The DroneOn Show 04: Down-to-Earth Chat with Bennie: Drones Transform Hoeksfontein Hunting!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, welcome back to the Drone on podcast. I'm excited to bring you guys today's episode where we sit down and we have a conversation with Benny from Hoochfontein Safaris in South Africa. I got to know Benny from an Instagram dm. I believe one of his closer friends had reached out to us for thermal drone related stuff. And after talking to him for a while, it actually turned into a hunting trip. And so I went to South Africa, got to know Benny, got to see his ranch, and then ended up giving him a thermal drone to use on his ranch. So in today's conversation, me and Kevin sit down and have a talk with Benny to see how does this thermal drone technology help his ranch in South Africa. And so it's going to be a really cool, interesting conversation with the third generation ranch owner. So we're going to get right into it. I'm excited to bring you guys this episode. Here we go. [00:00:53] Speaker B: Hey, guys, thank you for having me. So I'm the fourth generation on the farm. We've been there for seven generations. My dad just passed last year, so I'm taking over the hunting business from my dad. [00:01:05] Speaker A: And you're how old? [00:01:06] Speaker B: I'm 25. [00:01:07] Speaker A: 25 years old. And how many acres is your range. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Is about 10, 000 acres. [00:01:12] Speaker A: Okay. But that's not, that's not the only acres that you can hunt because you got access. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we got concessions on over 100,000 acres. [00:01:21] Speaker A: So we've got 100,000. [00:01:22] Speaker B: That is a very big piece of land that we can hunt. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:25] Speaker B: It's a lot different than hunting in the states that I've recently got to known. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Because last few days here you've been going with me in Ohio doing deer recoveries and you're hearing some of my customers have 50 acres. [00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:39] Speaker A: And it's large if it goes over 150 to 300 acres. That's a big track. [00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah. It does sound a lot different than what we're used to for meats. It's also something that I have to get used to for you guys. I was in Colorado also doing elk hunting. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And was that public land or was that private? [00:01:56] Speaker B: It was private land. Yeah. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah. But that's also. We don't call in Africa for any animal. So that was something to get used to, the alcohol. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Oh, calling them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So like turkey hunting, you would try to call in the birds. Elk the same way. Duck hunting. So no calling over there? [00:02:15] Speaker B: Nope, not often. [00:02:16] Speaker A: So what's your style of Hunting over there. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Our style of hunting would be spot and stalk. [00:02:23] Speaker A: Yep. We definitely were doing that. [00:02:25] Speaker B: Yeah, we were walking a lot. So the, the ranch is so big you're gonna have to drive to a certain spot in the area depending on where you're gonna go hunt in that day. And then we'll spot an animal and see if we can get close enough to take a shot. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, Yep. I'm going to bring up. Benny is 25 years old. He has a 10,000 acre ranch. But it's not like that this ranch has just been given to you, like the amount of work that you put in to keep the ranch what it is. There's a lot of work that goes into it. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Oh yeah, it's a lot of work. Maintenance. Especially now with social media getting all this stuff sorted out. My dad was against all social media. He had Facebook and an old website and I had to redo all of that, modernize it. [00:03:08] Speaker C: So are you. How long have you been running it? [00:03:11] Speaker B: Three, three, four years now. [00:03:12] Speaker C: Three or four years? [00:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Because tell us, your dad got sick. [00:03:16] Speaker B: With motor neuron miss. You guys know what it is? Yeah, yeah. [00:03:21] Speaker A: So technically we were kind of like taking the ranch over because he was sick for, what was it, three or four years? [00:03:26] Speaker B: He was sick for four years, but I kind of started taking over the last two years. He was sick. He was bedridden. [00:03:32] Speaker C: So have you brought the ranch into the era of social media and videos and. [00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:37] Speaker C: Website. [00:03:37] Speaker B: I tried doing Instagram, Facebook and I. [00:03:40] Speaker A: Feel like you're working on it definitely just by bringing in YouTubers. Right. Like some guys over there weren't sure about bringing in YouTubers like Braden Price, Kurt Price and then myself. We went over there and created this content. What type of feedback did you get from the locals doing that? [00:03:55] Speaker B: I must say there's a lot of guys that watch you Watch you Guys YouTube channel from South Africa. It's not. It's like when I was there after you guys left and start posting, people ask me, oh, they were there. And I'm like, yeah. And they know you guys. So you're kind of famous in South Africa as well. It's not just American people. [00:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself. So Benny took us up this mountain that was just getting a road cut into it. It was brand new road and we're going up there and the guy that was operating this project, he was like, oh, I seen you on YouTube. And I'm like, I'm in the middle of nowhere, South Africa. And somebody from South Africa was watching the YouTube channel, I believe, you know, we talk about a lot of times it's because the technology, it's not just, you know, here in America that it's valuable. It's also other parts of the world. And we got to experience that in South Africa on your ranch. We're just going to get right into it. Unless you have more questions for him. [00:04:53] Speaker C: I want to know, like thermal drones, if people are aware of the channel and you know, like, are thermal drones generally exist and do they have a place for the African ranch owner? [00:05:02] Speaker B: Like, we don't have any rules in that way. So you can use a thermal dome to recover your animal day or night. There's no rule do it. [00:05:10] Speaker C: Like, is it? [00:05:11] Speaker B: There is. I do not know of anybody that does it. Like, I'm the only guy that has a drone in my area. I know one other person that has a drone, but he has a spraying business as well. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Okay, we're jumping ahead of this conversation. You have a thermal drone now? Because when I was there in South Africa, when I first got there, let's just be honest, you did not believe that thermal drones would work. [00:05:32] Speaker B: No, I was amazed how they work. And what did you think it was. [00:05:35] Speaker C: Going to be like? I mean, you saw the videos, right? So why did you not believe? [00:05:38] Speaker B: I think I believe to see something in person before I can believe it. Because you see so much stuff on social media that's fake. [00:05:45] Speaker C: Yeah, actually that's so normal. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:47] Speaker A: Would you say you got a little bit that from your dad? [00:05:49] Speaker B: Like, I would say I'm stubborn. A little bit like my dad believing stuff. [00:05:53] Speaker A: There's no doubt that he was a little stubborn. Yep. [00:05:56] Speaker C: So, okay, you had to see it for yourself. I had to see that it works. And then did you do that on that trip with, with Mike and Brayden and stuff you got to see it for. [00:06:04] Speaker B: Yeah, we did a lot of recoveries with the thermal and with a big drone. We had a T40 there. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So you were familiar with drones, right? You use drones on your range for like using RGB red, green, blue cameras, making cool videos or getting photos of stuff. But when I told you I'm bringing a thermal drone and I have a 200 times zoom camera, you were just like, well what we got rocks and bush and you can't look through that stuff. [00:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I was thinking we have a. Our rocks is going to keep a lot of heat and it does. But when it cools down, the thermals on the, on that drone, it just, it adapts to what the surrounding Is. And that. That's pretty cool. I did have a small drone just for filming. