Drone for checking cattle??

does anyone currently do this? and from a distance? some grazing land is for let 15 miles away off someone i know, obviously thats a fair distance to go to check cattle i was curious as to whether you could control a drone from that distance if it was based in a shed there? anyone tried it?
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
does anyone currently do this? and from a distance? some grazing land is for let 15 miles away off someone i know, obviously thats a fair distance to go to check cattle i was curious as to whether you could control a drone from that distance if it was based in a shed there? anyone tried it?

line of sight only are the rules nowadays I believe.
 

Shutesy

Moderator
Arable Farmer
does anyone currently do this? and from a distance? some grazing land is for let 15 miles away off someone i know, obviously thats a fair distance to go to check cattle i was curious as to whether you could control a drone from that distance if it was based in a shed there? anyone tried it?
It can't be out of your actual eyesight and I doubt very much the controls or camera signal would work 15 miles away.
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
You must maintain eye contact with the drone, 15 miles no chance, a mile would be pushing it.
OK for checking stock, ours seem to think mine is a swarm of bees or something though, they get up and walk into the shed when they here it coming.
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
You must maintain eye contact with the drone, 15 miles no chance, a mile would be pushing it.
OK for checking stock, ours seem to think mine is a swarm of bees or something though, they get up and walk into the shed when they here it coming.
To be honest I have flown mine to 1.7miles ?, it was over private property and not some I make a habit of doing (got to try these things though right?).
To be fair the signal strength for the controller hadn’t dropped at all though but the picture was lagging and starting to break up, so I’d say 2miles max if you dropped the fps or flew just gps.
 
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Hilly

Member
I’ve a 60 acre field 10 miles away , I did consider putting up a telegraph pole in the middle with a top quality calving camera on top , could put mineral and salt licks near to attract them in close keep an eye ? on them a lot of time ?
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
would the camera transmit the images from 10 miles away? and how would you power the camera?

If you have a decent 3G signal or better you can transmit the picture around the planet. Power it from a leisure battery topped up by solar panel/ small wind turbine?

Have a look at the wee mast near Bankfoot, next time you’re passing through the A9 roadworks - pretty sure that’s what it’s doing.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
line of sight only are the rules nowadays I believe.
And not more the 500m away.

I have used my Parrot Bebop 2 to check our Deer herd. Illegal now though because of the line of sight and distance rules.

It is a shame we can't do it any more because the deer got very used to it and it was very easy to do.
In fact, I didn't even need to pilot the drone. You can set up a route on the Sky-controller from Google Earth and press go. It'll fly the route up to 2km away, you can see what it is filming live and it records it. Then it returns home automatically. I could take over at any point to look in more detail if needed.
The battery lasts for 25 minutes flying. Then I could swap batteries with the Sky-controller and do another 25 minute flight.
 

Quetzal

Member
Arable Farmer
15 miles is a bit too far for a drone, I know 1 drone that can reach 4.3 miles which is the DJI Mavic Pro and its quite expensive.
 

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