Aerial · Drone services for ranching & rural property
A quarter-section is a long way to ride before breakfast. One flight gives you eyes on the herd, the fence lines, the troughs, and the back pasture: a head count you can actually check against, the strays hiding in the brush, and a relative-vigour read on the grass, all to one shared folder, without saddling a horse or burning a tank of fuel.
What you get
Running cattle on rural ground means a long list of things to lay eyes on: where the herd is, who's missing, whether the fence held, whether the trough's full, and how the grass is holding up. One aircraft, carrying both a high-resolution camera and a multispectral camera, does the rounds in a single morning, and you keep every frame.
Find the herd fast across open pasture and get a tally you can actually verify. Kendal Ventures flies the ground, captures the imagery, and you review the frames together: a visual count to set against your own records (you verify the count), so a missing animal stands out while there's still daylight to go look.
You receive: herd-location imagery · human-verified visual head-count assistance
The one that wandered off into the treed draw or the brush along the creek is the hardest to find on foot. From above you cover that broken ground far faster: open edges, fence corners, and the gaps where stock drift through. It works best where there's open sightline and thins out under heavy canopy, so we fly it as a daytime visual search and flag what we spot for you to ride out and confirm.
You receive: search imagery over open & broken ground · flagged spots to check
Walk the whole perimeter from above: a down-the-line record of where the fence runs, where a tree's come down on it, where wire's sagging, or where a gate's been left open. Drawn from the same georeferenced flight, so a problem stretch shows up as a place on a map you can drive straight to, instead of riding the whole line to find the one broken span.
You receive: fence-line condition imagery · located problem stretches for repair
A quick visual read on the things that matter most in summer: is the dugout holding water, is the trough full, has a spring box stopped running, is the creek crossing still passable. Captured from above across the whole property in one pass, so you catch a dry trough in the far pasture before the herd does.
You receive: water-source & trough condition imagery across the property
The same multispectral relative-vigour read we run on vineyards and orchards, pointed at your grass: a whole-pasture picture of where the forage is strong and where it's thinning. Prepared for you and your agronomist to read alongside a grazing-rotation plan: it shows observed vigour variability across the range, never a stocking rate or a grazing prescription. The call on where and when to move the herd stays yours.
You receive: relative-vigour pasture maps · georeferenced zone maps for grazing-rotation review
Everything lands in a shared client folder. The head count is visual assistance (you verify the count). The pasture maps are relative-vigour maps showing observed vigour variability, prepared for you and your agronomist to interpret, never a grazing prescription.
Herd checks · for the rancher
From the saddle you see the draw you're in. From the air you see the whole pasture at once: where the herd has bunched, where a few have drifted to the fence, and the corner of the field nobody rode to this week. Kendal Ventures captures the imagery and walks the frames with you, so the count you act on is one you've checked with your own eyes, and the stray standing in the brush is one you spotted before you saddled up.
A flight covers ground a rider can't get to before the day heats up: open pasture, treed edges, and the fence corners stock drift through. You get herd-location imagery and a visual head-count you confirm from the frames (you verify the count), plus flagged spots where an animal looks to have strayed. It's counting and finding assistance, captured the same way each time so you can compare one check to the next.
Lost pet & animal search
When a dog slips the gate or a horse gets out onto acreage, the first hours and an open sightline are everything. Kendal Ventures flies a visual, line-of-sight aerial search over open or rural property (with the landowner's permission), in daylight and into the evening with the aircraft's mounted spotlight, covering far more open ground than searchers on foot can in the same time, and flagging anything that looks like your animal for you to go to.
It's a visual, line-of-sight search, flown over open and rural terrain. It works best where there's open ground and clear sightline (pasture, fields, sparse bush, fence lines and field edges) and it thins out fast under heavy tree canopy or where an animal is tucked in tight. We come look, we cover the ground, and we share what we spot, but no honest search can promise a find, and we don't.
A few honest boundaries up front. We fly over open or rural property and need the owner's permission for the land we search. This is a visual search only. Thermal is on our roadmap, not yet offered, so there's no heat-signature or heat-detection capability today. It's best thought of as another fast set of eyes covering open ground quickly, not a guarantee. Tell us where your animal was last seen and what the land's like, and we'll tell you honestly whether a flight is likely to help.
