With that image in mind, you can imagine my alarm when it was recently announced that US military ground drones were set to be deployed on Australian cattle stations. My first impression was of a six-wheeled vehicle armed to the eyeballs with enough firepower to scare cattle and thieves into complete submission.

It turns out that isn’t quite the reality.

The technology that is used in ground drones, and more specifically, autonomous drones, is about to be trialled in the north of our nation. Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) are being proactive in working with the developers of US military drones to test if there is a practical application for this technology on large cattle stations.

The unit itself resembles a quad-bike in size and will ultimately carry out similar tasks to a quad-bike – albeit without a rider. It can carry 500kg which allows it to be effective in delivering lick-blocks or feed to cattle around the station. It would also be effective at delivering supplies to various employees at different locations around the property.

This is the next evolution for these cattle stations. Manned drones are already in use across some of these large areas and are proving quite effective. Autonomous drones will, hopefully, deliver even more functionality.

I am putting aside the societal issues of unemployment for the moment as this is, after all, a technology column, but more than a third of Australian jobs are expected to be replaced by machines by 2030.

Overall the agricultural industry, despite the sometimes ill-informed view of our city-cousins, is quite advanced in its use of automation technology with crop-monitoring machines to driverless tractors to the drones mentioned in this article.

Many of the vegetables you eat each day have been grown under the watchful ‘eyes’ of Ladybird, an impressive piece of technological hardware designed specifically for that task. With the Internet of Things (IoT) giving advanced monitoring capabilities many farmers are changing the way they deliver water and chemicals based on specific measurements across their paddocks rather than an averaging technique. This results in increased yields with decreased costs.

While Australia is usually at the forefront of technology adoption, we are not alone in the world of automation. The US drone agriculture market is already worth many millions of dollars a year. In England, farmers are planting fields of barley using nothing but robots. Robots are also used to monitor and document animal health and welfare. Israel has been a leader in the production robotic lawnmowers and, in fact, my first robotic lawnmower for my house, purchased eight years ago, came from Israel.

I have spoken before about autonomous vehicles on our roads and there is still some way to go in this space but, on cattle stations, there are significantly fewer obstacles and vehicles to contend with so this area is progressing very quickly.

Keep an eye out for these autonomous vehicles and for cattle rustlers in our north be warned. Maybe the military background of these vehicles means they can still combat the thieves with force…

RIP

I can’t end this column without a quick note of thanks to Brian O’Flaherty. Since he took on the role of Managing Editor at the Daily Liberal, I found him to be an incredibly knowledgeable and experienced journalist and a man of incredible integrity.

I enjoyed his regular drop-in visits to hear about other stories from his past or to just discuss general issues of importance to the newspaper. He will be sorely missed by myself, his staff, the readers of the Daily Liberal and, of course, most importantly, by his family.

Mathew Dickerson