New study determines that the ability to check on these big and volatile animals from afar increases efficiency and safety
CAMROSE, Alta. — There is plenty the two self-confessed cowboys don’t know about bison, but they do know technology used in other industries could be valuable bison management tools.
“There are a lot of things the cattle industry has that could be beneficial to the bison industry. How can we gather that valuable data for bison without disturbing them and inflicting stress on them?” said Walker Balan during the Bison Producers of Alberta convention.
After a year-long study at Alberta’s Lakeland College on the use of drones and bison, Balan and his research partner, Wylee Squair, believe the bird’s-eye view allowed by the drone is an excellent tool to monitor and manage bison.
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“Technology can really be used in the bison industry. The human presence is obviously a huge stress factor in them. They don’t handle stress as well as cattle,” said Balan.
For Balan and Squair, wandering through a beef herd during calving to help a cow or ear tag or weigh a newborn calf is part of normal herd management.
Walking through a bison herd during calving would have the bison headed for the other side of the pasture, or presenting a danger to the handler.
“The drone can be used as a potential solution for these challenges,” said Squair of Clyde, Alta.
Drones with cameras flying above the animals could detect which cows were calving, or had calved and identify the animal’s ear tag number and record it on a spreadsheet.
“With the drone, we noticed we can capture what they’re doing: grazing, drinking, ruminating, fighting,” said Squair.
In the feedlot, with the drone cameras, they saw how different bison behaved.
“We could see how they interacted with each other and which are more or less dominant and getting pushed off the feed. That can help make management decisions to pull a few of the lower-end animals off and put them in a different pen,” said Squair.
During one fly over, the pair noticed a lame bison. Using the thermal camera, they could see a hot spot in the animal’s hoof, a possible hoof infection.
The high-resolution camera with zoom allows ear tags of the bison to be read up to 40 metres above the animals.
After a few weeks of flying over the herd, the animals got used to the buzzing noise and the drone could hover a few metres above the bison with little change in behaviour.
“By the end of the season, we were flying five metres over them. The worst thing that happened was they would move a few steps away and turn around and look at you like you were a big dragonfly in the air,” said Balan of Bonnyville, Alta.
Markus Weber of LandView teaches drone courses and sells drones. He said most people don’t use drones to their potential.
“They’re still being used widely as toys, but they are very effective tools.”
Weber said flying a drone two metres above a bison cow and calf is possible once the animal is used to the noise.
Drones can be used to chase or move animals or monitor them, but not both, he said.
“You choose. You can either chase cows with your drone, or you can watch them. For most operations, watching them is more useful than chasing them,” said Weber.
Brian Newton of Trochu, Alta., said he uses his drone to count bison in his feedlot pens and to check on the cows in pasture. He plans to use it again this summer for checking bison in the pasture.
“If my animals ever did get out, that would be the first thing that goes up in the air.”
Stewart Staudinger of Alix, Alta., said he uses his drone for finding animals, but mostly he uses it to check for leaks in his pasture watering system.
