by Christine Peterson, WyoFile
Dustin Taylor left the gate open as he drove hundreds of cows into one of his pastures this fall. This particular goal had been a source of endless frustration. It lies in the middle of an elk migration corridor, and between 100 and 1,000 elk flow through each year, tearing down fences and often getting tangled in barbed wire.
That all changed this year.
Over the summer, he decorated 50 cows with shiny black collars and turned on an invisible electric fence that beeped and then shocked the cattle when they tried to go through the open gate. Soon he was collaring hundreds more.
Then he watched as elk streamed through his open gate and his cows stayed there.
Taylor, owner of E Spear Ranch outside Meeteetse, is among a growing number of ranchers in Wyoming and the West who are using virtual fences, a more sophisticated version of invisible electric fences that people have used for years to keep their dogs in their yards. Proponents of the virtual fences say they are not only a way to reduce the number of fences draped across the West, but also will soon give landowners more flexibility to move and manage their livestock across a complicated landscape.
For ranchers like Taylor, they're another useful tool in the same rugged landscape where his great-great-grandfather settled in the late 19th century.
“I like the traditional way. We're kind of a riding horse operation, so it kind of makes you think when all the cows wear collars that sparkle in the sun and have an LED light at night,” Taylor said. “But it's a win-win for us. We don't get elk caught in fences or cut up in wires, and they don't tear down our fences. We're able to better balance our use with the interests of wildlife.”
A dream comes to life
For decades, researchers and ranchers have dreamed of virtual fences, a way to contain cows without spending tens of thousands of dollars building and repairing fences, and a way to track cows' movement in real time. But for many of those decades, the technology felt as futuristic as perhaps a smartphone did in 1980.
And while the technology exists, it's still at the “brick-phone stage,” said Drew Bennett, MacMillan Professor of Practice in Private Lands Management at the University of Wyoming.
“If you think about where cell phones were in the 1980s, you carried them around in a suitcase or there was Zack Morris' brick phone,” Bennett said, referring to the popular show “Saved by the Bell.”.” “Then think about where we are today with iPhones. It's the same technology, but in name only, not functionality. We need to anticipate where this technology will be in 10 years.”
The concept of the virtual fence, although technologically advanced, is still relatively simple. Unlike an electric fence for a dog in a backyard, which requires burying a wire underground that responds to a dog's collar, virtual fences use solar-powered towers spread across a rancher's land. The 20-foot-tall towers act as intermediaries between a cow's collar, a satellite and a rancher's phone or computer. For example, if a rancher wants to change the perimeter of a pasture, all he or she needs to do is open the computer program and change the size or area of the fence.
Cows, for their part, require minimal training, Taylor said.
The collars first beep on a cow when the animal approaches a live fence line. If the cow continues to run, it receives a small electric shock that pushes it back.
Cows can get through the fences, but rarely do so once they get used to the beeps and little bumps.
Ranchers could actually benefit from cows running through the fence when necessary, said Travis Brammer, director of conservation at PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center.
Predators like wolves sometimes use physical barriers like fences to capture and contain prey. If cows, while being chased to dinner, can simply keep running despite the beeps and bumps, they are much more likely to get to safety.
As virtual fencing companies develop, they develop programs that then beep on one side of the cow's head until she turns back to her assigned pasture, essentially driving her home.
Ranchers require a different number of towers depending on the virtual fencing company and particularly the topography of each ranch. A tower in a flat landscape can cover 10 to 20 square miles. Pastures with steep cliffs and cliffs require more.
Ranchers who control the collars say it's been a learning process and, like any new technology, comes with a number of glitches, including collars falling off, software updates and slow internet issues.
But many of them are being actively resolved, Brammer said.
Bennett asks ranchers to think less about what the technology can do today and more about where it's going, as he says the conservation benefits are almost limitless.
Thinking about the future
The biggest and most obvious advantage of collars is the reduced need for actual, physical fences.
In fact, there are probably more than 620,000 miles of fence covering the West, enough to stretch to the moon and back.
And most agree that putting up more fences will cause more problems for wildlife, hindering migration, tangling legs and preventing access to sought-after food.
Taylor and Bennett point out that technology will not free the West from all fences. Wyoming is a fence-out state. Even if a rancher's cows have collars and respond to virtual fences, a neighbor's cows may not, meaning fencing is still needed.
However, the fences are actually interior fences that separate pastures from one another. Virtual fences can eliminate these. Taylor said he didn't build any fences he had planned this year because of the collars.
As for the conservation benefits, Bennett's team at the University of Wyoming is publishing a paper detailing how virtual fences can allow ranchers to clear streams and rivers of cows and prevent fences from being washed out during spring floods each year. They can concentrate cattle in an area to control invasive species like weeds, alert a rancher when a cow is not moving and needs medical attention, and even use grazing cows to control fine fuels in fire-prone areas.
Virtual fences also free up grazing land that was previously forbidden because it was too difficult to build fences. It can also be used to replace fences destroyed in wildfires.
The Property and Environment Research Center, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and local conservation districts are hosting workshops across the state to introduce the idea to more ranchers.
“This is a potential win for natural resources, biodiversity and wildlife, as well as a win for ranchers,” Bennett said. “When we think about where it goes, we are only limited in our own creativity.”
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on people, places and politics in Wyoming.