the drone, and only the cows with collars moved. Cows weren't used to being handled (and stockmanship used was subpar.) Took over two weeks to clean the mess up and they never mentioned what the total death loss was. One person riding those cows to monitor conditions (and using good) stockmanship to adjust where they were grazing would have avoided the whole wreck. If you need to depend on technology to check and control your cows, why are you even in the business?

 

[Brute 23]

Sounds good in practice. Got involved in a little wreck last year where people were doing just that. Turned out, larkspur was growing in shaded areas and suddenly they had 50 dead cows. Fences worked great moving the cows which had collars, but the rest of the herd stayed behind. Took over two weeks to get the mess straightened out. Would have been totally avoided with one rider going in three days a week to monitor conditions and (using good stockmanship) to adjust where the herd was grazing.

Sounds good in practice... but what are the economics on that.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Sounds like a you problem. I can send up the drone in 30 seconds of prep time and check over the entire 300 acres across the highway in less time than I would have to wait for the 4 wheeler to warm up and get the gates opened.

Probably is my problem. I don't even own a 4wheeler. Work has a sxs I use sometimes. Otherwise it's a pickup, tractor, or leg power.
A lot of our fences are in such over grown brush I can't see the wire from fifteen feet away.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

If you need to depend on technology to check and control your cows, why are you even in the business?

To earn a living a put food on the table for my family......

I'm not in the cattle business because I want to be a cowboy. I'm in the business of growing grass and raising calves for market with the least input costs i can.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Probably is my problem. I don't even own a 4wheeler. Work has a sxs I use sometimes. Otherwise it's a pickup, tractor, or leg power.
A lot of our fences are in such over grown brush I can't see the wire from fifteen feet away.

All the more reason to get good with a drone. Pickup and tractor are expensive and limited where you can drive and can be hard on the ground. Legs are too time consuming covering large areas.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Sounds good in practice... but what are the economics on that.

50 dead cows right now is probably close to $125,000. That's more than 3 years income for a lot of good hired hands.

 

[SBMF 2015]

All the more reason to get good with a drone. Pickup and tractor are expensive and limited where you can drive and can be hard on the ground. Legs are too time consuming covering large areas.

Our largest pasture is 90acres. And that's HUGE for here. If there were bigger pastures to be had we'd have them and not be spread out all over creation. Our farthest north pasture is more than an hour away from our farthest south pasture.
If I'm not willing to spend the money for a 4wheeler I not going to spend the money on a drone. It's just something else I don't need.
The truck and tractor are paid for. No reason to change what works for me.

 

[Brute 23]

50 dead cows right now is probably close to $125,000. That's more than 3 years income for a lot of good hired hands.

If that person is in the cattle business for 50 years and it happened once they can only afford to pay $2500 a year. If that happens to 1 in 10 people or 1 in 100, or 1,000, it's even less.

It may be common in some areas but sounds like a rare occurrence for most people.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The truck and tractor are paid for. No reason to change what works for me.

Running a tractor up and down the road a half hour isn't cheap even with the tractor paid for.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Running a tractor up and down the road a half hour isn't cheap even with the tractor paid for.

Yeah, but it's usually going to do something else while it's there.

 

[Spot & Bubby]

But The big farmers and the wantta be big farmers around here would tell you if you don't have everything perfect all the time you aren't doing a good job of presenting to potential landlords what a good job you do.

Ooooh... I get it now. Sometimes you have to be busy for the sake of business (busy-ness). Otherwise, you draw negative attention that could affect your reputation or status and that matters to you (I mean the general form of "you," not you specifically or personally.) In that case, working harder not smarter is the way to go.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Yeah, but it's usually going to do something else while it's there.

And I can't even remember the last time I drove a tractor to half of my pastures.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Here it is open range. Fences maybe get checked once in the spring to repair any winter damage. Cows will end up in somebody's gather and get sorted out.

or when the non ranch neighbors complain about COWS (but never fix or even offer materials)

 

[farmerjan]

Okay, the virtual collars, fencing thing might be okay some places... here it would be a nightmare since there are too many rules and laws... fence in and fence out counties both in Va... and all the little cut up places with 3-5-20 acres that we rent/ or use for nothing. I am not saying that being able to check on them might not be easier... but most are not contiguous so have to drive distances to just launch the drone... because someone is going to shoot them down flying over all the houses, yards, roads, etc....... and don't tell me about the laws about shooting them down... It will happen....
I can see some advantages to using the drones for checking... but with the "virtual fences, it will not work in the mixed suburban / farm land area... AND.... how do you keep out the animals that are not trained and you do not want your neighbors mini hereford trying to breed your 12 month old heifers in the pasture next to them.
Maybe a possibility for more "wide open areas".... not for the areas in the east where there is alot of development in amongst scattered farmland...

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

all the houses, yards, roads, etc....... and don't tell me about the laws about shooting them down... It will happen....

It might happen... And when those people (remember I'm recording video the entire time....) end up in federal prison word will get around and people will think twice. People talk big but when faced with federal prison most of its all talk.

Not to mention with how good the cameras are you can fly fairly high and fast. Most people can shoot all they want but won't have a chance of hitting a thing.

In general people are opposed to change. When I started in forestry and logging 20 years ago it was all boots on the ground mapping, measuring, laying out, etc. Everybody said that's the only way it could be done. Fast forward to a few years back when I sold out we were mapping and laying out roads by drone and satellite, species mapping by drone, etc from the cab of the pickup. And in 5 years from now who knows what else we will be doing.

 

[farmerjan]

I am not disputing that shooting down drones is not the thing to do. That there are consequences... I was just trying to get across that using them here, with all the houses and things that we have in this more congested area , along the interstate, they would not be a good way to try to use them to fly to the small pastures situated between areas where there has been development and such. There are people here that I would not trust to not try to destroy them...
I also was trying to explain how these virtual fences would not work here... due to the developed places, houses etc, that have cropped up inbetween farmland... Physical fences are the only thing that will work in these settings.... and are required by law. It is a totally different thing out where there are miles and hundreds of acres to try to control the cows on.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I'm not saying drones, virtual fences and other technology is the right choice in all circumstances. But many say NO to it just because it's "new and scary" so they don't understand and trust it, or because "that's not how grandpa did it", or "what will my neighbors think", or "if you need technology why even have cattle", or flat "it won't work here".

If everybody thought that way we would still be living in caves.

Like the automatic transmission, cell phone, indoor plumbing, electricity, etc people didn't trust and despised it at first. Now they are all common place we all use everyday.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Do these collars stop a bull from going where he wants to go or a bull he wants to fight with? Who pays the law suit damages when a fenceless defects and a black cow wanders on the road at night and gets someone killed?

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Who pays the law suit damages when a fenceless defects and a black cow wanders on the road at night and gets someone killed?

The same person who pays when the black cow goes thru the physical fence and gets hit. If you have it, your farm liability insurance, if not they sue you personally for all you got.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I think I'll stick to actual fences.