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:45] Speaker B: And that was a real eye opener to see different parts of the ranch, especially from highest standpoint. [00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:52] Speaker B: And that was cool to have. But just that thermal switch. Oh, that opens up different levels. [00:06:58] Speaker C: And that 200x zoom. [00:06:59] Speaker B: Oh, that zoom's incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Oftentimes when people watch the footage on, you know, YouTube, it looks clear on YouTube, but when you do it in person, the clarity is way better. So we're gonna get into, like, how I got you switched over to believe that thermal drones are a thing. Right. I started flying my drone, and I was finding animals, and I hit him with that zoom. You were like, man, that is impressive. But where you really were convinced was on that springbok that Braden shot. Remember that? [00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. He shot it the afternoon, and we went back three hours later, and we found it within 10 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty. It was cold that night, though. But we. That thing just popped out. The red thermal picked it up. [00:07:44] Speaker A: If you guys haven't seen that video, and not a lot of you have, if you're listening to this, go back to the Drone Day Recovery YouTube channel and look at the Springbuck recovery. I think it only has 1500 views, but is really a video showing, like, I'm taking Benny out in the field, and he's like, you know what, Mike? If you can find this, you know, then I'm hooked, and I believe it. And when I hit that zoom, he's like, I don't believe it. Like, let me see that thing. I was like, there he is. So, yeah. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that was pretty cool. [00:08:15] Speaker A: So how are you using your thermal drone currently on the ranch? Because it can be used for so much more than just doing recoveries. You got a lot of. [00:08:27] Speaker C: Yeah. What do you have issues with poachers and, like, stuff like that going on with 10, 000 acres? [00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't really have that much of poachers because of the area that we are in, but there's so many ranches that poaching is a big thing. [00:08:39] Speaker A: So the area you're in, I don't know if we've hit on this. You're in South Africa, but what's, like, the closest, bigger town that somebody might know? [00:08:46] Speaker B: It would. We're in the Karoo, the small Karoo, they would say in South Africa. It's in the eastern part of. Of South Africa. Closest town would be Graet. And the closest airport is Port Elizabeth. [00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah, about two and a half Hours. We flew to Cape Town, and then from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:02] Speaker A: And then you had your guys come pick us up in Port Elizabeth and then take us out into the country and. Absolutely. I'm telling you guys, if you've never been to South Africa, you're going to want to go check out Benny's website. Hooks Fontaine. Is that. Am I saying it right? [00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Okay. Okay, Perfect. [00:09:19] Speaker C: You don't need to put it down right here. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because. So we traveled. It was nighttime when we went to the ranch, and I didn't get to see what part or what the terrain looks like once we got there. And then the next morning when the sun came up, the mountains, just the beauty. I was absolutely blown away with how beautiful it looked. That was my biggest thing is seeing the ranch. And I didn't realize there's that big mountain. [00:09:46] Speaker B: It's all different scenery. Yeah, yeah. [00:09:48] Speaker C: It's probably something like. You can't just. Like the drone. You don't really understand it till you're there. [00:09:52] Speaker A: Until you're there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you're using the drone. Not only do recoveries, we hit on this a little bit. But what else might you use it for? [00:10:01] Speaker B: I've used it to count some of my game, especially in the wintertime. So you're not sure how many animals. The range is so big it's impossible. Even if you take a helicopter, you count animals and you guys, you do. [00:10:14] Speaker A: Use helicopters at times. [00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. Do the game counts and trying to see the rough estimate of how many animals we do have on the farm or the ranch. But just having that drone. Like, I went out the one morning, early, early, so I can have good thermals, and I was amazed of how many just kudus. I was looking at kudu, trying to see how many trophy kuro balls we have. And just in one valley, I spotted like eight big bulls and a couple young bulls. That's amazing. If you were to sit there with binos. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:44] Speaker B: And just try and see them. They are so camouflaged, you would never be able to see them. [00:10:49] Speaker A: I can totally vouch for that. Like, there's times when he's. Benny's looking through his binoculars, he's like, there's a kudu over there. And I'm like, I don't see nothing. Like. But aren't they. They're called. What is the gray ghost. [00:11:01] Speaker B: Gray ghost of Africa. [00:11:03] Speaker A: It's almost like they change colors because, remember that one time we were, like, out toward the desert and they were more brown than they were dark. [00:11:09] Speaker B: They do kind of change colors. If they're in the sunlight, they kind of turn to turn yellow, whitish and they camouflage and when they're in the shade they turn black. They really camouflage. And that's most of the animals. Like even a zebra, you would think that thing is just going to pop out because it's white and black. And that thing camouflages pretty well. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:30] Speaker C: So any one time bending. You have no idea how many animals are on your ranch. [00:11:33] Speaker B: Like you literally not a precise number. No. [00:11:35] Speaker C: So what, what's the range? Like how accurate are you able to hone in? Like within dozens or hundreds or I. [00:11:42] Speaker B: Would say percentage wise I would have probably be like 75% accurate how many animals there is. And you never know because we got predators like jackal and lynx that, that can catch animals. So you, the numbers go up and down. Especially now that our animals are having babies. The jackal, they're just like. We lose about 30 to 40% of all our new babies just from jackal and lynx. Yeah, it's horrible. [00:12:10] Speaker C: Hunt jackals. [00:12:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We, it's a nuisance jackal. We try to hunt them and a. [00:12:14] Speaker A: Jackal is like a coyote. [00:12:16] Speaker B: It's exactly like a coyote. It's a little bit smaller. Same principle. They would not just the game. My brother's a sheep farmer and they catch if not one sheep every night. [00:12:27] Speaker C: Have you used the thermal drone for anything to do with jackals? [00:12:31] Speaker B: I tried doing that one night but I think they're so clever. They can. They hear the, the drone at night and they, they. And the bushes are so thick. Yeah, it's pretty hard. [00:12:41] Speaker A: And there's a smaller game so to pick them up through the bushes can be a little bit harder than it would be. If it's like a kudu or something like that. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah. It is small. So you would pick it up If I were to go out, I'd spot some. [00:12:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:52] Speaker B: If I'm going jackal hunting at night, I wouldn't fly the drone. Have some other thermal. [00:12:57] Speaker A: But go ahead. [00:12:59] Speaker C: If thermal drones. Right. Are like you said, you're the only one in your area, you're only ranch owner in the area that has a thermal drone. [00:13:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:04] Speaker C: I'd be curious to see how you'd predict just drones in general. Heavy lift thermal drones. Like if you had to say hey, in the next five years, here's what I think the life of an African ranch owner, how it's going to change with drones. What, what do you see coming down the pipe? [00:13:19] Speaker B: I think it's definitely Gonna change. Just being. People normally just went and go hunt. Now they're filming their safari and just having that camera with a backup so you can track the. The shot that was the hunter shoot. That's. That's something else. So having the thermal like mine now, if I go out, I know I'm doing trophy hunting. Um, this is a. We're going after a big buck, and we really don't want to lose it. I have my thermal drone at the. On my backseat. I just keep it there. Batteries charged. I don't have a battery generator yet, but that's something to look at. But just in case. If it goes up, we normally. The old way that we used to track it would be the trackers would go and find the blood. And the bush is so thick some places, and we take the bloodhounds with to see if they take the track. And some places you can't really walk, so the bushes are low. That's where the dogs help a lot. Yeah, but some animals, like the kudu, the impala, they're faster than a dog, so they would outrun a dog where a thermal. The drone. If you have that thing in the camera, you're not gonna lose it. [00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:28] Speaker B: Even how thick the bush is. [00:14:29] Speaker A: And you were telling me a story earlier where you use both. Because I've got quite a bit of bushback because of dog owners that were trackers right in the beginning. You know, I'm telling them how much better the drone is. And here's the deal. And in my opinion, it is better. But if somebody wants to use both to track, I don't have a problem with that. You were telling me a story where you were tracking something because you have a tracking dog and then you have your drone. How was that story? It was in a daytime and you found the dog. