For most ranchers, roundups require careful planning and a significant time investment. But for those working on public land or expansive terrain, directing the herd to available forage presents even more challenges and costs.
For Shawn and Tyler Ivins of Broken I Ranch, roundups used to mean 10 long days in the saddle, pushing through the forests, canyons, and desert of the Abajo Mountains with a crew of eight riders, trying to locate every last cow and calf before winter.
“We would spend days and days riding, and we would never see a cow,” Tyler says.
Spanning over 250,000 rugged acres and stretching from the San Juan River up to the mountains above Blanding, Utah, Broken I Ranch runs Angus-influenced commercial cows, selected for their ability to cover these rocky, arid landscapes. In addition to difficult terrain, a significant portion of the ranch is public land, including areas within the culturally-sensitive Bears Ears National Monument.
Managing such a vast and diverse range was a challenge. But since implementing Vence virtual fencing 2022, the Ivins say they’ve regained control over their time and have new visibility into their herd.
“We’re way more effective with our riding and our time because we know where the cattle are, what they’re doing and where we need to move them,” Shawn says.
Vence allows the Ivins — and an increasing number of other ranchers across the West — to control cattle movement, manage grazing, create fences across thousands of acres of rangeland, and monitor animal location and movement.
With GPS-enabled collars, solar-powered base stations and a computer or tablet, ranchers can create and adjust boundaries remotely and pinpoint where each cow is, drastically reducing roundup time.
The ability to track individual cows, in particular, has allowed the Ivins keep their cattle away from the 10 miles of protected watershed that borders their ranch. If a cow crosses a virtual boundary, the system lets them know immediately.
“There’s a lot of concern about management and how we run cows in this area,” Shawn says. “We try to make sure that we’re very responsible with it.”
The Ivins say Vence is transforming the way they manage cattle on Broken I Ranch — saving time, improving grazing practices, and strengthening communication and relationships with public lands agencies.
“One of the biggest surprises for us is how effective it has been as far as tracking the cattle, and saving our time riding and finding lost cows,” Shawn says.
For other operations running on leased public lands, investing in advanced management tools like Vence can result in increased stocking rate and more sustainable use of natural resources.
“It’s pretty crucial for everything we do because it’s a huge time saver moving cattle,” Tyler says. “Some of our pastures are 20,000 acres. To round up cows in that large of an area, what used to take us weeks now takes days.”
Though roundups continue to be a busy time for ranchers, opportunities to save time and maximize land usage exist for those willing to rethink traditional approaches.
