Mark Mueller has been using Nofence virtual fencing for several months on his small operation outside of San Antonio.
“I’m using the virtual fencing because some of the areas I use are very small and don’t have great fences,” Mueller says. “We’ve been in a drought here in Texas for a while, so cows have a tendency to stick their heads underneath the fences, and tear them up. Once they get a hole, they want to escape and stand on the outside of the fence because the grass is always greener.”
The system has proven effective in meeting Mueller’s needs.
“I went from fixing fences two to three times a week to not having to fix fences since I put on the collars,” Mueller says. “The tracking on this system is pretty awesome. At any time, I can see where my cows are and if a cow or calf escapes from an area, which doesn’t happen very often, I get an alert on my phone.”
With plans to expand his operation, Mueller says virtual fencing is giving him peace of mind.
“As long as I have a comfort level of being able to put my cows in areas that doesn’t have as good of physical fences, that’s my goal in the future and I’m starting to realize the potential on that side,” he says.
Ease of use has been an added benefit to Mueller. He controls his cows from an app on his phone.
“It’s been easy to draw pastures on the phone; it’s just moving pins and creating boundaries,” he says. “I keep them about five feet or so off the physical fence, which helps with the training. It’s nice that you can see where the cows are on the app too and even which animal it is.”
Nofence offers the possibility of multi-species grazing with collars for both cattle and sheep and goats, says Victoria Allers Wismer, VP of marketing.
She explains Nofence uses the collar and an app with no need for a base station.
“We need the cellular connectivity to set up and move the fence and make sure that the collar has uploaded the pasture,” Allers Wismer says. “The animals are contained on GPS, so even if they are in and out of connectivity, the fence will work, and they will still get the sound and the pulse.”
The collars have rechargeable batteries with a solar panel on them.
“We now assess that the battery for the cattle collars should last all year around in sunny areas,” Allers Wismer says. “It would be around nine months in geographic areas where there is more of a winter season.”
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.
