Thermal Imaging
Back in November of 2018 I worked with Jim Steinbeisser finding cows down in the Cedar Creek grazing association, south of Glendive. It was the first use of the thermal camera which was not adjusted correctly. The cows did show up but very faintly. A few days later at the Bar Star operation I figured out the settings on the thermal camera and got significantly better results. Cows were now very easily identifiable from half to three quarters of a mile out.
In June 2019 we were out to a ranch northwest of Missoula where we were to help locating cattle. The effort was unsuccessful for two reasons; plant life is thermally opaque, and cattle are much more difficult to identify in warmer temperatures. In July we went to IX ranch to do some preliminary testing in preparation to help with an upcoming pasture move. Given the experience in June we had an idea of what to expect. However, we were better able to understand the problem.
During winter months the ambient air and ground temperatures are much lower. Thermal cameras display the difference in temperatures. Therefore, in winter months the cattle are more obvious in thermal imaging because they are the warmest object in view. The fact that most of the trees have lost their foliage in the winter months means that it is also a little easier to spot the heat signature of cattle even behind or under trees although foliage is still thermally opaque. In warmer temperatures there are more objects that are as warm or warmer than the cattle. Rocks, logs, metal objects, even the dirt on the ground heat up under the sun's rays throughout the day. As a result, cattle are not as obvious and not nearly as easy to spot.
RanchHacks is looking for opportunities to further prove these concepts as the temperatures drop. If you are interested in having RanchHacks come out during a fall gather, please contact us. We still believe that thermal imaging can be useful in locating cattle but it appears to be season dependent.
Visual Range Imagery
Using UAVs with regular, visual range cameras have proven useful in managing cattle but not necessarily in the ways that we expected. The biggest time saver that UAVs seem to offer is in verifying where cattle are not. In large pastures in rough country UAVs can be used to fairly quickly determine sections of the pasture that are devoid of cattle. Especially in the early morning when the cattle are most likely to be out in the open rather than brushed up under the trees and shrubs. This can save the time it takes to ride up each draw checking for cows.
The small, compact UAVs such as DJI's Mavic 2 Zoom can prove very useful. The Mavic platform folds up into a small package and is easily stored. The Mavic 2 Zoom, three extra batteries, and the controller fit in a small Pelican type case. This provides 2 hours of flight time. The kit can be carried in the truck or in a saddle bag. This gives the operator the ability to conduct a variety of visual inspection tasks much more quickly. We visually checked two miles of fence in rough country in about 30 minutes. We were able to check about 2 to 3 miles of creek for sheep stuck in the muck in about 20 minutes and had flight time left to also check the water gap in a fence. Both tasks would have taken about half a day without the UAV.
