# Running Automated Livestock and Water-Trough Monitoring Across Midfield's Farms with Docked Drones - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 30:24 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/vxwTmH3LS8U/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session Livestock and water infrastructure spread across thousands of hectares are still checked the way they always have been: someone drives out to look. That is slow and expensive, and it leaves long gaps between checks on the things animals depend on daily. In this NestGen session, Ripper Corp will share how automated livestock and water-trough monitoring runs across Midfield's farms with docked drones, and what large-property operators should think through when replacing manual rounds with scheduled autonomous flights. ## Transcript **[0:01]** Hello everyone and welcome to NextGen 2026. My name is Pranjul and a part of the solutions engineering team here at Brightpace. Absolutely grateful to have you all here with us today. This next session takes us somewhere you might not expect inside the farming operation of one of the Australia's leading meat processors. We're going to be looking at how automated livestock and water trough monitoring is being run across midfields farm across using dogged drones on a property that size. Checking on cattle and water infrastructure the old way means staff driving for hours across the paddock every single day. And a single water outage can costs thousands. Today's guest is going to show us what changes when that becomes a docked drone op autonomous operation. Before we dive in and get started, let's hear from you. Please drop a quick note in chat letting us know where are you joining from and I would **[1:03]** love to learn more about where what who we have in our audience. So today joining us is Jason Young, CEO of Ripple Cop. Ripple Cop has one of the most unusual original stories in this industry. It started with a vision for drone based surf life saving in Australia and in 2018 the team achieved the world's first drone surf rescue. Since then, under Jason's leadership, Ripper Corp has taken same operational discipline, split second decisions uh in unforgiving outdoor conditions and agriculture and security deployments across Australia, including a multi-year partnership with Midfield Grow, a dairy processor and meat processor in Australia, Victoria. Please welcome Jason Young, CEO of Ripple Cop. Jason, great to have you here. >> Before we dive in, we had a quick session. uh notes uh for this session. So please feel free to drive your like drop your questions in the Q&A tab and we'll tackle them in the end. Yeah. Hi Jason, thank you **[2:06]** so much for joining. Uh and we'll keep this pres presentation conversational. Uh and we can get started with the questions. If you could just you know quickly introduce yourself as well. >> Yeah, thank you and um thank you again for having us at this year's NextGen. Um looking forward to talking to everyone and again having uh the session very conversational um and trying to answer some questions that that we get regularly uh for the sort of operations that we do. Um but no looking looking forward to uh today's session. >> That's great. Uh I'll share my screen. Yeah. So uh let's start with the session. So Jason starting from the beginning you know Brier Cop has been one of the most distinctive origin stories in the industry and you know you have the first world's first drone assisted ocean rescue. So how did that shape the company's move into you know autonomous dogged drones operations especially for agriculture? **[3:10]** >> Yeah that's right. So Ripper Corps been operating uh for over 10 years and uh we've tried to do all sorts of uh world first uh and really push the boundaries of how drones are used and um over those years we've built a lot of experience. Uh we have a lot of uh scars to to show and I I think starting out we were always told no you can't do that with a drone. No, that's not possible. Um, and over the years we proved time and time again that through the right R&D, uh, a fantastic team, processes, um, and really, um, making sure things are done correctly, um, enable you to do, uh, uh, certain drone operations that had never been done before. Uh, moving the business into agriculture, um, was quite a large decision. Um again as we mentioned our focus was around **[4:11]** coastal safety um shark mitigation um and looking for for people in in uh search and rescue sort of missions. What we found in agriculture is there was such a a huge need uh for drones and uh the um the areas are extremely large harsh conditions and the use cases uh were were many. Um so the idea of moving um into those autonomous systems uh as previously in the intro that the drones have matured uh the regulation has has caught up and businesses like ours are now able to put in a full endto-end solution uh for a customer. Um farms in Australia are extremely large and uh you'll find there's less and less people running these ginormous operations. Uh and so the timing is is fantastic now for for this industry. **[5:13]** >> Yep, that's great to hear and definitely agriculture is you know one of the huge sectors in Australia and uh so coming on to my next question. So given given midfield scales and farming heritage, what was the operational use case that you had identified within the premises and what are the conventional, you know, what are the things that the conventional methods were not able to address that specifically drones were able to do there? >> Yeah. Um, Midfield Group is a highly sophisticated uh organization. They'd probably be one of the leading uh in all of Australia and and probably the world. Uh they have a lot of robotic systems. Um but they also have a lot of properties with um older infrastructure or properties that are moving and being cleared uh ready to to have livestock on them. Um where the drones really came in was that aerial **[6:16]** viewpoint which they never had before. So they always took things and information from the ground. Uh one in particular you can see in the image here um is their head office in Warnable. Um and that's got uh an incredible amount of machinery, air conditioning units um and all