LIKE a scene from Africa’s great migrations, hundreds of sheep stream across the rugged terrain of New Zealand’s South Island.

    But the drone capturing their journey is not just being used to film the animals, but also round them up.

    Farmer Brett Sanders has 2,000 merino ewes and has been using the device to help move his flock between pastures on his 29,000-acre (11,735-hectare) farm for the past 18 months.

    “It’s a stress-free way of doing things, and saves time in the process,” Sanders said.

    Using a horn attached to the drone, Sanders rounds up the sheep and gets them moving, before meeting the mob on his motorbike with his dog.

    His video shows the beeping drone successfully herd bands of sheep into a gully by the bank of a stream, where his dog rounds up the group at a bridge crossing before coaxing them across.

    With only one other employee to help run the farm, the technology saves Sanders time mustering the animals, and has also made it easier to check on his flock.

    On one occasion, he spotted a ram stuck in a fence and was able to find and rescue it.

    (SD-Agencies)