Hundreds of Australian farmers are using drones to make their operations more efficient and for some, it's also making the job safer.

Instead of it taking three people on quad bikes to round up the cattle, grazier Will Wilson is doing the job with his drone.

"If we are going to be thinking about methodology and about the industry and trying to stay ahead of the times we've got to look at technology as it comes along and try and embrace it," says Wilson.

After completing a full muster with a drone for the first time, he's now considering making it a permanent practice on his property.

"I'm thinking seriously about a position of someone mustering with the drone full time," he says.

Wilson says the technology wouldn't replace jobs on the ground. Workers are still needed to get cattle through the yard.

But the drones are helping to keep musterers out of danger.

"We have had injuries off motorbikes before and obviously horses before that so far I've crashed a drone a few times and I still haven't hurt myself so there is an argument to say it's a safer way of doing it," says Wilson.

Industry group Farmsafe is encouraging producers to look for new ways to make the farm a safer workplace.

"Anything that can substitute for a dangerous vehicle or a dangerous machine such as a quad bike and do the job just as effectively, is obviously valuable," says Farmsafe chairman, Charles Armstrong.

It's not just cattle properties where drones are coming in handy, farmers are also using them to check crop health and water levels.

And they're becoming more common place as the technology develops.

Meg Kummerow is a farm drone specialist. She has helped hundreds of graziers incorporate the technology into their operations.

"I think the drone will be something else that they can use in the future, it will be another tool in their toolbox," says Kummerow.

Something Wilson is already planning for.

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