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it was in the daytime. I would say it's about 90 degrees outside. So this. It was warm. The thermals was. The thermals didn't work as well. So we had the dogs on the animal. It was impala at that time. I should be able to get you guys some footage. The dogs have white tails and whiteheads, so you can kind of see them with a normal camera. So I had. I was trying to see if the thermals work, and I could pick up the dog's white tail. And they normally bark when they have animals. So then I kind of just went to go see where the dog is, and as soon as I spotted the dog, I could spot the impala, and then. [00:15:32] Speaker A: Okay. Oh, so you just Use the RGB camera. [00:15:35] Speaker B: Yeah, there's just a normal camera to spot the dog because it's white. You can see the tail, and. And then I use the thermal, and as soon as I had that, I can drop a location for the guys. And they were completely in the wrong direction to where the animal actually was. [00:15:49] Speaker A: Wow. [00:15:50] Speaker C: So they lost the dog that was tracking the impala. [00:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, some of the bushes, you can't walk through there. [00:15:55] Speaker A: So thick. Yeah. So you think, oh, just go underneath it. No, it's to the ground. And it's probably got thorns. [00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's full of thorns. You just can't go scooting through it. [00:16:06] Speaker A: If you scoot through it, you're coming out the other side, probably bleeding. [00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And that really helps. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So game recovery, using it to inspect fence. Have you done that yet? [00:16:18] Speaker B: Because our fence is so big, it's impossible to really do it with the drone. Like, you can see if the. If the whole fence is gone after, like a big rain with something I think it's, like, called a carpet. Where the river comes down, where we have a fence so the water can. It'll give. With the water coming down that you can kind of see. But the fences are so close to each other, it's so hard to see it on the drone. It'll take a long time. Like, even by foot, it takes us a week just to see the fence. And that's a couple guys doing different areas. [00:16:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:16:50] Speaker C: So a couple guys walking or driving the entire fence line. [00:16:53] Speaker B: We have some roads next to the fence, but you have to walk in there. Like, it's so big. [00:16:58] Speaker C: Visually looking between every post to make sure that nothing has been dug under or anything. [00:17:03] Speaker B: And we. [00:17:03] Speaker C: Does a drone not make that easier? Is there no way to, like, cut out, like, cut down on time and stuff with the drone? If you just fly close to the. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Ground and if you can. But there's so many bushes, and we have those thorn bushes that grow against the fence. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:16] Speaker B: And you don't see some of the shady parts. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's not necessarily a wide open area where the fence is. [00:17:23] Speaker B: I think. I think there's some areas in South Africa where there's no bushes. Like, if you go into the free state, where it's just grass, you can go and look there, and then you see the lines of the fence, especially if you do it kind of in thermal. I think that will also work if you can see the lines. But we got warthog and the jackal. They. They make holes underneath the Fence. So if the grass is about 3ft tall, you can't really see the holes that they make. [00:17:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:49] Speaker C: They're probably a silly question, but why wouldn't you spray like a herbicide or something right over the like the 40 foot around the fence? So you never have any like foliage and trees and stuff up to the fence. You could easily do that with a spray drone now so that you have this clear designation of line that you could then like with a thermal drone you could just inspect the whole thing. [00:18:11] Speaker B: I'm sure you can do that in some, some smaller farms or place that would be possible. But doing on 10,000 acres or bigger. [00:18:18] Speaker A: How many miles is that? [00:18:19] Speaker B: I think it's like 60 miles of fen. [00:18:22] Speaker A: 60. That costs money, right? [00:18:25] Speaker C: What would that be like? [00:18:26] Speaker A: Like the chemical costs money as well. [00:18:28] Speaker C: True. [00:18:28] Speaker A: And just, just because they have 10,000 acres doesn't mean they have millions in the bank, trust me. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Yeah. To be able to spray all of that. Yeah, that'll cost a lot of money. But there is some farms like close to the road, the main roads, they cut it, they cut the next to the fence. They would cut it and then they would just with a small bottle sprayer, spray on the fence. [00:18:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:49] Speaker B: If you were to spray the whole thing, it would be very costly. [00:18:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:54] Speaker C: So what are the chat like what are the biggest challenges that you as a new 10,000 acre ranch owner? Somewhat new. Like what are your biggest challenges in a day to day or you know, this year? Like what are your main obstacles or. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Challenges that you maintaining the farm? Like the roads and the fences, that, that's a big thing to get all the animals to stay inside and keep the others out. [00:19:18] Speaker C: Do you do everything by hand or you have heavy equipment that check the. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Fences or build a fence like to maintain the road? Oh, the roads. If the road's really bad, we would get in a big machinery to come and clear up. We just had new road made but otherwise mainly it's just baboons throwing in rocks in the roads and trees growing in that we would cut it. [00:19:38] Speaker C: Is hunting the main source of income or the only source of income on the ranch? [00:19:42] Speaker B: No. So we're kind of divided. My brother does the farming side of the business. He does a lot of alpha, alpha and sheep and cows. So he loves doing that. I like working with people. I like hunting. It's, it's, it's not a real job for me. It's so much fun. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:19:57] Speaker B: So that I like doing what I do and he likes doing what we do. So we Just, it's a. We help each other build a farm, and it's a family business, so it's not just. It's not mine. It's me and my brothers. [00:20:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I would say when I was there, something that I seen that you like to do is hospitality. Like, whatever it was, you were always asking us, like, you know, if it's something to eat, if you want to. If we wanted something different cooked, you would ask us that. So I would say that hospitality, I could tell that that's what you like to do, is to really cater to people, make them comfortable. And even if I'm from the other side of the world, I felt comfortable there. [00:20:37] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's a big thing. So you guys coming so far across the world, you have to be comfortable there, and that's what we try to do. We really want you guys to be. Feel like at home, and especially with the food. I don't know how the food was for you guys, but we. [00:20:51] Speaker A: It was good. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah. We cook a lot, and our. Our cooking methods are a little bit different than yours. We like cooking on the fire, on the grill instead of. Oh, yeah. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Kevin would love it there because he is crazy about trying exotic foods. You were all excited to go to China. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Eat cat and dog. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:21:12] Speaker C: Just to be clear, what I'm excited about is taking you to China and making me eat it. Delicious. [00:21:19] Speaker A: I don't know about that, but, like. [00:21:22] Speaker C: You have all kinds of other, like, so Americans have such a limited diet. Like, you got burgers. I mean, just in general, like, you have so many good foods that are not normal here. That. Or even just like, different spices that bring a whole new taste to. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker C: So did you experience any foods in Africa? [00:21:36] Speaker A: I did. I. [00:21:37] Speaker C: Good ones, not good ones. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it was good, like, because obviously we're eating stuff that we were hunting. Like, I get a lot of meat. Yeah. Wildebeest. [00:21:46] Speaker B: I was a blue. The. The blue wildebeest. We had that one night. The fillet kudu. And the kudu. Yeah. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Yep. [00:21:53] Speaker B: The meat's good. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah. No, no, it's definitely good. The only one that I didn't like was lamb, but something wasn't quite cooked right or something. But it was. It was still. [00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was. But overcooked. It also. It's hard to cook for 10 people. And it's not like they make the food. You must sit there. So it waits. When you guys are ready, then you can eat. