Virtual Fencing: The Future of Rotational Grazing

Background and development:

Virtual fencing. Automation is everywhere now so why not in agriculture and reduce labor if we can? As crazy as it sounds to do away with fencing to graze your cattle, sheep, goats, etc it actually works remarkably well. New companies are emerging onto the market making virtual fencing options more accessible and functional than ever before.
Virtual fencing offers huge benefits to the farmer in labor alone. If you rotationally graze in anything other than a permanent fence system, you know what I mean. Hours of moving fences, making sure the electric is hot, and worse, dealing with the jail breaks. Virtual fencing has the potential to eliminate the labor along with improved data about grazing your land, access to land areas that are unsuitable for fencing, and flexibility that only temporary fencing currently offers.

So lets learn more about it, how it works, and who its suitable for. We will mainly discuss cattle but we will also talk about sheep and goats towards the end. The technology is still emerging but we will share how its going currently.

Virtual fencing is not a new idea. Its been a concept since the 1970’s. Several patents have been made for various systems, but none of them worked. And most of the earliest collars required an electric shock to keep animals in place, that’s actually the very idea that spawned the shock collars used to keep canines from leaving their fence lines or barking too loudly. But it was soon discovered that a disconcerting noise was enough to drive a wandering cow back to her herd, without causing them physical pain.

The biggest problem was getting the collars that needed to be placed on each individual head to be more durable, light enough to carry around their necks at all times and to make them more energy efficient. Battery packs were too expensive, too heavy and they were so short lived that the only real option was to remove them at intervals to charge them, thus eliminating the advantage of having them on the collar in the first place.

The idea remained on the shelf for a few decades more, until solar powered battery technology caught up to the concept.

Now we can fit a small solar panel to the collar, attached to the battery pack without it being a chunky, heavy piece of equipment that a single animal needs to haul around permanently. And with two weights, one on either side, the collar always remains in the correct position to catch as much sun as possible through the day, and store enough energy to keep it functional for up to 24 hours if necessary. The amount of energy required to run the collar efficiently has dropped significantly too, so even if there is an overcast day or two, it doesn’t have to be the end of your virtual grazing dreams.

Then there’s the virtual grid that the herd is confined to. It works a lot like your car’s GPS would. The area that you desire your cattle to run on is mapped out by driving or walking it with your cellphone in your hand, the system outlines that area. If any member of the herd strays out of that square, then it's reminded about the trespass with a very annoying high pitched beeping sound.

Cattle are driven by a flight response, so any unnatural sound or dangerous situation is going to cause them to run back to their herd. Because within the herd there is safety, and when in doubt cattle will always turn back to their kind. And since the sound stops once they get back into the confines of their grid, they learn almost immediately to adhere to its warnings. The farther they move away from their designated boundaries, the louder the sound becomes, until they reach the utmost limit of their confinement. At that line the collar administers a small electric charge, that’s less potent than an electric fence, or even a dog collar would send out. So even if the initial noise blast wasn’t enough, then there’s always the fall back of a physical reminder of where the animals need to keep their hooves.

Why it works:

We know, it sounds too inconceivably simple to work, doesn’t it? But you need to remember that cows are actually quite intelligent. Training them to pull carts, plough fields and adhere to a time schedule for milking and returning to their housing on time is has been done for centuries.

Which brings us to the first note about virtual fencing. It's not going to be as simple as just slapping that collar on and expecting your herd to fall in line. That high pitched ringing can cause an animal to get confused at first and it might just take off in a panic. And even though it’s rare for them not to turn back to their herds, it does happen every now and then. So for the first few days after being fitted with their new necklaces it will be necessary to keep an eye on them and lead any confused wanderers back to their friends. Every individual animal will only have to make the mistake once or twice for them to know where to go when that noise starts up and every calf after that initial help from you won’t need you to keep them in line. The herd already knows what to do and they’ll keep new additions in line for you.

The advantages here are enormous. Besides the removal of fences, and the costs associated with buying the materials for them and the constant maintenance, it also removes the need for manual labour, an especially big advantage on small acreages that are run by family units and don’t have the money to hire additional hands to do the work. Then there’s the fact that every head of livestock can be tracked at all times and their grazing spaces can be contained accurately to the centimetre. Rotational grazing becomes not only easier and cheaper in the long run, but it becomes much easier to plan and manage.

Also, some areas that you want cleared might not be fencible. Ravines, hills and rocky landscapes are a nightmare to fence in, and the challenging environment hikes up the price even more. But with virtual fencing it now becomes possible to make use of these otherwise useless fields.

Managing your land properly will lead to better conditions for your soil, more diversity and much less damage from planting posts and removing brush and trees to make room for those miles of wiring.

