I've had a few city customers mention that they've got a farm in a distant rural area and they'd really like to be able to tap in and see their cattle, horses, sheep or other livestock. They wonder if there would be an affordable solution.
The first problem is that in many of these areas, the only source of Internet beyond dial-up is 3G cellular. That means that any monitoring is going to need to be brief or else the bandwidth costs will be huge.
However what I really wanted to ask about is what kind of cameras members have found to provide clear pictures for monitoring grazing land. Some kind of PTZ would be required to give both a general overview and then the ability to zoom in on an animal. I think it's fair to assume that this is to be a daylight-only solution as anything distant in the dark is going to require an expensive thermal camera. While that might be useful for a farmer on the farm, I don't think a "city farmer" is going to get much value out of a thermal camera if they are wanting to recognise a prize horse for example.
My current feeling is that a box camera on a pan tilt positioner is what should really be used but it's likely to cost several thousand dollars and then be compromised by a slow 3G cellular Internet link.
I'd welcome any suggestions for cameras that have been found to work well for monitoring nearby and distant livestock on a remote farm with a preference for affordable [that doesn't mean cheap] solutions if they exist.