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, but everything that I done on the ranch, I loved it, actually. Did we talk about. Do you use your thermal drone for security? Like check into your shops, like, you know, different houses to make sure that guys aren't out there stealing stuff or. [00:22:30] Speaker B: Not really where I'm at in the area, it's pretty safe. But you sometimes do get a lot of people trying to steal sheep. Especially now, close to Christmas time, there's a lot of people stealing sheep and trying to get. [00:22:44] Speaker C: So I've heard crazy stories about what happens to South African poachers who are, you know, poaching animals. What happens to somebody who's caught stealing sheep or other big game. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:55] Speaker B: So at the moment, it normally just goes through the police. So they would get. If they get caught, they would go to the. Go to jail. But. [00:23:02] Speaker A: But to be clear, your ranch is so far out in the country that you're not dealing with that. You said that's more toward the bigger cities. [00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah, more towards the biggest cities. There's a lot of black people that have their own sheep and cattle, and they farm it close to the town and they have somebody looking after that cows and cattle the whole time. And you do get people that want to try and steal them, and they have a more traditional way of sorting people out instead of calling the police. [00:23:29] Speaker C: More traditional. [00:23:30] Speaker B: More traditional. And it works. It works. It really works. Keeping people away from their stuff, especially. [00:23:37] Speaker C: What would you do if you caught somebody stealing some sheep or like, are you just calling the police? [00:23:43] Speaker B: So I would catch that person. [00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:45] Speaker C: So you just go out there on ATV or something or. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Pick up or wherever he is. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Their pickups are different than ours. Like, you can. [00:23:55] Speaker C: You're just hauling. You're hauling after them. So you detain them, you call the police, and you just hold them until the police come. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So we need to have proof that they stole stuff. I haven't done it with a drone yet, but I'm sure nobody's going to get away. If I catch some of that thermal, there's no way of a person getting away. We've had some sheep. My brother that got. He couldn't get it. The guys couldn't get them. They just got so smart in the bush. And I just flew out and it wasn't 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and I got them. [00:24:23] Speaker C: When you say you got them, what do you mean by you got them? [00:24:25] Speaker A: Found them. [00:24:26] Speaker B: I found them with a drone. [00:24:27] Speaker C: You found the people? [00:24:28] Speaker B: No, no, no. Sheep. [00:24:30] Speaker A: The sheep were hiding in the bush. [00:24:32] Speaker C: I thought this is a. [00:24:33] Speaker A: No. The sheep were hiding in the bush and the farm hands couldn't find the Sheep. Because it's so thick. And you took your thermal drone out there and found it? [00:24:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I did. I try to get one of my workers. He was just. He was looking at fences, but his radio went down. And I'm like, where is this guy? He's taking long. And I took the drone up and I found him. He was fixing a piece and yeah, I found him so easily. [00:24:56] Speaker A: Like, that is cool. [00:24:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:58] Speaker C: So let's talk about heavy lift drones. Is that going to change the way that your customers pull out animals? Like, do you see that happening or is that, like, are guys going to want to go in after it and pull it out by hand? Or what's that going to be like? [00:25:09] Speaker B: There's the old traditional way of you have to carry out your meat. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:14] Speaker B: And some of the meat hunters that we get locally, that's what they prefer. But nowadays people have gotten lazier, say, to carry out something if it's flat, then you can drive up your pickup too close to it and then pick it up. Yeah, of course. But some of the valleys, like me and Mike shot a kudu in a deep, deep, deep valley. Like, it was 200ft down. It was. [00:25:38] Speaker A: And rocks, big rocks. Not just like, you know, it's not just a grade down. It was like huge rocks were trying to climb up, over. [00:25:46] Speaker C: So I'm just curious then, so why is there also kind of people that just want to get it out with the drone? Like, is that going to be. [00:25:54] Speaker B: There is people that, let's say they're not physically able to carry it. We do have people that carry your meat, your. Your carcasses out, but, yeah, that's normal. [00:26:02] Speaker A: A tracker's job, right? Yeah, yeah. So if you're going to South Africa, don't expect that you need to haul out all your meat and bring in, you know, pack, pack. What is that called? Back frame. Yeah, like, that's not. That's not it at all. Because basically when you shoot something, he will bring his guys in and they will pack all. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Is there an issue of meat going bad or something like that sometimes, or is that not an issue? Typically there. [00:26:29] Speaker B: There sometimes is issues, especially in the warmer time. The summer season, um, we hunt mainly in the mornings, so it gets pretty warm in South Africa. And then you want to be out, especially when there's flies. And we don't normally cut up the meat. We try to extract it whole. [00:26:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:46] Speaker B: So there's like. [00:26:47] Speaker A: In quarters. [00:26:48] Speaker B: In quarters. [00:26:48] Speaker A: And they usually put it on sticks and then carry it out like that. I can tell you who likes drones over there? The trackers? [00:26:55] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, the guys do, but I don't want to replace their job. But yeah, that's the one thing I found that was hard. Having that heavy lift drone is having to have it on the pickup the whole time. If you were to have something stationary at one point so you can just when you need it, go up, hook it up and go, that would be. [00:27:17] Speaker C: Hard on 10,000 acres. [00:27:19] Speaker B: It is hard because sometimes we go three hours on a pickup one way and you have to go back that same way to get it. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it does take that long to get from one end to the other. It's like, geez, we've been driving for a while. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:33] Speaker A: If the heavy lift drones get to that point where they can fly for a, you know, a lot longer and run off a, say 4G network or satellite or something like that, then maybe it could replace certain things. But for right now, it's just for those special occasions. Like yeah, when, when I shot my kudu down, down in that deep ravine. You had said we would have packed him. If the guys would have had to carry him out, we would have went down the river down. [00:28:02] Speaker B: It would have been a whole day carrying out that. [00:28:04] Speaker A: A whole day. [00:28:05] Speaker B: We did it in 15 minutes. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So we flew it up. But there's scenarios where you might use it. It's not for every situation, but yeah, if, if you have it, say you'd have a shed kind of more in the central part of your 10,000 acres. Maybe you could go grab it then. Or you know, with battery technology it's, it might be getting better. You can fly it further to go get those haul outs or whatever. [00:28:31] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they are getting better. I'm sure if you, if all that develops, it's going to be a critical tool to have and you're the first. [00:28:38] Speaker A: Guy that's trying it. When I called you and I told you I want to use a heavy lift drone, you were like, to be. [00:28:44] Speaker B: Honest, I did not think it was that big. Like even just the matrice, I thought, I'm used to the smaller drones and that thing, you took it out. Okay, it's big, but it's not that big. It can't do that much. And the camera on that thing is incredible. It really is. And then we, where that guy came, you actually hired one from South Africa, T40. And he came in there with a truck. It wasn't a small thing like a truck and a big box. And we had to take it off and that was cool to Experience, if you like. He had to come there for. We had only had it for the week. But if you were to have that already stationary somewhere, it would definitely help. And if not, just. Just with a hunting side of carrying out stuff. Like if you were to see where our fences go up on the mountains and those have to be carried out by person. [00:29:38] Speaker A: That's what you were bringing up while we were there because. So I was using the T40. Currently we have the fly cart 30. If you guys are interested. Make sure to check it out on our. But The Fly Cart 30 is a drone that is built very similar to the T40, which is the Agra series of these drones. But it flies with two batteries, has a parachute, and it can go along a lot further, has a winch system on it. And he started talking to me about these mountains. Like, you look at a mountain in New Mexico or Arizona is usually what I tell people. Like what it kind of looks like, but it has trees as well. So not deserty. But he's talking to me about Mike. This would make it a lot easier for me to rebuild a fence. Flying fence posts or whatever you might. [00:30:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. We'll make the job for the guys. And the time making it would be so much faster. