Livestock Equipment Technology

Re-imagining the Ranch: How Virtual Fencing is Turning "Moonscapes" into Profitable Pastures

Fri, 08 May 2026 12:53:26 GMT

U.S. beef producers are using virtual fencing to create pastures this summer where none existed last year. They also are using the tool to create business opportunities for themselves.

Canda Mueller is a third-generation cow-calf producer in western Oklahoma. Growing up in the business, Mueller has the experience and the space to raise cattle. Whether she could do so profitably was another question. Years of weather extremes have taken a toll on the land and the quality of forage available. Some areas on her 640 acres looked more like a moonscape than a pasture, Mueller explains.

“We’ve seen so many things happen in the extreme weather of western Oklahoma,” she says. “Using virtual fencing, we’re reimagining how we fence cattle and how we move them from place to place. We’re able to correct or improve how we did things in the past when we didn’t have the tools or the knowledge we have now.”

Five years ago, Mueller started being more intentional about where she placed bales on the quarter of the property she lives on. She placed bales on areas with poor soil quality to draw cattle to the sites despite the lack of forage. As the cattle eat the bales, bits of uneaten hay become mulch for the soil, and their manure provides nutrients. Even their saliva feeds the soil microbiome to improve it for future forage growth.

“Anything they leave behind is good cover and protection for the soil,” Mueller says. “I’m creating a plan so I don’t have to apply fertilizer. The cows put as much back into the ground as I’m taking out.”

Mueller could see improvement in the areas she was bale grazing, so she kept at it. Two years ago, she started intentionally rotational grazing across her property to rest the pasture she had been working on.

“I realized virtual fencing made more sense than moving hot wires or investing in traditional barbed fencing,” Mueller says. “Hot wire, in particular, wasn’t working because the ground was too dry for the cattle to pay attention to it.”

Instead of fencing, Mueller draws paddock boundaries using an app on her phone or a platform on her laptop. Her cows wear GPS-enabled collars that deliver audio cues to encourage them to return to the herd if they approach the boundaries. If a cow continues to the boundary, the collar delivers a mild electrical pulse to reinforce the audio cue. After a seven- to 10-day controlled training period, the majority of cattle respond to the audio cues and never need the pulse.

Virtual fencing also made another forage improvement tactic possible: multispecies grazing. Mueller has been impressed with the results. Grazing goats alongside her cattle has made it faster and easier to improve forage quality. The goats eat small elm trees and other problematic brush that cows won’t eat, and they help in the ongoing battle against cedar trees, which consume a lot of water, Mueller says. The goats’ smaller hooves create divots that help pull water into the dry ground in the case of rain.

“They have made a big difference on the ground and improving the soil to improve grazing for the cattle,” Mueller says.

Melanie Jacobs, owner of Heritage Hooves, raises Pinewoods cattle on 200 acres north of Birmingham, Ala., and markets beef to consumers. She uses Nofence virtual fencing to grow her grazing program without adding physical fences and to rotate cattle through paddocks or bring them to a corral for handling.

(Nofence)

New Business With an “Old” Breed

Across the country, Melanie Jacobs is also reimagining what raising beef cattle can look like. Jacobs and her husband, Johnny, raise Pineywoods cattle on 200 acres about 60 miles north of Birmingham, Ala., and market beef directly to consumers. They did not plan to get into the beef business when they bought the property.

“We always said we would not have cattle,” Jacobs says. “Dad’s cows were always getting out, and there were so many challenges. I had no interest in doing that kind of work.”

However, the Jacobses agreed to take two Pineywoods cows and a donkey when they took over the property. Despite themselves, they fell in love with the livestock.

Virtual fencing helped turn that love into a business. Pineywoods cattle are hardy and low maintenance, which is a good fit for the rocky, hilly property. They are a heritage breed tied to the history of the Southern U.S., and Jacobs has joined a network of Pineywoods breeders who share what they learn with each other.

Jacobs was preparing to graze cattle rotationally in a large pasture and wanted to graze them for a short time in a wooded area to help manage brush. A neighbor’s harvested cornfield kept catching her attention, and she wanted to find a way to include it in her grazing plan.

“The physical fences around the field were in poor condition, and it felt like wasted opportunity,” Jacobs says. “Using virtual fencing, we added that cornfield into our rotation without having to build a new fence. We improved how we graze without adding inputs.”

Flexibility Empowers Success

Mueller and Jacobs appreciate how the virtual fencing system sends alerts to changes in cattle behavior. They can see when a cow separates herself from the herd and stops grazing, indicating she might be starting to calve. Jacobs also uses the virtual fencing system to bring cattle to the corral when needed.

“We just cinch their virtual pasture down and bring them in close so we can get them into the corral,” she says.