sorts of things that get extremely hot. and keeping an eye on those assets and making sure they weren't a fire risk was one of the key uh areas that they wanted us to focus on. Um and uh the traditional methods was getting a a scissor lift or trying to to get onto the roof and checking one particular uh piece of machinery and then climbing down the roof and going somewhere else and and checking the next. So the drones enabled uh that visual thermal scan across multiple assets in one single flight. **[7:17]** Um and now that's became become a a routine part of their operations is um yeah just keeping an eye on anything that may be overheating. >> Understood. And that's yeah >> I was saying that's actually a really interesting use case considering they would have a lot of equipment around um at their site right using drones specifically to monitor the temperature conditions. Yeah that's definitely an interesting use case. >> Yeah. So some of the other um items that they want us to look at is just traditional logistics. they have a lot of vehicles, a lot of people coming in in and out and they may use >> security cameras on a pole at one entry point uh determining, you know, logistics around the site. Um and that again that that aerial viewpoint and being able to go from one area to the other quite quickly **[8:17]** um also um really helped their day-to-day um operations. >> Yeah, definitely. uh and that's really great to hear and uh coming on to you know the title of our session and uh they midfield also uses drones for livestock and water turf monitoring right so uh how like what could you tell us about this particular use case and how were they able to get value out of you know water turf monitoring and what are the pain points that they were tackling from your perspective Yeah. Well, uh they have over 27 properties with thousands and thousands and thousands of cattle. Uh in one particular area, they have over 500 water troughs. Now, on a dairy farm, particularly really any livestock, but particularly a dairy farm, uh water consumption is critical to milk production. **[9:17]** Uh so going and checking especially in summer going and checking those water troughs manually uh in a vehicle opening gates checking is the water you know the the level of the water is the water clean um and they're things that now the drone can go and and and check um every single water trough has been put um in a in a geo location um through the FlytBase software um so you can go and tech. What we found um is just that alone, just the water management um is giving them back hours every day across multiple team members. Um it's also giving them a an exact return uh particularly in that milk production. Um making sure that everything is is well hydrated. Um and there's no water leaks or yeah, some of the other things that can happen on a farm. **[10:18]** Understood. And this would uh like also, you know, save them a lot of resources because now they don't have to send people out to actually like measure the water volume or just look at if the water is there or not. >> Yeah, it seems really simple. Uh but just that alone >> um has been a great value for them. And there's lots of different things that they now use the drone for. But I think you really need to anchor your program on something that that is identified um all the way up uh through through the management which we'll talk about later. Um but you really yeah need to anchor your program on something that that requires daily operations um I believe and then that opens up all the different ideas and and uh use cases to the client. Definitely. Uh so one question uh right so agriculture environments themselves are quite **[11:20]** challenging right there could be you know terrain issues there could be a lot of varying terrain there could be a lot of dirt also connectivity reliability issues power supplies issues because a lot of agricultural sites are at remote locations right and they are quite expansive so uh like while deploying for midfield what are your learning things. How are you tackling these challenges during your deployments? >> Yeah. Um, Australia is a wild place. Uh, we have all sorts of, uh, critters, spiders, snakes, uh, bugs, uh, which can be a challenge. Uh, we have massive eagles that take, uh, drones out of the sky. Uh, so just just that in itself is something that we now consider. Uh we also have very harsh conditions uh windy as you said dusty and and very hot. Uh in particular areas where midfield is based is there's there's a lot of sea breeze which has um a lot of salt content. **[12:26]** Um so using high quality nuts and bolts um are are all critical. Something else that uh is listed there is that connectivity. Typically on on farm property again uh cuz you're away from the major cities that connectivity is incredibly difficult. Um I think uh systems like like Starlink have certainly supported and helped our operations. Um but our site assessment and what we do when we work with clients like midfield is that that real you know go physically uh to site and spend the time and effort to make sure that um you're placing the system in a suitable area um you know getting power to the site making sure like cows and bulls can can bump into drone docks and all sorts of things. So you would have seen in some of the images we got we got the systems uh really high up in the sky um to to try and **[13:27]** eliminate some of those challenges we found um yeah out out in the field. >> Yeah. And that's really interesting because because these sites are so large, you would have to do a lot of testing on site to make sure you know every system works as expected and a person is able to operate the system remotely uh from a command center. >> Yeah, correct. It's um if something goes wrong, it's a very long way for for us to travel um and try and resolve it. So we we put things in place. We have a regular maintenance program. Um, you know, to try and eliminate any potential challenges like that. Um, cleaning particularly is just again something that's nice and simple to do, but if you leave it too long, you can start having challenges with the equipment out in the field. >> Definitely. Uh now beyond the aircraft themselves right uh there are a