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:28] Speaker B: If you can have a place where, you know, let's say it's poles. How much what you're trying to take up the mountain. If you have just like a stationary place where you would come with a pickup, drop it off, and then fly it from there, like with that generator, we could. We could go the whole time. It's not like you only have so much battery. That thing charges quick. [00:30:47] Speaker A: Yep. [00:30:47] Speaker B: That was really cool. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:48] Speaker B: And. [00:30:48] Speaker A: And they're only getting better. They're getting bigger and they're getting faster. They're. They're able to fly further, I think, like what you're talking about. Right. So you live in the mountains. And I've talked to Landon and. And Kevin about this. It's like, we don't live in the mountains. So I don't necessarily know what all needs to be done in the mountains, but I do know that if I live in the mountains, I'd want a drone because I can now go from this ridge to that ridge in minutes rather than hours just driving, you know, going from one side. [00:31:17] Speaker C: Actually, one of the fun things about our job is we always. It's like, it's part of our job to kind of push the envelope and figure out how drones are going to change all these different parts of life. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:26] Speaker C: And I Remember the calls like when you found a guy in South Africa, because we had a. When you knock on a couple of doors to find somebody who says, I got a drone, I'll let you rent it. [00:31:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:35] Speaker C: For one. Now say, what are you going to do with it? [00:31:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:38] Speaker C: And I remember, you know, those calls back and forth when I was trying to wire him money, and it's like, okay, well, if you're going to do that, I've never heard of doing that before, but, yeah, you're going to pay a lot of, like, insurance or whatever. [00:31:47] Speaker A: You know, extra money. [00:31:49] Speaker C: Extra money, extra money. Because I don't think that's a normal thing to do with the drone. And that's just what. That's what we get to do every day. [00:31:55] Speaker A: It is really cool. [00:31:56] Speaker C: New things to do with drones. [00:31:58] Speaker A: Absolutely. The T60, that's coming soon. That thing will pick up £200 easily. And now you're talking about moving a big generator around. Or maybe it's a water pump. I know that you guys have a bunch of springs on the ranch. The spring is you probably have water pumps, right? [00:32:15] Speaker B: We do have water pumps. There's. Well, there's so many other things that. That you would want to carry wherever you want to take it. Like some places where you have to carry per person, you have to go there and then walk back and carry the same thing or whatever you have to do where it comes from. Especially in those trees where it's uncomfortable to walk. Like, you have to walk through the bushes underneath. And if you're carrying something, it's. It's so hard. That one kudu we did from Braden as well. It was deep in the mountains, and there's no way of getting there with a pickup. We just flew piece by piece back to the. Back to the pickup in the road, in the middle of the road. Like, it was so easy. It was so easy. [00:32:54] Speaker A: We. There was even guys hunting there while we were there, and they requested the. The drone to come help fly out in eland. [00:33:02] Speaker B: Elin's a big animal. [00:33:03] Speaker A: Big animal. [00:33:04] Speaker B: It's bigger than halk. [00:33:06] Speaker A: Yeah. It's so big. And it. It would have took them. Didn't he say three hours? It wasn't super far, but it's a. [00:33:14] Speaker B: Decent hour's walk or half an hour's walk just from the pickup to where the closest place is. [00:33:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:20] Speaker B: So where he was, the Elon went down and. Yeah, we. We didn't. You actually had me fly the first time. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:27] Speaker B: He's like, here, you take. [00:33:28] Speaker A: And I'm like, kind of like you and that ultralight. I didn't even think of that. [00:33:32] Speaker B: The ultralight. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was like, are you ready? And then you got up there and then you flew the drone down there. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a crazy experience for me as well. Like, Mike. Mike was talking about he loves flying. And. And, well, I've flown. Flown on big planes, but nothing small. And he said, well, he has his license. Let me take you on the. On one of his planes. And yeah, we're talking. [00:33:52] Speaker A: I switched it up because we're talking about the heavy lift drone. Right. I was flying out to me and then I told you, are you ready? And you're like, me fly this heavy lift drone. And you got up there and you started flying, Flying the heavy lift drone. I'm referring back to you also flew my ultralight now here in Ohio. I was like, you want to do this? And he's like, I guess. Did you know? [00:34:12] Speaker C: No, I had no idea by yourself. [00:34:15] Speaker A: He did. [00:34:16] Speaker C: No way. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Yeah. It's. Wow. I never seen anybody. [00:34:21] Speaker C: So you just said, I'll fly this ultralight. You took off, didn't die, landed it. [00:34:25] Speaker B: While I'm still here. Was. It was a little bit stressful, but yeah, Mike showed me how to use this, this, this. And I have a little bit of principle in my head and I'm like, okay, let's. So I was testing the throttle. Just seeing on the ground, I'm like, well, okay, I got this. And I just pushed it down also. Okay, here we go. [00:34:45] Speaker C: The full send. [00:34:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:34:47] Speaker A: I was impressed. Hey, I'm not recommending this. Guys, like, don't. [00:34:51] Speaker C: Yeah, don't probably. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Don't do this. But he did it. And you could probably go right now and fly the thing again. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah, now I've done it. I think just getting in the thing, it was so stressful. Looking at you, I'm like, well, you make it look so easy. And then just getting in it, I was so uncomfortable and got. Then I get to go sit in the chair and took off. And then it was just the next. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Level experience that shows how open to new things you are. Not only in South Africa, on your ranch, trying, you know, letting a guy come in with a heavy lift drone, thermal drones, trying new social media tactics. Right? Like having influencers there and then coming over here and it's a brand new thing. You're like, yeah, sure, I'm gonna try. [00:35:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I wouldn't have thought I would be here year ago. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:37] Speaker B: But here I am. Some people also ask me about that heavy Lift drone. Like why don't you just get a helicopter? And as soon as you get a helicopter or something that big, it makes so much noise and it's. So you chase away all animals. [00:35:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:55] Speaker B: In that area, once you've been in there with a helicopter, like everything goes, lays down and it's just not worth it. Yeah, the drone, it's small, it's not that loud. [00:36:06] Speaker C: What do you spend to get a helicopter to come in? Like isn't that. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Oh, that's pretty. Yeah, it's cheap for you guys, but for us it's expensive. Now they're like 600 bucks an hour or 500 bucks an hour and, and that's flying. So you'll have to charter them in, ferry them into the farm. We don't have one up close. There's one on one hour away. Like we do have clients that want to go to the airport with a helicopter. So we have that. But flying on the ranch, I don't like that. I like being quiet, having the animals being calm and all that. [00:36:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So going back to thermal drones, you've had another ranch owner approach you to buy your thermal drone. Are there not many options to buy thermal drones in South Africa? [00:36:51] Speaker B: I haven't went into like buying another one, but I would think it would be pretty hard to get it and expensive if you were to go get a new one. Because there's no second hand drones that you would get. Not, not that size of drone. Like not every, every guy has one. And I'm also trying to get people to have or buy one because you think it's expensive. It's so much money to have one. But the amount of things this thing can help you with. I've had game. We had the river come down, big, big rain and the, it lifted up one of the fences and some animals came through and we checked the fence and I saw there was one or two, three tracks going through to the, to the neighbors. And I had my guys see, they closed up the hole and then a couple days later we saw three or four animals out. I'm like, okay, that's not too much. And these animals only I have them, I have to have high fence to be able to keep them. I have to have different permits to have them as well. It's exotics. And this was still new. When I just got the drone, you guys just left. It wasn't long after that. So I was pretty scared to fly this thing. And I flew and took it up one night when it was pretty cold and found