Ranchers Use Virtual Fence After Fire

REDFIELD, Iowa (DTN) -- People have been using virtual dog fencing for years, but now virtual fencing for livestock is becoming a management tool for producers across the country.

At the R.A. Brown Ranch near Throckmorton, Texas, virtual fencing was implemented in 2023 after a wildfire destroyed fencing on the range where the ranch run cows.

"Like many management changing plans, we needed to add this out of necessity," said Tucker Brown. "We had a fire come through our ranch that left parts of our main pastures and its fences destroyed, and we needed to figure out how to keep cows off those areas so the grass could recover."

LOOKED AT DIFFERENT OPTIONS

The Browns looked at several options, including building new permanent fences or hot wire fencing in the areas where it was needed to allow for rest and recovery of the range. They had seen virtual fencing at a cattle trade show, and when they researched this option, they decided it would be the best monetarily and management-wise.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, they have been so pleased with how the virtual fencing works, they plan to continue using it.

GROWING USE IN INDUSTRY

The virtual fencing part of the industry has been growing in recent years, with several companies providing the technology under much of the same process. On the R.A. Brown Ranch, they use Vence, a company that was purchased by Merck Animal Health in 2022. Vence's goal is to provide technology to producers and ranchers to track, monitor and manage the movement of cattle using virtual fencing.

"If the livestock industry is going to be sustainable, we had to look at all of the aspects of it through preventative medicine, animal identification and land management technologies," said Vence Commercial Director Gary Tiller. "Vence was created as a completely robust system to allow producers grazing in smaller or very large areas of public lands to be able to use the system effectively."

"Word of mouth has been the best for us to get out to more ranchers," Tiller said. "When it works at one ranch, the surrounding ranches see how well it works and want to try the system."

HOW VIRTUAL FENCING WORKS

The fencing works by placing a base station on the operation. Cows receive a collared transceiver containing a global positioning system to track its position via a radio frequency transceiver. Through the use of a computer program, lines are drawn for the boundary of each area where the cattle will graze. Cows are trained on the boundaries using sound cues and a humane electrical pulse.

"Cows have to learn what the beep from the collar means. We first started with a fenced in 80-acre trap and put the boundary on the actual fence. That way they can see something, and if they rub up against the fence, it will shock them, so they learn the sound and shock that comes with getting near the boundary," explained Brown.

The physical fence boundary is then moved out for the next few days, and eventually, a virtual fence boundary is made to see if the cows understand what the beep means. Brown said that sometimes the cows need a few more days of training and sometimes they are ready to go.

Exterior boundary fence is an actual physical fence because he said the virtual fencing isn't foolproof. "Cows will go through the virtual fence if they want to get to their calf if it's on the other side. Calves don't wear a collar."

Tiller said Vence is a little different than the virtual dog fences when it comes to the notifications to the cow. "The old dog collars would shock the dog going both ways, but the way Vence is set up, a cow only gets shocked on the way out. There's no penalty to come back in," he said.

BENEFITS OF VIRTUAL FENCING

Once the producer understands how to use the virtual fencing, it becomes a value creator. Until producers can actually see in real time what their animals are doing, they may not realize how cattle graze a pasture. For better utilization of the grass, producers can reset boundaries for better land efficiency once they determine an area that needs more attention.

Brown said the flexibility of the system is one of the biggest benefits. Pastures can be changed based on management practices of spraying or prescribed burning. It has allowed them to come up with new ideas on the ranch because it's so easy to "move" a fence.

"We do have to be better at planning ahead though. We used to get together in the morning and decide to move a group, but now a few more steps are needed to do that with the virtual fencing," he said.

The Browns also must be aware of where water sources are in each virtual trap. "Thankfully, my granddad did a great job of building dirt water tanks across the ranch in all our pastures. We just have to make sure there is enough room for the cows to get to the water," he added.

EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE IMPORTANT

Tiller said as more and more producers start using the system, it works better, and upgrades of the technology help with any problems which arise.

Cows are fitted with a battery-operated collar around their neck with a year's worth of power under normal grazing conditions. Notifications can be sent to the producer's fencing program when battery life is getting minimal. Brown said they are sure to change the batteries about every nine months and haven't had any batteries die. When collar batteries are being changed as cows go through a chute, two people take care of the process to get it done as efficiently as possible.

Tiller said it's important for producers to understand the battery life will be longer in bigger pastures because the cows aren't near the boundary as often, thus not making the collar work as hard.

HOW TECHNOLOGY HELPS

Pastures on the R.A. Brown Ranch vary in size up to 900 acres, but virtual pastures can be as small as 100 acres depending on how they are being used. Group size can also vary based on type of cow, time of year and how much grass is available. Typically, the stocking rate in their area of north-central Texas is about one cow per 25 acres of land, which means they will keep the pastures bigger than 100 acres in most cases.

Two people on the ranch are specialized in the virtual fencing, but all the staff have the Vence program on their phones. Many use the program to check pastures, feed groups and gather and move the herd. It allows them to be more efficient because they can go right to the group instead of searching first. "We can also use it for health checks. If a cow is by herself ... we can find and check her more quickly," Brown explained.

The virtual fencing systems continue to become more popular across the country and government funding programs have become available through the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

"This system is designed to do planned rotation. We are about putting together a good grazing management plan, putting it in motion, monitoring it and keeping it in place," said Tiller.

On the R.A. Brown Ranch, they will continue to use virtual fencing because it gives them so many opportunities to use land more efficiently. "Land is hard to come by and I'd love to be able to grow the ranch. This virtual fencing lets us be more efficient with the land that we have," concluded Brown.

Jennifer Carrico can be reached at jennifer.carrico@dtn.com

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