A Hawk A.I. drone

DRONE use in a sheep operation will be demonstrated at a western Victorian property next week.

Sheep producers Richard and Tim Currie will host drone demonstrations by Hawk A.I. on Friday August 5 at their property ‘South Warrock’ north of Casterton from 2pm.

Richard Currie said they were interested in the use of drones for checking multiple lamb-bearing ewes with minimal disturbance during lambing and to check water troughs. The Curries run about 5000 ewes including a Multi-Meat flock with a large percentage of twin and triplet-bearing ewes.

Hawk A.I. general manager Paul Stone said his company custom-made drones for agricultural uses. After running a demonstration at the recent BestWool BestLamb Conference, the company has created drone packages suited to sheep producers that can take images or video for checking troughs, feed stations, fences, lambing ewes or mustering. Client feedback indicates lambing ewes can be checked without disturbance, he said.

“I’ll bring some footage of a client who is doing that and getting some good results and some footage of it actually being done.”

Some producers have mustered sheep with drones, Mr Stone said.

“You can also set the drones up so that they fly an autonomous flight mission using Google Maps to set points for the drone to fly to, taking video or photos and come back.”

To get to ‘South Warrock’ drive 25 kilometres north of Casterton on the Naracoorte-Casterton Road, turn right on the Warrock Road, go 5.84 km until you see the sign on the right hand side – South Warrock – 584 Warrock Road.

A barbecue tea is provided, but people are asked to RSVP as soon as possible on 0413 952 215. BYO drinks.