Researchers using drones to aid cattle feed yard sustainability

K-State researchers use thermal images to improve cattle management

Kansas State University researchers are working on a project to analyze the opportunities available by using drone thermal imaging in cattle feed yards.

In a recent episode of Cattle Chat, guest Haley Larson, assistant professor in animal nutrition and health at K-State Olathe, described their project and findings.

“To start off, we needed to determine the type of samples in these feedlot pens that could better detect pen management, especially as you have different environmental conditions, different manure outputs, moisture content,” Larson said. “Then, we wanted to find out if we could capture that same pen management findings in a thermal image from a drone.”

She said that drones are highly sensitive, and images can be collected in series to improve sensitivity contrary to what some might think.

“It’s a series of many images of that pen that then are combined so we can get a lot of sensitivity out of these aerial images. They’re taken sequentially as the drone flies over that pen,” Larson said.

With their findings, Larson and her team were able to begin analyzing cattle management strategies. After pilot testing small pens, the researchers took the drones to commercial feed yards to see what information they could gather.

“Commercially there are ways that you can upload the drone’s images into an app on your phone and it will run the algorithm to count the number of cattle that are in that pen,” Larson said.

One of the team’s interesting findings: Larson said researchers found they could detect water leaks that pen riders had missed. Drones were able to pinpoint the thermal temperature of the bedding as well as the coolest locations of each pen.

Larson added that the technology has the potential to be very useful to producers as it becomes more accessible.

“A lot of this pilot work is helping to lay the foundation for where we could go eventually for some real time processing ability at the producer level, or at the nutritional consultant level, to try to better extrapolate some of this data outside of the very specific programs that recombine the images together, she said.”

For the full discussion listen to Cattle Chat on your preferred streaming platform.

PHOTO: Drones capture thermal images of cattle facilities. (K-State Research and Extension news service)