Mustering merinos in a 4,000 hectare paddock is not usually a one-person job, but add a drone to the mix and it is the new norm for Balranald farmer Cameron Nield.

He is among a growing crop of farmers using drones to help take some of the legwork out of mustering.

Mr Nield uses a drone for mustering on his property, Benilkie Station, in western NSW.

Initially he purchased the drone as a hobby, but it quickly became a beneficial tool in mustering sheep in heavy terrain country with timber and hills.

"In country where you can't see 100 metres in front on you, it is very helpful, but it's not as effective in open plains country because you can see from one side to another with a pair of binoculars," he said.

Mr Nield and his family run 10,000 merino ewes, and the drone has reduced manpower required at mustering.

"Dad and I used to do the mustering ourselves and sometimes get one other person to help, but I am getting better at flying the drone now and can handle bigger paddocks up to 10,000 acres on my own," he said.

"Most of the time I am confident and comfortable that it's a very clean muster just from using the drone."

Mr Nield flies the drone from his vehicle, and once the mob is formed he droves the sheep by motorbike or ute with his dogs.

"It's just another tool that works with others to make life easy and help manage the farm," he said.

Cameron Nield uses a drone to muster merino sheep in paddocks up to 4,000 hectares in size. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

Mastering mustering with a drone

It has been 18 months since Mr Nield purchased the drone. In that time he has put 30 hours on the clock, flown 500 kilometres and had a lot of interesting experiences.

"I've crashed it four times. I ploughed it into trees at full speed, which is 70 kilometres an hour, and thought it was all over, went and picked it up and away we went again," he said.

"It's really tough. I've accidentally put it in the swimming pool and it came back from that as well."

Mr Nield said the use for drones on a farm was only limited by imagination.

"If you are creative you will try and use the drone for everything you can, but sometimes you find you are wasting time and other times you will discover a whole new use for it," he said.

At Benilkie Station, the main uses for the drone are mustering by forming mobs for droving, and checking paddocks, but Mr Nield has discovered some other innovative ways to use it.

"It also comes in handy to sight over hills for fencing, checking windmill heads so I don't have to climb up them, which is dangerous," he said.

"We can fly the drone in to check water catchment in the dams after big rains, before we drive in and risk getting bogged.

"I wouldn't go and buy a drone to just do those things, but for mustering it's worth the $2,000. If it got stolen, I would go and replace it for sure."

Cameron Nield uses this drone to muster sheep on Benilkie Stataion, Balranald. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

Drones take flight on farms

TAFE drone teacher and merino breeder Ben Watts, from Molong, NSW, said inquiries from farmers, in particular sheep producers, about using a drone for mustering had increased in the past 12 months.

"We have really seen a take-up of drones with sheep producers, especially in the Riverina, as the challenge I guess for them is covering more area with less people on the ground," Mr Watts said.

He said many farmers were using drones for spotting stock and mustering them out of river country, and checking water.

"A lot of people are self-taught, but we are running workshops to get people through the basics of understanding the parameters they need to keep their drone within for safe flight, and to get their drone to come home safe," he said.

"Most people find that within two or three weeks of flying a quality drone it becomes reliable and safe to fly."

Mr Watts said stockmanship was critical when using a drone to muster.

"Just like working dogs or bikes you need to exercise good stockmanship," he said.

"A drone can do a really good job moving stock, but it can go the other way if it's not operated correctly, and stress stock."

Keeping up with a kelpie

Mr Watts said drones were more effective in mustering sheep than cattle.

"We have been using drones on cattle in central Queensland and they still work reasonably well, but it just depends on whether the cattle have been exposed to aerial mustering before," he said.

TAFE drone teacher Ben Watts says a growing number of farmers are now using drones to muster livestock. ( ABC Rural: Cara Jeffery )

"If they have been mustered with a chopper the drones tend to be a little less effective, so maybe that's why they work so well on sheep."

Although drones will never replace a faithful kelpie, Mr Watts said drones appealed to farmers because they improved safety in rough terrain.

"We still need good people out there on the the ground to do it," he said.

"You still need good dogs so once you get stock mobbed up you can drove them in for the final run.

"But what drones do is remove the need to be moving mobs through rough river country, so it's cutting down on injuries to people and wear and tear on bikes and utes."

Rules relaxed for farmers

Mr Watts said the Federal Government had relaxed legislation for drones used on farmland.

"If we own or manage the land directly, we just have to make sure we stay under 400 feet as that is our flight ceiling, and have the drone in line of sight," he said.

"We don't have to do daily flight plans, we just have to register it on the Civil Aviation Safety Association (CASA) website.

"Farmers can operate a drone up to 25 kilograms without needing a remotely piloted aircraft licence, which commercial pilots would need, but it's still important farmers stay in the parameters."

It has been five years since Mr Watts started using drones, and he said they had improved vastly in that time.

"They were basic, expensive and didn't do what you wanted," he said.

"Now they're are available, cheap and reliable."