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When Tom Byrne in Kilpipe, Co Wicklow, turned 60, he was given the option of a pair of binoculars or a drone for his birthday.
He opted for the binoculars, but his son Tom Junior got a drone.
They've used it a few times to herd in their cattle from a commonage on the hill just over a kilometre away from the farmyard.
Gadding
"We had heard about people bringing in sheep with drones so we said we'd try it," Tom said.
"The cattle at first thought it was the gad-bee and started gadding. But they stopped doing that after two or three attempts."
Tom explained that to bring the stock down from the hill previously it required two or three people. Now his son stands in the yard with the controller and does it all from there.
"You can use it to go around ditches and check if anything is sick," Tom said.
"It doesn't disturb them when you're doing that because it's quite high up. A good dog can be expensive and at least a drone won't kill sheep on you."
The only drawbacks to using it, he said, are that you need to learn new skills to fly it and also it won't work in poor weather conditions.
"Some farmers are slow to adapt new technology, but i think it has a real place in farming," Tom said.
"I told my father I wasn't going to farm with a fork, I was going to farm with a machine. Now my son is going to farm with a computer."
SHARING OPTIONS: