Virtual Fencing
Virtual fence technology has the potential to provide a more flexible, cost-effective, and environmentally neutral tool for controlling the distribution of cattle on the range than conventional barbed wire fencing. Virtual fencing allows a user to designate specific land areas via computer applications where livestock may be confined within or excluded from. When the animal approaches the designated boundary, a collar provides an audible alert followed by an electric shock if the animal does not respond to the alert.
Virtual fence could provide a cost-effective way not only to ranch cattle sustainably, but also improve habitat for wildlife and plant species. Below are some of the ways virtual fence could address a few of the current challenges ranchers and land managers face.
- Virtual fence could provide improved grazing management around “sensitive” areas, such as riparian areas scattered across vast landscapes. Public land agencies have resource management objectives for wildlife habitat and other values, which commonly involve resting meadows and riparian areas, and recently burned areas from grazing. Virtual fencing could allow ranchers to temporarily exclude these areas without having to build or maintain conventional fencing.
- Conventional fencing on public land is expensive, time consuming to build and repair, and often considered to be unfriendly to wildlife. Public land fences can fail in recreational use areas due to gates being left open or fences simply cut for easy access or as acts of vandalism. Virtual fence could provide an alternative to conventional fencing, allowing instant boundary changes at the touch of a button. Minimizing conventional fence on a landscape opens wildlife migration corridors and decreases wildlife injuries and deaths.
- Virtual fence provides the potential for ranchers and land managers to more easily utilize grazing as a vegetation management tool. Livestock grazing can be used to control invasive species and/or reduce fuels and wildfire risk. With virtual fencing it may be possible to apply targeted grazing in scenarios that have typically been restricted to sheep and goats.
Stay tuned for updates on UC Cooperative Extension's virtual fence project!