out it was not just three, it was like 18 animals out. And that would have been a lot. I could have bought three of these drones worth. The money of the animals just went out. And people don't realize that like you, you think it's just one or two, but you don't know. It's. The bush is so big. [00:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah. You would only count it maybe three or four if you wouldn't have had that is what you're saying because you've seen them from the road or whatever. [00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And we tried even just without, before the drone, we would walk through that bush and we would see 1, 2 or 3. Like they, they're so good at hiding out and avoiding you. You would. Would never have found them. And that drone really helped. [00:38:41] Speaker C: So that paid for itself. I mean, just that first month. Yeah. [00:38:45] Speaker A: So how much would those animals been worth or what would that have cost you if you would not have had the drone and been able to figure out how many actually got out? [00:38:54] Speaker B: It probably will. It was like 30 grands worth of animals. I would not. [00:38:58] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. And the whole drone de recovery kit is only 13,200 bucks. Yeah, but, but, but people. Right. Even myself, you, you look at the cost and you're like, well, geez, I'll, I'll never, you know, make my money back on that. But they haven't tried it and they don't know how well it works. And they haven't been in a situation like that where it's like, well I only lost two animals or something like that. Not realizing that. Maybe 15 others. [00:39:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Because I mean, I'm sure people lose animals like that. It's normal like every year, right. Animals get out. [00:39:28] Speaker B: Oh yeah. And even in big, big parks, lions coming out. We've had so many of those. And then it goes weeks before people find them like they would. Some farmers would say, well I've 10 cattle or 10 sheep, you know. [00:39:43] Speaker C: What about, what about like when you say lions, what about the game commission or police? Generally speaking in South Africa, are they equipped with thermal drones and are they using these to find like escape game and stuff? [00:39:53] Speaker B: No, no. You, if it's your, it's your responsibility as a ranch owner. [00:39:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:59] Speaker B: To know where your animals are, keep them in public land or like it's not the same as that. You guys have game warden. [00:40:07] Speaker C: Yeah, we don't have anything like that. [00:40:08] Speaker B: We won't have somebody going around. There is people that do it, but the areas are so big, it's impossible to really have somebody around. The whole. [00:40:16] Speaker C: Isn't poaching happen on those areas? I mean, isn't that where it happened in, like, these big open areas where I'm just. [00:40:23] Speaker A: What. What would they be trying to poach? Because I don't know if we've hit on this, but let's say it's completely wide open, 100%. There's no rhinos out. [00:40:31] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:40:32] Speaker A: So no, they need a. They need a fence. [00:40:33] Speaker C: Elephant, rhino, like all that stuff. Isn't that what poachers go for? [00:40:38] Speaker B: Yeah, rhinos is definitely something. I have had a ranch not too far from me they post rhinos from. [00:40:45] Speaker A: But, like, what Kevin is talking about is why wouldn't say the police, but we call them game wardens. You don't have game wardens because you don't necessarily have huge tracts of land that's open to the public to come hunt, because there's nothing there to hunt. [00:41:02] Speaker B: If it's like public land farm, like, farmers would own it. They would probably be some spring muck and kudu. That's the only animals that would be there. And they're so fast nobody can try to catch. [00:41:12] Speaker C: There's no equivalent to, like, game wardens in South Africa. Like people who are government officials charged with, like, nature and wildlife. [00:41:20] Speaker B: Well, you get some people that train for it, but the ranch owners pay them. So it would be like a private security to. To. To have on. On your hands. As soon as you're big, you. You need those. [00:41:31] Speaker C: So what government agency would most benefit from having thermal drones in South Africa? [00:41:36] Speaker B: It's a hard question. I don't know if they can come and do the game couch. I'm not sure what the exact name for it is in English, but what. [00:41:43] Speaker A: Is it in South Africans? [00:41:46] Speaker B: Afrikaans. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Afrikaans. Is it South Africans or is it just Afrikaans? [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:50] Speaker A: What is it called? [00:41:51] Speaker B: What it would sound like Natir bhavara. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And we work with them to get permits for the animals. Like some animals, you have to have permits to be able to hunt legally for the export and import and all that. [00:42:03] Speaker A: Oh, exporting them. That's where you need the permit necessarily. Say you're local. Do you still need a permit for that? [00:42:09] Speaker B: You still need a permit to have them on your end? Yes. Yeah. And you have to have some qualifications of fence. Like your fence has to qualify for a grade of fence that I would say ours is about 10 foot high. So it's pretty high. But some animals still jump out. Like the kudu. They would jump out. But to come back to your question that you just asked about poaching the main thing about poaching is getting the animals out. Roads. If there's big main roads going next to your, your ranch, that's a big thing. Like people have like permanent cameras just watching the fences of people stopping and trying to get over the fence. And that's. Most of our fences are electrified as well, but people manage just to get through there. So if there's a road close to your ends, then there's going to be a little bit more poaching. Where I'm at, it's very surrounded by mountains. Like if you were to walk there, it would take you a couple days and there's no point of doing anything. Poaching if you want to try it over there. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they couldn't get it out or get it to a road to get it to the black market or whatever they're trying to do with it. Because your ranch is so far back in that there's no good. [00:43:22] Speaker B: Yeah. If somebody were to, let's say poach or steal. On my ranch there's an, it's a 30 minute drive to the closest town and that's the only road. And there's 10 farmers on that road. I can just as soon as something happens, I contact one of those and they, they close the road. Nobody's getting out. Out of there. Road wise. [00:43:41] Speaker C: Yep. That's very handy. Very practical. [00:43:43] Speaker A: I didn't think of that. Just call a farmer that's 15 miles down the road. Hey, there's a truck coming close the road. [00:43:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do. That would definitely help. And me with a drone now if some security were to happen because most of the stuff happens at night. [00:43:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:59] Speaker B: And that's the prime time to use that drone. Like. [00:44:02] Speaker A: Yeah. But you're telling other ranch owners that you talk with now, the experience that you have with your thermal drone, they should have it as a tool on their ranch. Yeah. It's like if you guys hearing me talk about the deer recoveries that I do and how well it works. If you've thought about getting a thermal drone, if you reach out to Benny at Hoochsfontein or Hooks Fontaine Safaris, he's going to give you real life ranch experience with his thermal drone. And there's going to be scenarios where your drone will be used in things that you can't even think about right now. Like, I say that a lot. It's because I never thought that I would be called to look for a child that's missing in corn or something like that. And I'm glad that I Had it. So I think if you're a safari owner, ranch owner, a big farm, you might have cattle, sheep, whatever. It might be just having that thing in your back pocket for when something gets out or predator control or security. I think that you guys would find benefit in that. And that's what you're telling your buddies that, you know, that have ranches? [00:45:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I'm trying to. Well, it's hard to tell somebody how good it is on a video or whatever, but to show them, actually, it's incredible. Like, I've had hunters over there, and I just take it off that at the lodge, and I'm like, okay, just walk on the grass and you can see the footprints or where they were standing. One guy took a leak there, and that was like, you know, red, Red. [00:45:38] Speaker A: Didn't that happen once you and I were filming? Wait, was that you filming with me? [00:45:44] Speaker C: No, it was back in the good old days. [00:45:46] Speaker A: Yeah, back in the good old days. I just took off and I'm like, what is this out in the field? And you weren't telling me. [00:45:54] Speaker C: I ain't saying, but I know it was bright red. Yeah, it is bright red. [00:46:01] Speaker A: That's funny. [00:46:02] Speaker B: You can pick it up for a long time. [00:46:04] Speaker A: Even. [00:46:05] Speaker B: Even animals. I was amazed by that. Like, animals laying down, being bedded. If they take off and start running and then like, okay, what is this? Go up close up, put the camera or the light on, and, like, can't see anything. But then you look up and you see there the animal runs. That. That's cool that you can pick up that heat too. [00:46:22] Speaker A: I'm. I'm going to bring something up about thermal drones again. Is. Is there a business to have a thermal drone in South Africa? Like, so. So you've obviously been with me, you know, this last week, getting calls, doing recoveries, getting paid for it. Is that. Could that be a thing over there, or is it more just as a tool for those ranches? [00:46:44] Speaker B: I think the areas are so big that you're not gonna have enough time to go to recoveries like you guys do. 30 minutes out, it's half an hour out. Like, some of the ranches are that big just to get out of the ranch. If each ranch would have one, I think that would be great. [00:46:59] Speaker A: Or their clients. