Normalized claim
Accuracy: 97% increase
Increased count accuracy to approximately 97%.
Last evidence check: Jun 1, 2026
PGG Wrightson accelerates livestock counting with AI-powered drones and automation
Use case typeAgriculture optimizationUpdated Jun 13, 2026
PGG Wrightson, an agricultural services provider in New Zealand, partnered with AI specialists Inde to transform the labor-intensive process of livestock counting. Traditionally, this process required up to a week of manual effort, multiple staff members, and disrupted farm operations. The new solution, SkyCount™, leverages Microsoft Azure AI and Power Apps, integrating mid-sized drones equipped with HD cameras and precise automated flight planning. Tens of thousands of aerial images were used to train AI models on Azure, enabling reliable detection and counting of livestock across varied terrain. Automated reporting through Power Apps generates audit-ready summaries with minimal human intervention. The roll-out has enabled animal counts to be completed with a single operator in minutes rather than days, increased counting accuracy to 97%, and drastically reduced stress on animals and staff. This innovation is now driving pilot expansions and setting the stage for broader adoption of digital farm management at PGG Wrightson and across the sector.
- Organization
- PGG Wrightson
- Industry
- Agriculture
- Location
- New Zealand
- Published
- September 2024
Reported outcomes
+97%
accuracyQuality & accuracy
Strategic outcomes
New product / capabilityLaunched AI-powered livestock countingSpeed & agilityCompleted counts in minutesRisk & complianceEnabled audit-ready compliance reportingMarket & geographic expansionSet stage for broader sector adoption
Catalog median for quality & accuracy deployments: +41% across 63 reported metrics. Compare benchmarks →
Why do we believe this?Outcome claims, sources, and evidence checks
Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks
- Customer
- PGG Wrightson
- Provider
- Microsoft
- Maturity
- Pilot
- Linked source
- news.microsoft.com/en-nz
This innovation is now driving pilot expansions and setting the stage for broader adoption of digital farm management at PGG Wrightson and across the sector
Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity supported
Primary read
Use case focus
Showing 3 of 3
- 1Automated Livestock Counting Using Drones and AI
- 2Aerial Image Processing for On-Farm Inventory Auditing
- 3Automated Audit Report Generation in Agriculture
- Manual livestock counting was time-consuming, requiring up to a week for large farms.
- The process demanded several staff, disrupting regular farm operations.
- Animal herding caused stress to both livestock and farm workers.
- Audits were prone to inaccuracy, risking financial discrepancies.
- Challenging terrain made counts more difficult and logistically complex.
- Potential financial losses due to errors and missing animals.
- Implemented SkyCount™: AI-powered livestock counting with drones and Azure.
- Trained computer vision models on Azure using thousands of aerial images for accuracy.
- Used DJI Mavic Enterprise Series drones with HD cameras for data capture without distressing animals.
- Enabled automated mission planning for repeatable, consistent counts even in remote farms.
- Automated generation of audit-ready reports via Microsoft Power Apps.
Technologies
- Reduced livestock counts from days/weeks to minutes.
- Decreased staff involvement from teams to a single operator per count.
- Increased count accuracy to approximately 97%.
- Minimized disruption and stress for animals and staff.
- Freed up farm resources for more productive work.
- Enabled faster, audit-ready compliance documentation.
Architecture
A fleet of mid-sized DJI drones fitted with HD video cameras survey livestock from the air, collecting imagery which is processed on Microsoft Azure to train and run AI models for animal detection and counting. Drones follow automated flight plans—set via initial property mapping—which can be repeated on each visit with identical camera angles. Once flights are complete, data is uploaded (offline if needed) and processed in Azure. Count results and farm information are combined and formatted into an audit-ready report within Microsoft Power Apps. The platform is designed to function reliably even in remote locations with limited connectivity.
Implementation partners1
Sources & evidence1
Evidence: High75/100Evidence strength
- Customer explicitly identified
- Deployment status explicitly supported
- Independent source available
- Quantified outcome available
- Technical implementation details available
- Recent evidence check available
- Last evidence check: Jun 1, 2026.
Live sourceStill referenced
The case's original source is still reachable.
- Cited source last checked Jun 1, 2026 — ok (0/1 broken).
Measures whether this deployment's public evidence persists — not whether the system is still in production.
Type: News ArticlePublished: Sep 23, 2024Publisher: news.microsoft.com/en-nzEvidence: SecondaryConfidence: Low
AI-generated summary. Verify important details with the linked sources before relying on this case.
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