Counting cattle from the air: what producers get out of it

Anybody who has tried to count cattle across 300 acres of brushy, timbered pasture knows the drill: half a day, a tank of fuel, two passes that disagree with each other, and a nagging suspicion that four head are standing in cedar somewhere. The animals do not enjoy it either.

From roughly 175 feet with a thermal camera, cattle read as unmistakable white shapes against cool ground — including the ones bedded in timber where a truck cannot see. We record the whole flight and count off the footage rather than by eye, so the number is reviewable rather than an in-the-field estimate.

Documented headcounts for lending and insurance. Sale preparation. Calving and lambing checks in brush where a heifer in trouble is otherwise invisible. And the big one: after a storm or a downed fence, a fast answer to whether anything is missing and where it went.

Animals outside the fence, split off from the herd, or down away from the group show up plainly against the pattern of the main bunch. Those get flagged with coordinates so somebody can drive straight to them instead of searching.

The aircraft works high and quiet. Cattle are not herded, chased or worked in any way — they generally ignore it entirely, which is exactly the point when you are checking heavy-bred cows or fresh pairs.

Cattle, sheep, goats and horses all count the same way. Pricing runs by acreage and herd size, and producers who count on a schedule generally set up a standing arrangement.