Chinese drones aid Australia wool sector

Australian woolgrowers are increasingly turning to Chinese-made aerial drones to help with sheep farming practices like mustering and water management, according to the latest trends in the pillar sector.

The drones are being used to "improve efficiency and effectiveness of sheep and grower welfare and safety, management and infrastructure that will likely be applicable to growers in all regions of Australia", according to Australian Wool Innovation, or AWI, the main nonprofit group conducting research for the sector.

Drone use includes the mustering — or rounding up of sheep — by flying near the animals, and using camera functions to track infrastructure like water supply and fences and monitor the condition of flocks from afar. Additional features like thermal imaging and flight programming also help in sheep management.

In one case study, Queensland state woolgrower David Counsell, who handles 10,000 head of sheep with his family, highlighted the advantages of an advanced camera model from leading Chinese drone manufacturer DJI that can fly "straight up to 30 meters".

"If you're nervous, just take your hands off the controls. After all, there's nothing to hit up there," Counsell said in AWI's July industry newsletter.

For woolgrowers like Counsell, the drones have "shifted from a novelty to an everyday management tool in just a few short years", according to the AWI.

Australia's pillar wool sector has already hit its strongest levels in recent years with record-high prices, the group said. Most Australian wool is high-quality fine and superfine fiber shorn from merino sheep, with the raw material exported to China, its largest market, for processing into apparel products like sweaters, suits and coats.

An estimated 10 percent of agricultural businesses in Australia use drones to support their operations, and increased uptake in the technology is set to reap substantial cost savings of up to A $10.4 billion ($7.21 billion) for the sector and related fields within the next two decades, with improvements in production processes enhancing farm yields, according to industry research cited by Australia's Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.

Andrew Woods, a wool market analyst at business consultancy Independent Commodity Services, told China Daily that drones can be a considerable technological complement to what is traditionally a very labor-intensive livestock industry, and even more so for wool when compared to beef because of additional work like sheep shearing.

"If it could complement labor, that would be much easier. It's just hard to get good labor in regional Australia. It's hard to find them (workers) and it's even harder to keep them," said Woods, who is also an analyst at agricultural market intelligence platform Mecardo.

"In Western Australia, for example, they have a really hard time competing with the mining sector because the mines pay a lot better. Any of this technology … it's certainly going to take away some of that problem of finding good labor," he said.

Woolgrowers like Counsell say that the drone technology has made the greatest impact on mustering, with big differences in both safety and costs as they replace the use of motorbikes, which carry significant risks and costs from repairs and accidents.

Woolgrower Andrew Pegler, who runs a Queensland operation involving 5,000 sheep, said the major motivation for using drones is safety.

With 30,000 hectares to cover via aerial mustering, drones offer a "safer, lower-risk alternative to aircraft, reducing both cost and danger while maintaining full oversight of his flock", according to the AWI.

"We use the drone for checking … to find stock and move them to a convenient position," Pegler said. "It's definitely saved costs, time, and made mustering easier and safer."

alexishooi@chinadaily.com.cn