Dr. John Church is an Associate Professor in Natural Resource Science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia as well as Research Chair in Cattle Industry Sustainability. John initially started Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch in 1997, a large bison and elk operation east of the Rockies just southwest of Calgary, Alberta. In addition to practical and direct bison industry experience, John served for eight years as the Alberta provincial animal welfare specialist where he led a bison dehorning study, and is currently the Chair of the Scientific Committee for the Canadian Bison Code of Practice. Dr. Church earned his PhD in Agriculture from the University of Alberta in 1997, under the late Dr. Robert Hudson, studying the effects of production practices on the behavior and management of bison, elk and cattle on farms. Dr. Church now leads a multidisciplinary research team dedicated to the exploration and invention of innovative practices and technologies leading to the sustainability and enhancement of the cattle and bison industry, rangelands, and meat production and related products. The focus of Dr. Church’s research program is on new opportunities for beef and bison producers in the areas of value-added and branded meat production, which includes human and environmental health. In addition, his research program is now using drones for Precision Ranching, with a goal towards improved management of both the land base as well as the animals.

In today’s episode, Dr. Church shares information not just on using drones to monitor cattle, but also his preliminary work in using virtual collars with bison, his work towards bison welfare, and where he thinks precision agriculture will be going in the future.

One of the ways he is using drone technology to monitor cattle is through reading RFID tags. We chat about some of the benefits of using drones for producers who farm on large acres of public lands, as well as those who raise cattle in heavily forested or difficult to access areas. Dr. Church has also used drone technology for work in feedlots to count cattle and predicts that in the future, drones may be used like pen riders to check cattle health and possibly treat cattle who are ill.

Dr. Church also shares his research using thermal imagery of cattle, as well as using drones to measure the respiration rates of cattle of different colors. We discuss his thoughts on the impact of global warming on the health of black or darker colored cattle versus those with a lighter coat coloring.

We also chat about some of the challenges and limitations of using drones, something that is becoming less of a problem as drone technology advances.

Further to this, Dr. Church has also been involved with the use of drones to assess vegetation and pastures and spraying using drones, which we touch on briefly in the episode.

To contact Dr. Church for more information, you can email him at [email protected]

Watch his Inaugural Professorial Lecture Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n0aeTpp9Ss

The research programs and daily operations at MBFI would not be possible without the funding from the Province of Manitoba, Government of Canada, and Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, as well as the partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC).

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