The drone tech for weighing beef cattle was first spotted on a farm in Argentina by Ryan Luckman and is now ready for a controlled commercial launch here.

A 4K drone hovers 10m above stock walking beneath, next to two printed QR-code boards, and a machine-learning model converts the footage to a weight.

“Within that range, it is remarkably accurate,” he says.

Trials have landed weights within 500g of scale weight, based on it’s learning on Angus and Hereford breeds in cattle between 220kg and 450kg.

Dairy crosses and Wagyu are next to be validated.

“You’ve got to be very careful about overpromising.”

CountryWide CONNECT with Andy Thompson & Sarah Perriam-Lampp is our daily rural show livestreamed from 11am-1pm. Visit country-wide.co.nz on how to watch/listen or download the CountryWide CONNECT mobile app, available on Apple iOS and Android.