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Yeah. For their own clients, like, whatever. [00:47:03] Speaker A: But to have a private individual think that he's going to have a thermal drone business in South Africa, probably not a thing. [00:47:10] Speaker B: If you were to do that, I would say you must have a big audience. Like, they would Know when to call you. If they call you in the afternoon when they shot. Like you said, I have six hours before the next daylight comes. You have time to get there. It's just going to be a lot of traveling on the roads to be able to get to all these places and some places don't have signal as well, so. [00:47:33] Speaker C: But if you said there's like 10 farmers between you and 30 minutes to town or whatever, isn't there at least an opportunity for you to make a little side gig income or to, you know, rent it out to any of those 10 farmers or other ranchers in your area? [00:47:47] Speaker B: Oh yeah, definitely. Especially the sheep farmers. That would definitely be a big thing because they would round out a camp and the first thing farmers would say is well, there's 10 sheep where they stole it and they would go back to that same camp and round again. Okay. There's three they missed. So if I were to be or someone with a thermal drone were to go there just before daylight and just go fly over the camp, they would definitely spot it and know where to go search for that animal. That would definitely be something and save that farmer a lot of time. [00:48:19] Speaker C: Is that something you would do if you got those calls? Like would you do that or is it. You don't have time? [00:48:24] Speaker B: If I'm not busy hunting, I would help people do stuff like that. Especially in the, the sharing season where they would get. Share the wool. [00:48:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Some sheep that are so smart that hasn't been shared in two years. [00:48:38] Speaker A: What? [00:48:39] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you. They're like wild. [00:48:41] Speaker C: No smart cheese. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Smart sheep, you get those. The wool. It's just wool. Just a round piece like you would. Actually we, we hunted them, but so wild you couldn't catch them. Yeah. That's impressive. [00:48:53] Speaker A: I didn't even think of that. So basically those sheep were not accounted for. If they can't find it. [00:49:00] Speaker B: No, no. If they can't find it, they assume they're either stolen or died. Dead. And they do die. There is some of the die depending on what. [00:49:09] Speaker C: What about snakes? Seen any snakes? Do you have snakes in South Africa? [00:49:12] Speaker B: Yes, we do have. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Can you find them with a thermal drug? [00:49:14] Speaker C: What's it like on thermal? [00:49:15] Speaker B: I haven't gone out to go look for snakes, to be honest. But you would pick them up. I'm sure you got big ones, right? [00:49:22] Speaker C: Like you have nine foot snakes or 15 foot snakes. [00:49:25] Speaker B: Pythons. Yeah, we don't have that in my area. No. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, I think that's in Florida. [00:49:30] Speaker C: Oh, is it? [00:49:32] Speaker A: Come on. [00:49:32] Speaker C: They have Everything exotic and crazy. [00:49:34] Speaker B: In Africa there are big snakes, but they're more in a tropical areas. [00:49:38] Speaker C: Okay. You don't have any on your ranch. You wouldn't have really snakes. [00:49:41] Speaker B: We do have snakes. We have puff fighters, Boom slang and smaller snakes. [00:49:46] Speaker C: We have cobras, rattler. [00:49:48] Speaker B: They're kind of puff header is almost like a rattle, the same size and they don't have the thingy thingy that they don't give you a warning but they won't necessarily go after you. Like if I find a snake close to the lodge, I would. I would kill it. But if it's in the nature, I would just leave them because they only have the. They have the roles in nature. [00:50:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:10] Speaker A: I don't know. I thought that was really good. I don't have many more questions for him. On the thermal drone side of things, I think we hit it with the heavy lift stuff. Do you have anything? [00:50:19] Speaker C: I think one of the coolest things about the job that we get to do is your passion for drones and how it opens the doors to other people experiencing new things. And I think Benny, it's great that you now have a thermal drone. You're figuring out all these other ways of making it useful. [00:50:33] Speaker A: Although we're, you know, talking about it. I don't know if we can even sell a thermal drone to somebody. [00:50:38] Speaker C: Oh, can't do it. Yeah. Can't tell you a drone in South Africa. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah. But if you're an American ranch. Right. There's big ranches in them in America. If you're listening or if you know somebody that could use this, like tell them about the drone deer recovery kit. It's. It's basically a kit that I put together that you don't need to guess what you need like how many batteries you need, like all that stuff. So we, we built an easy, easy to buy kit. Yeah. [00:51:02] Speaker B: Yep. [00:51:03] Speaker C: Very cool. [00:51:04] Speaker B: Do you guys. I don't know about the Oksunta inside. Do you want to. You have some questions about hunting? [00:51:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So on the. On the hunting side, basically, if somebody's interested in hunting safari type animals, check out your website. [00:51:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure you have the website on here. Go and have a look. [00:51:21] Speaker A: Can you give it to us? What is it? [00:51:23] Speaker B: Hooks on Tain safaris but it'll be hooksuntane Co za the website because it's not. [00:51:30] Speaker A: So is it not. Not a dot com? [00:51:32] Speaker B: No, it's not a dot com. So Co za Za is south african.com would be American or international. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Can you buy a dot com or. [00:51:40] Speaker B: No, you can Buy it. [00:51:40] Speaker C: You need to have like Benny's ranch.com or something that us Americans can. [00:51:45] Speaker B: I know you wouldn't be able to spell something but I'm sure you guys would have it. [00:51:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. If you guys want to go to South Africa and experience it, the beauty there is incredible. If you guys are watching on YouTube, we'll put some videos up there of what the terrain looks like. It is a challenge. Don't just think that you're going to go there and you know, walk up to something and easily kill it because very big train is cool. [00:52:09] Speaker B: It is. It's not like high fenced hunting that you guys would imagine. It's small, it's really big. And it's not just hunting. We do tours, safari tours, photo safaris. So you don't have to be a hunter to come. We tie to the Kruger to add an elephant park. There's so many sightseeing stuff that we can take you guys to do. So it's not just hunting. [00:52:28] Speaker C: If so, if there, I mean there's a lot of different things you do. What would you say, like you are the very best at and who is the best kind of customer? Like who will you give the absolute best experience to? Is it large groups, small groups, families hunting and then. Yeah. [00:52:44] Speaker B: What I like family groups as well. Coming over. If you're a very big trophy hunter, you're going to be coming alone or whatever you're going after. But we got a big lodge. Like I can sleep 20 people. Accommodate 20 people. And there's a swimming pool, there's a gym, there's entertainment area. So it's not just you go and hunt and you sleep. There's a. The woman can come to the lodge and they can go and tan or swim or go to the gym or even just take a walk between the animals. We have giraffe actually come up the lodge. Like they would walk in between the houses. And same with the Inyala and the lech. You get to see them up close and that's. That's pretty cool. [00:53:23] Speaker A: It is really nice. And the cost to go there, I think like super expensive. It's actually not that expensive. Compare it to other hunts. Say yeah, like an elk hunt or a moose hunt. [00:53:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. Some people go do red stag in New Zealand. Go to Alaska for a moose. Moose is one thing I would also go and do. But some of the prices are ridiculous. It's really fairly priced. Like you can go to South Africa. Shoot. People think they have to buy tag to go to South Africa. You don't have to have tag. Like, we own the animals that's in our ranch. Like, we have to manage and we own them. So you don't have to have a tag. You don't have to do any draw to go. It's. If you let. If you want a kudu or impala, you just tell me you want a list of. This is the list that you like, and we plan that out and you come and hunt for it. You won't necessarily get everything on your list if you have a list of 20 animals, but we kind of try and guarantee you what animal that you desire to hunt. And that can range from five to 10. We've had people do 20 animals in two weeks. It's 20 different species. It's not just you shoot whitetail or deer. A deer. [00:54:37] Speaker A: We're doing deer recoveries. He's like, mike, do you get tired of doing deer? Deer Over. