VIDEO: Meet Shep - Ireland’s first flying sheepdog

On a farm in the Carlow countryside, a low-flying drone makes its way over the grassy fields. Its mission? To check on the sheep of Herondale farm and move between stomping grounds.

Thu, 02 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Kelly O'Brien

The man behind the drone is Declan Brennan, an innovative farmer who has, with the help of his brother Paul, started to redefine life on the farm using the latest technology.

After retiring the farm’s sheepdog, Declan and Paul decided to enlist Shep the Drone to look after their livestock, and now use the drone to herd around 150 sheep from field to field.

“It’s my brother Declan’s drone. He’s a busy man and he bought a drone. He sends it down the field, he has a camera on it and it feeds it back to him. It saves him time driving down the fields, he can check on the sheep, move the sheep,” said Paul.

“You’ve foxes and things that would take little lambs so you have to be really careful, it’s important to check on them every day.”

Using the camera strapped to the drone, Paul took a video of the process and uploaded it to Youtube.

Little did he know the footage would be an almost instant viral hit— so far, the footage has been watched more than 400,000 times.

“I can’t believe it, it’s mad. It’s just a simple 60-second video.”

Paul is no stranger to drone footage though, and regularly uploads clips with an agricultural theme to his Youtube account. He has used his drone to collect aerial video of spraying, sowing and ploughing on the farm, as well as some impressive footage looking down on the nearby area of Killeshin.

“I think in the next few months and years you’ll see more and more about drones. They’re becoming way more mainstream,” he said.

“You can get drones for less than €100 and up to as much as you want. You could pay any amount of money for one. Declan’s drone now, his cost around €1,500 or €1,600.”

Citing a growing rise in the popularity of drone footage, Paul said he will continue to take videos as long as people are interested in viewing them.

“I’m a farmer’s son and I’m always out in the fields. It’s sort of a hobby for me but I’ve a Facebook page with 5,000 followers. People seem to like what I’ve been putting up so I might as well keep doing it,” he said.

“A lot of people have never seen this kind of thing before but I love it. You get to see things from a different perspective and it’s actually really interesting.”

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