VIRTUAL FENCING

YOU’VE HEARD OF invisible fencing for dogs – a way to keep pets within the boundaries of their yards.

Now consider a similar idea for larger animals on much larger tracts of land: virtual fencing for cattle.

Colorado State University’s AgNext program is investigating use of a wireless technology that creates virtual boundaries to keep livestock confined to – or out of – specific areas. Virtual fencing corrals cattle on moveable plots of land so their grazing may be closely managed to improve both food-animal production and ecosystem health. The technology also eliminates the cost and impracticality of stringing traditional barbed-wire fencing, or even simpler electric fencing, across vast swaths of ground.

“We’ve been able to do a lot with this so far,” said Steve Wooten, a fourth-generation rancher in southeastern Colorado who has collaborated with AgNext on research projects. “I think this is really going to have a lot of upsides for the industry over the next several years.”

The high-tech approach to rotational grazing allows ranchers to section off areas of land using a computer program. The program communicates with small control towers, and those towers interact with digital collars worn by cattle. If an animal gets close to one of the boundaries, the collar emits a noise to deter it; if the cow continues toward the barrier, the collar produces a small shock.

If proved effective and affordable, virtual fencing could be used in settings where traditional fencing is either impossible or impractical, such as fields of corn stalks, fragile riparian areas, or expanses of public or private land.

Anna Shadbolt, an AgNext research associate who studies grassland management, said she is excited that cattle producers are becoming more aware of the technology and that CSU is playing a role in trying to help make the tech work for ranchers in Colorado and beyond.

“We want to have solutions for real people in the real world,” Shadbolt said. “I see that as our mission and part of being a land-grant school – testing things like this and trying to minimize the risk for producers who might want to adopt the technology.

Photo at top: To study virtual fencing, CSU researchers outfit cattle with collars that use wireless technology to corral animals on specific and moveable plots of grazing land, much as invisible fencing keeps dogs in their yards. Photo: Steve Wooten.