SuppliedWhat if cattle could be kept within grazing boundaries without fences, wires, or posts, only using a GPS signal and a collar?
Researchers at the University of Alberta are testing virtual fencing technology that uses GPS-enabled collars to control where and how often cattle graze. The goal is to reduce labour, lower infrastructure costs, and give producers greater flexibility in managing rangelands while maintaining animal welfare and environmental sustainability.
Edward Bork, a professor and Mattheis Chair in Rangeland Ecology and Management in the faculty of agricultural, life, and environmental sciences (ALES), has been studying virtual fencing systems on cattle in Alberta.
Traditionally, producers manage grazing through physical fencing, herding, or the strategic placement of water and mineral attractants. According to Bork, these methods can be labour intensive, inefficient, or costly to build and maintain, particularly across large or remote rangelands.
“It’s basically the equivalent of a dog collar, but it’s mounted onto an individual animal,” Bork said about the technology.
Virtual fencing as a cattle management tool
The technology is a solid state hardware unit with an onboard computer, acting as a GPS, that connects to a cellular network, allowing the user to set virtual boundaries in their pastures.
“If the animal comes too close to a virtual boundary, it gets an audio warning,” Bork explained. “If it doesn’t take corrective action, it will eventually receive a very weak shock.”
The shock is only a fifth of the electricity of an electric fence, and behavioural learning happens quickly, normally within five to seven days. According to Bork, the results have been promising.
“Our ability to contain the cattle was over 99.5 per cent of the time,” he said.
Bork noted that cattle learned to respond to the collars quickly, with most animals adapting within a week. While individual learning varied, many cattle began responding to the audio warning alone, avoiding the need for further stimulation.
“Some animals learn very quickly, while others take longer,” Bork said. “Like people, there’s a range.”
Bork also explained that since the collar is solar powered, it was able to work efficiently in both summer and winter periods, with temperatures as low as minus 38–40 C.
Virtual fencing technology shows promise, U of A researcher says
Bork described the technology as “benign,” emphasizing that it does not negatively impact animal welfare.
“There was no effect on their level of production,” he said. Additionally, cattle showed no differences in weight gain, even among animals that interacted more frequently with the virtual boundary.
“The big question for me is durability,” Bork emphasized. The collars are around $400 a piece, and since the technology is rather new, the length of durability is still unknown.
However, there are talks of provincial subsidy programs, such as the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF), that are willing to subsidize the cost of this technology for ranchers that would like to get their hands on it.
Bork said cost sharing programs could play a key role in determining how widely the technology is adopted, particularly among smaller producers weighing the return on investment.
The future of the technology looks promising, but there are some limitations.
“It’s going to replace cross fencing costs. Whether it replaces perimeter fencing is debatable.”
Due to the high settlement in Alberta, replacing perimeter fencing would be difficult. Bork expects virtual fencing to become more common over the next decade as technology improves, costs decrease, and producers continue looking for flexible and sustainable grazing solutions.