lot of regulations that **[14:28]** also go into place while uh deploying uh at a site like midfield. So uh what are the challenges or you know structures or in place for navigating PV laws regulations in Australia and do you have any learnings from it that you would want to you know share with people? Yeah, I think um Australia has a has an amazing aviation history um and aviation culture. So there's a lot of private pilots in Australia particularly around agriculture. So a lot of farmers may own a small helicopter or small fixedwing aircraft. Um and that's definitely a consideration with our operations. Um some of them are so used to flying around that their radio use uh may be limited um and so that stakeholder engagement and and making sure everyone is aware that that there is now drone operations in this area. Um having an extremely robust um **[15:32]** radio over internet uh system uh is also very important. Um, in terms of the approvals, we've had in Australia a change. There was a a trial which is currently underway for broad area BV loss approvals. And so we're one of few companies that self approve uh BV loss um operations and that has dramatically reduced the time it's uh typically taken. uh it was up over 9 to 12 months to get a um to get an approval previously whereas we're now doing that within a month uh depending on on the location and and the operations that they want to do. Um but yeah, I I think um again our our you know we see ourselves as an aviation business. So, we have aviation experts within our company um that are are regularly maintain their training to to make sure that they're kept up to speed. But I think that would be something else that that's helped us navigate **[16:36]** um the regulations which um can can sometimes seem daunting for people. >> Yeah, definitely. And you mentioned that you are able to self approve uh BOS, right? So, uh what do you exactly mean by that? like do you have any specific practices in place or you know templates uh for a new site that help you get that sooner? >> Yeah, we're we're we're um taking on that liability. We as a as a business and our chief remote pilot uh who signs off on that documentation is signing off that we've a safe operation um and that it is compliant. uh we have to do monthly reporting uh to to um our regulator for all operations. Um but yes we we do have um a templated system that helps us with some consistency but again that physical site visit uh the stakeholder engagement **[17:37]** you know and just going through the steps that we have in place uh you know enables us to do that and and stay on top of it. Um but we're certainly looking forward to what the future brings. The the one to many I think is um something that is part of our focus. You know I heard earlier one to 30 uh drones being operated. You know that's incredible. We we are typically uh a lot less than that number here in Australia um for now. >> Yeah. And as people are figuring out the regulations they are you know quite uh like uh expanding a lot as soon as they are you know navigating all these challenges and we are seeing a lot of traction once people have started you know their operations. >> Yeah. Uh another thing uh that I wanted to ask is uh what changed how midfield view the viewed the program right what made them realize the value uh out of the **[18:39]** deployment and is is there something that you had identified or midfield had identified and you know what is actually giving them the ROI? Yeah, I think um this farmers and and agriculture are bombarded with new systems, new sensors, um new dashboards uh and um I think one of the biggest things was that the drone uh and and our program validated a lot of those things. So if a if a you know there was a water leak in some irrigation or a water trough I had a problem with a pump um the ability to send the drone out and actually get live information um and for the upper management uh and also other departments within the organization for them to be able to to get all that in information from one source uh was was probably the biggest thing. Um, typically it's, you know, a person would **[19:43]** travel out, they'd make a mobile phone call, you know, they might take a photo on their mobile phone, send it in a text message, then that text message is turned into an email which is then sent to the broader maintenance or management team. Like there's there's just all these steps. Where's now a notification can come up, the drone can be sent, the live vision and information can be provided to multiple devices. So, everyone that needs to make a decision can make a decision quite quickly. Um, you know, that's that's probably um yeah, one of the main things that we uncovered. >> Understood. So, so the the team there at Midfield did realize this and they like have they identified any other opportunities where you know they can be utilizing this technology to you know get more on their investment and because they've already realized the value from it. >> Yeah. One of the biggest things um I mentioned earlier was was around um looking **[20:48]** for things that were overheating. Uh fire mitigation in manufacturing uh in in the you know the work that midfield's doing is critical. Uh and the insurance actually to ensure an operation like that for fire was ex was extremely high. Um and so having a a a drone program doing regular missions provided a um an overwatch that the insurer had never um seen before uh in that sort of industry. Uh and that was the biggest return instant return was um the reduction on the insurance policy for fire risk um on the sites. Um and so that was certainly something from management's standpoint as a as a big win. Um and something that that um you know put the stamp of approval saying yes okay there's an instant return. It's been a bit of an investment. It's **[21:49]** taken some time uh to install these systems. Um uh but you know we have the value instantly. uh the other ones the water trough and seeing the performance of of the dairy the the milk production um you know that's taken some time to to get some metrics around that return um so yeah that was that was that >> and and that's quite interesting because they were able to directly I believe they