It was a bad crash while out mustering on his motorbike which convinced Western District grazier Tom Alston to give drones a go.
Now he and brother Bill are pioneers of the new technology they say has reduced the time mustering sheep from a day to only a few hours.
And made the job a lot safer.
The Alston brothers of Fernyhurst Pastoral Company are third-generation cattle and sheep farmers at Beeac, about 30km north of Colac.
Tom said they traditionally used horses or motorbikes to move the sheep on their 2630ha rocky, undulating property.
Moving the sheep now involves drones linked to virtual reality headsets.
“There is a bad culture in farming that my father did it that way and my father’s father did it that way so that’s the way it should be done,” Tom said.
“I think that needs to change a fair bit because of a lot of farm practices can be done a lot safer.”
Now the pair use the drone linked with virtual reality headsets to increase the range and give them the ability to flow low for…