Operation and set up:

Most systems today can simply be operated on your cell phone with an app that requires a monthly subscription fee. All updates are automatically downloaded and as long as you have an internet connection when setting up that grid, it doesn’t require any further remote operation from you. It alerts you when an animal steps out of its boundaries or when a collar malfunctions. The bigger systems can stretch as far as a 6 mile radius at a time, so your space isn’t limited at all.

Opening the app will show you where every single member of your herd is at all times by view of a little dot on the screen. It’s even easier to get used to than learning how to use a GPS.

We’ve intentionally avoided going into specific details about the app, since every company has their own set up. The general idea is the same, and once you know how to use one site, using the other isn’t all that much different.

Species that can be run with virtual collars:

We’ve been using cattle terminology throughout this video, but the collars don’t stop at just cows. Sheep do just as well with the collars, since their natural instincts lead them back to their herd when confronted with the unfamiliar too. Then there are goats, but getting them to stay in one place isn’t nearly as simple as the docile sheep and cattle. The thing about goats is that they are more intelligent, making them harder to train. A sheep will follow the path that’s most comfortable for it and the one that doesn’t come with a terrible blast of noise. But goats are willing to suffer a little discomfort if that means that they can sink their teeth into a delicious green field of food. Known for being the most stubborn animal on the farm, you can bet that they’ll take the longest to train into submission. Once they get the idea, they’ll fall in line. But getting them to be obedient, well let’s just say that you need more than a few days for them to heed the warning bells.

We don’t want to put you off from virtually grazing your goats, because they do incredibly well with the system. It’s just that you’ll have to carve out a week or two to keep them under eye when they first head out and the possibility of a unit getting damaged is going to be higher with an animal that climbs trees and mountains with ease.

Insurance:

Large scale farms that have utilised virtual collars have reported that it’s cheaper annually than putting up fences and maintaining those fences every year. And even though it looked a little daunting when buying that first shipment of collars, it actually ended up being around 30 percent cheaper by the end of the year than fences came out to. To make the option more attractive, prices are expected to drop significantly in the next few years. As technology becomes more streamlined and the materials used to make the collars becomes smaller and lighter, the price gets smaller too. And as its use spreads, so does demand, forcing companies to get more competitive with their prices. Right now there are less than a dozen companies in the US that sell virtual fencing, and a handful more across Australia and New Zealand. It’s only a matter of time before big cattle and sheep ranches in Europe, Asia and Africa start buying it in their own countries too. South African ranches have already begun collaring their cattle by making use of companies in the US, and it won’t be long before they get their own networks in place on their home soils.

Actually now would be a good time to mention another interesting way that the world’s been using virtual collars. India’s been using them for close to a decade to keep track of their endangered tiger and sloth bear populations. They aren’t attempting to keep them confined to specific areas, but the technology is based on the same line of thinking. It’s been an invaluable tool to keeping the animal’s numbers in check, knowing when a female hunkers down and that she’s probably giving birth to a valuable new generation of cubs, and most importantly, in the event of an attack on a human, the tigers in the area can be traced tracked and the culprit can be located. This has greatly discouraged people from forming mobs, killing every living tiger in the surrounding area. By leaving it to the authorities, problematic hunters can be euthanized, without any innocent tigers dying for the crimes of one murderer or at the very least the guilty party can be caught and moved to breeding facilities that are fenced off from the public. Game reserves in South Africa and Botswana have made use of them to study the patterns and movements of their bigger predators like lions and leopards. And ankle bracelets are strapped to elephants to study them too. Our understanding of how and where animals move has had huge impacts on following at a safe enough distance to catch poachers and the traders on the black market exotic animal trade. With the incentive of preserving wildlife and to improve livestock farming, there is enough interest in virtual fencing to keep it on track to make huge strides in the next few years, guaranteeing a decrease in price and a system that will keep getting better consistently as time goes on.   

So don’t be too discouraged about the price just yet. By the time you get your cattle fitted with their swanky new jewellery, it's very possible that it’ll be half the price of full on fencing.

Conclusion:

When you look at the big picture, at the end of the day virtual fencing is getting cheaper in the long run, and it’s going to get more affordable every year, Because make no mistake it is catching on at lighting speed. This is going to be the way to go forward when herding any kind of livestock in the future. As we get more cued up on regenerative practices and how the long term damage is affecting our yields, well it's going to be big tech that is going to make the big changes at the end of the day. Not to mention that it requires so much less materials for us to fit a herd with collars than it does to fence acres upon acres off from the surrounding areas. This way you can run your livestock where they need to be run, right within arms reach of your wheat fields if you need to, and you’ll sustain less damage, loss and maintenance than you would otherwise. We say bring on the tech savvy solutions! It’s more effective, more cost effective and who doesn’t like playing with cool new gadgets every now and then, especially if it can save us a few bucks at the end of the day?

Outro:

But what do you think? Does the future of agriculture lie in tech, and will it overhaul the way we farm as a whole? We certainly think so! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, you know how much we look forward to hearing from our viewers.

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