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Mar 18, 2025

Three Ways Drone Technology Can Help Livestock Operations

Drones can save time finding and checking on your livestock. They can also cause animals less stress than approaching them on the ground.  

Drones have a lot to offer cattle and sheep operations.  Here are three ways aerial observation, quick access to remote areas, multi-level zoom cameras, and thermal imaging can make livestock management much easier.  

Keeping Tabs on Your Livestock

On a cold, snowy day, how would you prefer to check your cows?

1. Bundling up for a long ground search that ends with you startling your herd and having to search for them again.
    
2. Watching a broad aerial search on your remote control, easily finding your herd with thermal imagery, then zooming in on them from on high while they look up, showing you their clearly visible ear tags. 

If you picked 2, you can also progressively lower your drone until your herd get used to posing for 4K video and photos. Accustomed animals are often more comfortable near drones than they are near humans. For this reason, drones are ideal for pen checks. For another reason, you won’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on fuel each week.  


Herds can get used to a drone’s presence, allowing for up-close examination of cow-calf pairs with zoom and thermal imaging. 

Closer observation is a big help for cow-calf operators. You can use thermal imaging to sort your bred cows from those still in heat. You’ll be able to spot the signs that a cow or heifer is about to calve and observe behavior that tells you others may have trouble birthing. The ability to get close, zoom in, and view high-resolution images gives you an informative window on a cow-calf pair’s progress, with little distress to either animal.
  
Drones make it easy to check your herd three times a day, so you can catch problems as soon as possible. That’s even more important - and convenient - during winter.


Infrared and multi-level zoom cameras can tell you a lot about the condition of your livestock and pasture they’re grazing.

Monitoring Herd Health

This precise, non-invasive approach also provides a clearer view of wounds, weight loss, hair loss, labored breathing, sweating, drooling, discharge, or other signs of illness or injury. Your drone can take high-resolution photos you can send directly to your vet. 
Infrared cameras can show hidden problems like a sore mouth, heat stress, or developing lameness; bright red heat signatures will indicate the warmth of increased blood flow to affected areas.

Observing animal behaviour can explain problems like poor health, weight loss, and straying. Animals typically bump, butt, or hook to establish a pecking order. Overly aggressive animals can cause injuries or force some animals outside the herd. Grazing alone could also indicate a health problem like mouth soreness and lead to weight loss.

Animal behaviour also speaks to your pasture conditions. You might see animals crowding one grazing spot, which could signal the rest of your pasture needs more seeding, weeding, or fertilization help.
 
Livestock may also prefer an area closer to a water source, so you can use fencing or mineral and salt distribution to get them chewing elsewhere. Speaking of water sources, drones can be used to read the level of ponds and check for leaking tanks or non-functional pumps and hoses. 


Drones don’t just find cattle in dense brush. They also help bring them home.

Herding 

A drone’s “eye in the sky” ability to scan broad areas takes the time and guesswork out of locating stray cows or sheep. Thermal imaging can quickly spot animals even in dense brush where human searchers would have great difficulty. Sorting livestock from wildlife is a matter of zooming in or swooping down to check.
 
You can use a drone to help move them home or to a new pasture, and you don’t have to scare the valuable cow-drone trust out of them doing it. Just swing the drone back and forth behind the herd to “harass,” not frighten, your animals along.  Drones also work well alongside herding dogs.

How Flaman Can Help You Add Drones to Your Livestock Operation

Our aerial farming experts can show and tell you more about our available DJI agricultural drones. They can also help you find training and licensing options to pilot your drone safely and confidently. 

Call or visit your nearest Flaman location to learn more.