One flight · The whole property
The far pasture, the treed draw, the dugout you can't see from the road: all covered in minutes from above, dated and georeferenced, while you keep your boots dry. Kendal Ventures captures the whole spread in one mobilization and hands it to you as imagery you can keep and compare against the next time out.
Who it's for
If your day runs across more acreage than you can comfortably walk, the view from above earns its keep, and it serves the cattle operation, the hobby acreage, and the worried pet owner alike.
Locate and count the herd across open range, walk the fence line and check every water source from above, and get a relative-vigour read on the grass for grazing-rotation planning, captured the same way each time so you can compare check to check, season to season.
Horses, sheep, or a mixed herd spread across pasture and bush: a fast aerial pass to find where they've drifted, spot a stray in the treed corner, and keep eyes on the back paddock without a long ride out to do it.
A dated visual record of your whole property (fence lines, outbuildings, water, access roads, and the treed edges) useful for keeping an eye on the place, planning work, and seeing the parts of your land you rarely walk to.
A fast aerial visual search when an animal gets out onto open or rural land: far more open ground covered than searchers on foot, flown with your permission, best in open terrain. Another set of eyes when hours matter, with no guarantee of a find and never a thermal search.
Straight talk on what this is
The head counts are human-verified visual assistance: Kendal Ventures captures the imagery and you confirm the tally by eye from the frames. They help you find the herd fast and notice when an animal's missing. They are not, and never claim to be, a guaranteed automated census or an official count for inventory, brand inspection, or insurance. The number you rely on is the one you and your crew verify on the ground.
The pasture maps are relative-vigour maps showing observed vigour variability for you and your agronomist to read, not a grazing prescription or a stocking rate. The lost-pet flight is a line-of-sight visual search over open ground with the owner's permission, best in open terrain, no guarantee of a find, and no thermal or heat-detection capability (that's on our roadmap, not offered today).
How it runs
A ranch capture is one mobilization that does several jobs at once: herd, fences, water, and grass in a single flight, planned against current airspace through NAV Drone so the only thing you watch for is the weather window. A lost-pet search runs faster and leaner, because when an animal's out the clock is what matters. The scope-call-to-delivery process is the same on every Kendal Ventures project.
Questions & answers
We give you head-count assistance you verify by eye. Kendal Ventures flies the pasture, captures the imagery, and you review the frames together to tally the herd and spot who's missing. It's a human-verified visual count you confirm yourself, not a guaranteed automated census and not an official count for inventory, brand inspection, or insurance. It's a fast, reliable way to find the herd and notice a missing animal, captured the same way each time so you can compare one check to the next.
We'll come look and cover a lot of open ground fast, but no honest search can promise a find, and we won't. It's a visual, line-of-sight search flown over open or rural property with the owner's permission. It works best where there's open sightline (pasture, fields, sparse bush, fence lines) and thins out under heavy tree canopy or where an animal is tucked in tight. It does not use thermal, heat detection, or night vision; thermal is on our roadmap, not yet offered. Think of it as another fast set of eyes when the early hours matter.
No. The pasture maps are relative-vigour maps: they show observed vigour variability across your range, prepared for you and your agronomist to read alongside a grazing-rotation plan. They point to where the forage is strong and where it's thinning. They are not a stocking rate or a grazing prescription; the call on where and when to move the herd stays yours and your agronomist's. Our maps give you a whole-pasture view to work from.
Yes, that's one of the things a single flight does best. You get a down-the-line record of the fence perimeter that locates the down trees, sagging wire, and open gates, plus a visual read on dugouts, troughs, spring boxes, and creek crossings across the property. It all comes from the same georeferenced capture, so a problem stretch shows up as a place on a map you can drive straight to instead of riding the whole line to find it.
More from the air
The relative-vigour mapping behind your pasture read is the same workflow that maps vineyards and orchards, and the whole-property capture is the same one that builds a dated visual baseline of a rural acreage.
Agriculture
The same calibrated multispectral relative-vigour mapping and zone maps behind your pasture read, prepared for grower and agronomist review.
A georeferenced visual record of your entire property, the same whole-spread capture, kept as a baseline you can compare against over the years.
Request a quote
Tell us how much ground you run, what you need checked (herd, fences, water, grass) or whether an animal's gone missing. We'll scope the flight around your land and your weather window, once or as an ongoing program you set the schedule for.
Every inquiry gets a reply within one business day.