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Dear, dear, dear. And. And you said, this is a big buck. And I'm like, well, pretty. Looks the same as the other ones we just did. And now this one's very big. [00:54:52] Speaker A: And so a lot of different variety. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And. And it's so hard to measure them. For me. Like, we have fellow deer that you measure all the points like you guys do, and we don't do. Like kudu, you would measure the spiral and it'll be 40 inches. It would be just one horn. It's not both horns. There's different ways of measuring it. For me, coming here, just doing whitetail, I did elk in Colorado as well, and that was pretty cool. I'm gonna do a sika deer in Maryland. That. That I think is going to be a cool experience for me. That's something I haven't seen or done. [00:55:26] Speaker A: I wonder how that's going to go. [00:55:28] Speaker B: I'll let you guys know how it goes. But, yeah, if you guys want to do any safari in South Africa, please contact me. On Oxonte Safaris, it's the email or email would probably be the best because we don't normally text like you guys do. [00:55:42] Speaker A: Yeah. When I first got in touch with Benny, he started sending these audio things. Like, I would listen to him. Yeah. A voice note. But after doing it for a while, I'm like, this is kind of convenient. [00:55:53] Speaker B: It is. And it's a lot safer. Like, if you were to drive. I don't like texting. Like, typing all that stuff. You're looking at your phone. You were. You can still drive. Do a voice note. Just talk into the phone and the other person can Hear the whole thing that you want to say. Yeah, that's a lot easier. But. [00:56:08] Speaker A: But you're also. You're on Instagram. [00:56:10] Speaker B: I'm on Instagram. On Facebook. [00:56:12] Speaker A: Do you have a YouTube channel? [00:56:13] Speaker B: I do have a YouTube channel. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Do you upload? [00:56:15] Speaker B: Not as. As much as I should. I am make sure I am gonna. [00:56:19] Speaker A: YouTube is hard. YouTube is a hard thing to do because to upload consistently, it takes some work. [00:56:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's the plan for next year. Like, I'm gonna have a photographer doing all the hunts. So I'm gonna have a lot of new stuff coming up next year. I'm gonna go a little bit over the top to get the social media going and the YouTube and all that channel, because that's important nowadays in any business that you have. [00:56:44] Speaker A: Before we go, I'm gonna touch on a drone spraying a little bit because you obviously came here for drone deer with thermal drones. And then you've seen our agricultural side, you've seen the trailers, you've seen what these drones can do. Spraying wise, you made contact back in South Africa, somebody that does have a spray drone business, right? [00:57:05] Speaker B: Yeah. I've got a friend that does a spraying business that is fairly new, but he's doing pretty well. [00:57:11] Speaker A: But he doesn't have a trailer. And you looked at the trailer and you were like, you think you could build something like this in South Africa, but there's a lot of different rules and stuff. So your guy that you know in South Africa that's spraying is not using a trailer and landing in the dirt and that type of stuff over there. Right. [00:57:26] Speaker B: He's not using a trailer now. He's just using it from a small truck that he has that, that kind of carries all the. The chemicals and the water he mentioned. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Is the spray like drone spraying in South Africa, is that something that's growing? [00:57:41] Speaker B: It is definitely growing. Like, he's busy every day and I'm happy for him. And that's also one thing. Like, your trailers work so nice. I looked at the setup and it's pretty cool. But you must kind of look at where you are spraying. Like what areas? Like some areas you'd have this work better than the other way. So your trailers would probably be. Some places would be. But too high to go underneath South Africa. Yeah, some places it would work. It would definitely work. Like, that would be a perfect set. [00:58:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Because you had mentioned over there they might want a truck that is set up with a flight deck up top. [00:58:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because we have different road rules that. [00:58:19] Speaker A: We'Re Already, we're already working on trying to figure out how to make that happen. [00:58:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Sometime soon. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But as far as drone spraying in South Africa, I don't have a lot of experience. I know that a lot of people reach out to me from South Africa on the new way channel that want to come here, come here and do work and then also go back to South Africa to do drone spraying. But outside of that, I don't have much more to say about drone spraying. How many acres did your buddy spray with his drones? And you said he's new too, so. [00:58:48] Speaker B: We work in hectares, so that's pretty hard to do the conversion in my head. [00:58:52] Speaker A: How many hectares did you say he did? [00:58:54] Speaker B: Like 400 hectares a day. [00:58:56] Speaker A: 400 hectares. That. That sounds like it's a really good day. Isn't that almost double? [00:59:01] Speaker B: Yeah, that was four drones. Yeah. [00:59:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:04] Speaker B: So it'd be similar than what you. [00:59:05] Speaker A: Guys do because he's using the T40 and his setup. Right. We don't know what his setup is. Is he a really good, efficient setup? Because as we, you know, develop new way and the new way trailer, it was all about getting more efficient. And that guy, if he's new, he's already thinking of things he can improve. Yep, Yep, exactly. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Yeah. He's also waiting for the T60 to come out now. He doesn't want to go to the. [00:59:29] Speaker A: T50 to the 50. I think that's what Austin's doing. That. That's what you're talking about, right? Yeah. Waiting on the T60. We'll see. We were told it's coming, but that coming might be a year and a half, two years from now, but hopefully. Anything else you want to add to this? [00:59:44] Speaker C: No, I think it's been fun to learn about South Africa, what you have going on there, and it's fun to be back on the podcast. [00:59:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, dude, I like it. I like it. If you guys want to hear more of these, give it a thumbs up. I don't know if you comment on podcasts on Apple podcasts and stuff, but let us know if you want to hear more. These types of podcasts, where we just go in depth and talk about, you know, what it is that we're doing, having special guests like Benny from Hooksfontein Safaris. Again, guys, if you want to try a South African hunt, make sure to check him out. We'll leave it in the description before we go. I'm gonna say Landon. Cameraman Landon. How many countries did you travel? 27 countries. [01:00:29] Speaker B: That's cool. [01:00:29] Speaker A: And you Were. Are you still convinced? At one time you were saying that you think that that is the prettiest country that you've been to. That's still a thing. Okay, so Landon is saying that he's traveled 27 different countries, and South Africa, where we were at Hoosfontein, is his top. That's incredible. What a sales pitch that is. [01:00:54] Speaker C: Yeah, we save that for the end. That should have. We should have led with that. [01:00:58] Speaker B: The one picture we took in the evening when the sun was sitting, you were on the up with that red. That's beautiful. You should probably put that up for the guys. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be in here somewhere. [01:01:09] Speaker B: That was a beautiful picture. [01:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah. That's all I got for you guys. Thanks so much, Benny, for coming here. [01:01:14] Speaker B: Thank you guys for having me. [01:01:16] Speaker A: I hope it's not the last time, but there you go. Another drone deal recovery podcast. Talking about South Africa. Thermal drones, spray drones, heavy lift drones. We got into it all here, but that's all I got. [01:01:28] Speaker C: Yeah, we got so much exciting stuff we're working on. [01:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:32] Speaker C: 2025Is going to be an amazing year. [01:01:33] Speaker A: We definitely have to do the podcast because we can talk about. [01:01:36] Speaker C: There's so much we need to cover. It's not for this podcast, but we got to keep doing it because there's a lot of exciting stuff. [01:01:43] Speaker A: Cool. [01:01:43] Speaker C: All right, next time. [01:01:44] Speaker A: That's all we got, ace. [01:01:45] Speaker B: All right, guys, thanks. Bye.