would have you know definitely found some impact on their insurance premiums as well because they are using such a system which can actively monitor for you know any fire hazards or any equipment breakdown. The the insurance companies would have definitely realized that. Yeah. >> Yeah. But it was unexpected. >> Yeah. >> Right. We went there for you know we we approached the project and and the opportunity and you you know try and present a return on investment. **[22:51]** Uh but yeah, this was something that's unex was unexpected, but we now have it as part of our um you know, proposal and and site assessment. >> Um >> defin yeah definitely. Uh do you think uh you would have approached anything differently while you were building this program inside midfield? Um yes, look when when uh we first started with them like we have so much more knowledge now. Uh the systems have matured, the drones have got better, the the software to to manage the system has got better. Um I I wish I knew back then. It would have made the sales process a lot easier. I think the challenge was customers didn't want to feel that they were an R& a research and development project. They wanted to purchase something that was was established um and that their funds were going directly into what they needed, not **[23:56]** not funding a business like us to try and work out what to do. Um so yeah, how how we approach things now uh with a lot of rigor um and consistency um you know I think uh that site assessment uh before you make large claims uh from a sales perspective saying you know we can do all these things for you better make sure that uh the options where you can put the dock uh and that there's supporting infrastructure Um, and I think again in the earlier opening presentation, they don't want more data. What do they do with hard drives full of pretty images and videos? That's not that's not what what they're after. Um, it's uh, yeah. So, bypassing, wow, isn't that drone amazing? And look how it takes off and lands. Those days are **[24:58]** gone. Um it's now about providing the information in a in a format um that they want. Uh and uh yeah that's that's probably what's changed. >> Yeah. And definitely we are seeing this trend. People want direct results instead of data, right? So it's more of what are the results that you're getting from the program instead of just the data and then you anyways have to do an analysis over it all over again. So if they can get direct result out of the program then uh I think definitely it makes sense how they could you know realize the ROI quicker and move ahead with the program. Uh so nowadays you know AI um is in the news and AI is also penetrating industries such as agriculture and drones right do you see a vision of you know near-term opportunities where AI has a larger role in the deployments and how data **[26:01]** is getting processed. Uh yes, as I said, there's less and less people um operating uh you know, these farms and machinery and uh they don't have time to sift through hard drives full of images. Um, so I think um AI is is becoming a a daily tool. Um, and being able to make it very simple to ask a question um to to the data set I think is just >> just it's just normal. It's a a part of every day. Um I I definitely see a large expansion um in land management, agriculture and and otherwise uh because of these different use cases you know security um obviously farm management uh and then livestock you know seeing uh where they are uh their health um and integrating with other um technologies and and uh systems. Yes. >> Um the **[27:07]** approval as well, the the ability to get an approval a lot faster. So yeah, definitely seeing quite a large expansion um in um in the agricultural space. >> Yeah. And with AI, you know, a lot of data processing and actually getting insights from what you've captured using the drone has become a lot easier. And these systems which are coming around are able to get you and like insights on your data without actually looking into or shifting through these images or anything that you've captured. Um so you know coming out of the finals uh final question as you know more and more uh deployments become autonomous and drone becomes docked how do you see the role of you know the on-site operator or the operator in the command center uh evolving right and especially people are scaling to one to many how do you think the role of the you know controller or the operator who is controlling the drone is evolving **[28:12]** >> yeah I think um they're becoming a a critical asset uh to the business. I know for for midfield it, you know, it's a a real draw card. Um you know, cuz it it's such a great way to get information. Um so their their role is expanding. Um I think uh they're going into other areas of the business that typically that operator was not involved in um from a command center standpoint. So for for our rock here in Sydney, um that expertise across the different use cases, you know, their knowledge is growing from a from a typical drone pilot um to to now u much more than that. and depending on the client and the sort of operation. Um yeah, we're seeing a rapid uh education and and their knowledge growing of what's important um and and when. Uh so yeah, that I think that's probably um the biggest thing is **[29:16]** they're not just a drone pilot watching um watching a drone fly around and uh staying on top of of the radio airspace uh calls. um they are becoming a a a critical asset for those um for those clients. Um cautious of time. We got a few more seconds. So >> yeah. >> Yeah. U I think Jason this has been you know an amazing discussion and a genuinely interesting conversation and thank you for walking us through you know how your journey has been how what are the challenges while deploying at a site like midfield from you know regulatory standpoint to site assessment to how you know AI is influencing data processing and your vision for the future. I mean thank you so much for your insights and uh thank you to audience for their time as well in the session and thanks again for your time and enjoy the rest of 2026. Thank you Jason and thank you **[30:19]** audience. >> I will thanks everybody. >> Y thank you. Mother.