Farm Surveillance for animals

Hi All,

I just want know what are all the surveillance technique that can be used in our farms with today’s technology.

Issues:

  1. If the farm is more than 50+ acres
  2. Some times we cannot go deep into the densely cultivation plants

Real Issue:
One of my friend is having agree land of 5 acres and it is very near to forest. He do have the electric fencing around his farms. The issue is electric fence will be inactive during day time and active only in Night time. But the Wild Pig is entering his Sugarcane farms during Day time and stay there till we cut the sugarcane. Sugarcane field will be very dense so he is not able to go inside and check always.

Solution:

  1. I suggest him to use Heat sensing camera to find the animals in the night time
  2. Aerial surveillance using remote Helicopter king of things

Any solutions/suggestions please?

Thanks,
Dhana.

Installing a chain-Link fence will (I am pretty sure) be much cheaper than installing multiple Thermal vision Equipment (which is way more expensive than CCTV cameras) to cover 5 acres! (Infra Red LED based night vision cameras are a fraction of the cost of refrigerant based thermal imaging equipment) Besides, heat from the sun (day time), combined with tall sugarcane to mask the heat signature of the pigs will render thermal vision pretty much useless. And even if a pig was located… one would have to chase them out from that thick growth!

Your friend should think on the lines of not letting the pigs in at all, OR (some folks might not like this) shooting a few pigs down to scare the others!

Hi Dhanasekar,

Surveillance cameras, as the name says only assist in surveys. Once you spot a wild hoard how are you planning to expel the animal?

Incurring expenditure on surveillance equipment’s is one thing, but would it really serve the basic purpose i.e to wile away the animals? I doubt.

Rather than this approach, why dont you check with the nearest forest office to see if they have any objections to lay electric border fence. If they permit you for having one, electric or solar fence, have it ‘F’ type designed.

Also,

“The issue is electric fence will be inactive during day time and active only in Night time” - why do you say so?

@Sanjay

He says the land borders near forest area. Shooting wild animals could be considered offence.

Regards,

Shooting wild boar is not that easy, experience hunters also find it difficulty in shooting.You need a rifle to shoot a wild boar, besides it is offense. Small bullets can just make small hole but cannot penetrate.
it has venegnce if you shoot it will rush on you if you shoot from front side. hunters shoot its testicles(for this you can use double barrel gun) or other sensitive parts from the behind. They errect their thick hair like needles when they sense humans, if shooter dont know this, he shoots the hair(thinking that it is the body) and boar escapes unhurt.
They are not like anyother animals make sound and shooe them away, they get accustomed very soon.
So shooting cannot solve problem.

Electric fencing, spreading human hair around the boundary, spraying human urine, spraying tiger urine on the boundary, digging trench next to the fencing can control to some extent.

Last sunday I visited a farm, they have same problem, they are Jains by religion. They are living with harmony(take no action)with all animals. They have heaps of vermicomost, boar comes and digs to eat earthworms. They dont care, they say when they dig the heap is displaced the vermicompost gets aerated and becomes dry. it is lighter to trasport. They have avoided all crops which boar is interested.

Hi Dhana,
in our area groundnut and sugarcane farmers run a steel wire just 1 feet above the ground across the perimeter of the farm .
Wild animals are scared of it and try to avoid it. I have also seen farmers running tape of old video cassets, plastic ribons with bright color etc across the boundary which is very much cheap .

Please do not even think of hurting any wild animal, its a non bailable offense .
I dont think surveillance cameras will be an economical option . You can even bring down the expense of solar fencing by using just energizer and running few wires .

Recently I have red in newspaper that a solapur based pesticide company came up with granules that you have to spread across the perimeter and due to its strong odor wild animals stay away for atleast 2-3 weeks . But personally I will not prefer these chemicals.

Thanks & Regards,
Prashant

@saravanakumargcses
Electric fence will be switched off in Day time due to

  1. During Day time near by People or other’s Cow/Sheep might touch the fence
  2. Cost of electricity

@ppb
I’m not going to hurt any animals.

I just want to know how are we using today’s technology in Farms for Surveillance

Thanks,
Dhana.

You should keep your fence on at all times. It runs on battery so what is the problem with cost of electricty? Battery charging will not consume much power.
Also you should not let people or cows near your farm, they should be aware of the fence, if they touch they will get shock and should not come near it again. As it is, they have no business touching your fence.

Instead of chain link mesh, I can suggest cheaper alternative. Use shadenet 75%, make 3 feet strips and tie it to the fence from bottom. Then the bottom part of net should be buried in mud so that it becomes tight. So you will have 2.5 feet shadenet along the perimeter of your farm. Turn off the electric fencing for these lines. Wild pigs are immune to fence electricity, barb wire and any other obstacle. The idea is it should no be able to put its head inside the boundary, once the head passes it will make sure whole body passes. Shade net is cheaper alternative to steel and will give you life of 3+ years. We are using for 1 year and grow pig loving crops like groundnut, maize etc and have managed to control even when neighboring farms have been attacked.

Try it, shade net costs around Rs. 1.25 to 1.5 per sqft.

Good luck.
Nikhil

  1. Tie thick binding wire around the farm 1 foot above ground.
  2. Erect poles (3-4 feet height) and hang gunny bags on it.
  3. Tie old sarees (touching the ground) around the boundary.
  4. Spread hair/urine around the farm.
  5. Make pits (3-4 feet depth) and keep plastic barrels and place food items in it. Usually the pigs fall face down first into it and cannot come back up.

I have tried #1, #2 and #4 and they seem to have helped.

Do these techniques also help keep away Neelgai??

Thanks;
Sujay

Hi,

I am a farmer based in Ajmer, Rajasthan and we too have installed Solar fencing around around land. But it is completely ineffective for now and neelgai is continously entering our farm.

I have heard about putting shinning tapes around the boundary - this scare aways the neelgai. Does any one knows where to get this from ? I heard Kerala agricultural university developed some tapes of this type

thanks
Deepak

Hi everybody,
Last November, visited GKVK Krishi Mela in Blore and there i saw a stall on Quad Copter (drone) on enquiry i was told that it helps in farm surveillance, taking pictures for identifying pest and disease, and manpower monitoring. it takes clear picture up to 1 feet close and can be stopped midair for any observations. it has a 1 hour continuous flying ability and costs 1 Lac. the person attending the stall gave me this no 9945211059- Mr. Tejomaiye. pl try talking to him and share the info for others benefit.

Thanks and best wishes.
Kashinath B C

Hi Dhana,

I read an Agriculture officer interview sometime back, as per him the following are some simple remedies you can try

  1. Egg mix of 20 ml mix in 1 liter water and spray on the borders. This needs to be repeated once in few weeks after the odor effect goes down

  2. Plant 4 layers of Caster seeds on all the borders

  3. Make sounds to scare them away, I think you can use the lost cost radio sets and tune to a channel which streams round the clock

  4. Use pet dogs who chase away any outsiders

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Srini

We have Neelgai and wild pigs problem in our area of cultivation. Just wanted to say that all responses in this thread are extremely useful. Thank you all.

I picked up this from Kannada Agri Magzine. It was the cover story. Check link
grus.co.in/m3inaction.html

This company has developed a device which costs 17.5K which will repel birds and animals. They have sold few thousands of this device.

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