Sixth generation rancher Brent Hackley of Jacksboro, Texas, began using rotational grazing practices on his family’s ranch in the early 80s after attending grazing schools taught by Alan Savory and Stan Parsons.
“We knew rotational grazing was a great idea,” Hackley says. “In the beginning, it was a lot of trial and error. We experienced drought, had to evaluate where we made some mistakes and start again, but we knew the value of the concept.”
During the last 45 years Hackley has spent a lot of time developing electric fences and water resources, but never felt there was enough personnel to take full advantage of controlling stocking densities or grazing to the fullest potential. That’s where virtual fencing has provided advantages. He began using Halter in the summer of 2024.
“I know we’re able to utilize pastures better because there’s a lot of areas that the cattle don’t want to graze without holding them on it, and so we’re already getting more even grazing distribution,” says Hackley, whose family has been on the same ranch since 1865.
“We try and manage holistically, and sustainability is the key to everything we do,” he says. “We’re always trying to look for a better way to help out the employees and improve their lives as well as increase pounds of beef per acre weaned.”
Hackley is the sixth generation on the north central Texas ranch, and has a daughter and a son, who is back on the ranch. He says this technology offers better cattle management when dealing with the summer heat.
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
The Hackley family utilizes virtual fencing to move cattle earlier in the day with less labor to beat the Texas summer heat.
Brent Hackley
“We are moving cattle somewhere on the property every day, sometimes multiple groups a day,” Hackley says. “There’s physically not enough of us to get everything moved before the heat sets in because we just can’t be everywhere. Now we can literally move every herd on the property at 5 or 6 a.m. Then we can spend our time making sure we didn’t miss anything and looking through the cattle.”
Virtual fencing offers infinite possibilities, Hackley says.
“I know how much time and effort and expense has gone into the last 45 years trying to develop rotational grazing and that’s one of the reasons why more people don’t do it — they didn’t want to take that time and expense,” he says. “If we had virtual fencing 45 years ago, we’d be 40 years ahead of the curve. What keeps me up at night is thinking about all the things that Hunter and the next six generations will be able to do with virtual fencing to continue to improve our landscape and our animals and afford us more time to do things we enjoy.”
Matt Risi is a customer success lead in the U.S. for Halter, which was developed in New Zealand and expanded into the states.
“We’re here to enable producers around the world to be more productive and more sustainable, and that is a key part of being profitable,” he says. “To be sustainable, you need to be profitable.”
He says virtual fencing takes the idea of cross fencing and subdividing pastures to better utilize natural resources and gives ranchers more flexibility.
“Virtual fencing allows you to take the shackles off in many respects and look at those core principles of ranching, which are ‘how can I get the most out of the soil, work with the climate and use the forage available to really emphasize the maximum capacity that we could do in a really sustainable way?’”
The concept of virtual fencing technology has been around for decades but continues to evolve. Virtual fencing uses behavior modification based on audio and electrical cues from a collar device to keep cattle within a virtual boundary using GPS. This geospatial technology uses satellites to pinpoint a location. A virtual fence can also be used to keep animals out of certain areas. The collar can be controlled by a phone, tablet or computer using cellular data.
This is part of a four-part Smart Farming series on virtual fencing companies available in the U.S. — eShepard, Halter, NoFence and Vence.