Mueller can’t say enough about the value of being able to move cattle without having to dedicate time or needing to be physically present.

“I’m a consultant and travel a lot for my other job. It is so helpful to get alerts when I need to check on a cow,” Mueller summarizes. “I can move the (virtual) fence while I’m traveling. I was in Mexico last week for work, changing the boundaries and texting my significant other to check on a cow. It’s such an incredible change in how I can work, and it gives me peace of mind that my cattle are OK.”

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Spot check: Small Actions Can Unlock Pasture Profitability

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:08:44 GMT

If you feel like you didn’t have enough time to prepare pastures this spring, you’re not alone. Many producers feel that once the grass starts growing, they don’t get to stop for a breath until June.

The good news is, producers still have time to make positive changes this year. Forage management is a year-round practice, and producers can do plenty of things now in early summer to improve forage performance and, in turn, cattle performance.

Forage Quality and Quantity

What looks like a beautiful, lush early summer pasture might really be too lush to provide quality nutrition. New growth forage lacks fiber. It’s high in protein, which is great for putting weight on calves, but the lack of fiber reduces the animal’s ability to absorb nutrients.

Greg Brann, a livestock producer and grazing consultant from Adolphus, Ky., encourages producers to leave a few paddocks with six inches or more of grass over winter.

(Nofence)

“In a perfect world, you would have a few paddocks that you didn’t graze hard in the fall where you left 6 inches or more of grass over winter,” says Greg Brann, a livestock producer and grazing consultant from Adolphus, Ky. “In that case, you’d have some older grass with higher fiber that can slow down the rate of passage of the fresh, new grass through the animal and allow them to absorb more nutrients.”

If last fall you weren’t able to plan to create a mix of mature and fresh grass, now is the time to make plans to do so for next year. It’s also a good time to observe the overall quantity and quality of forage in your pastures.

Observe cattle grazing patterns to monitor forage quantity. Selective grazing indicates enough forage is available that cattle can pick and choose their favorites. If cattle continue to graze during the heat of the day rather than in the morning or evening, it’s an indication that they are not getting enough forage to meet their needs.

Watch their manure to observe the forage quality, which is defined by the mix of protein and fiber. Runny manure is not desirable, nor is manure that stacks, Brann says. Manure the consistency of pumpkin pie filling indicates adequate fiber for cattle nutrition.

Looking Ahead to June

It’s early yet, but as the season progresses, Brann typically gets a lot of questions about mowing. Mowing is a useful practice to manage weeds and improve pasture quality, but it costs money, especially when fuel prices are high.

An alternative to mowing is high-density grazing by holding 40,000 lb. or more of livestock in one paddock. This tactic knocks down grass to shade out weeds, similarly to how mowing would. And it has the added benefit of fertilizing the soil with manure.

“A common practice is to control vegetation when weeds make up 20% or more of the forage mix in a pasture,” Brann says. “When I mow, I prefer to do so after grazing and not mow more than 20% of the total pasture acreage at one time.”

Brann can make quick adjustments to stocking density to meet the nutritional needs of the cattle and the growing speed of the forage because he uses virtual fencing, a tool that allows producers to manage where cattle graze without the use of physical fences.

Brann creates paddock boundaries using an app on his phone or a platform on his computer. His livestock wear GPS-enabled collars that deliver audio cues to encourage them to return to the herd if they approach the boundaries.

If an animal continues to the boundary, the collar delivers a mild electrical pulse to reinforce the audio cue. After a seven- to 10-day controlled training period, the majority of cattle respond to the audio cues and never need the pulse.

Beyond Containment

Virtual fencing does more than contain cattle. It gives producers time back in their day because they don’t have to move or repair physical fences. It also gives them data they can use to refine their pasture management plans.

For example, reviewing cattle grazing patterns in the virtual fence app or platform can help identify areas of a pasture that are being over- or under-grazed so producers can determine the cause and how to address it.

Virtual fencing gives producers something that’s hard to come by in a busy season: the option to use their time differently. Producers can choose to stop and take a breath, refine their grazing strategies or work on another aspect of their business.

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Halter Launches World-First Virtual Fencing Via Satellite

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:22:54 GMT

Halter, the leading digital operating system for pasture-based ranches, today announced the launch of direct-to-satellite connectivity for its smart cattle collars — a world-first that removes the need for cell towers or on-ranch infrastructure.

Using Starlink, the new technology enables ranchers to manage cattle anywhere they can see the sky. Combined with a suite of new tools for reproduction, animal behavior and precision pasture management, the release significantly expands what is possible for cattle ranch management.

Beef ranchers in remote and rugged regions that were limited by connectivity can now turn to virtual fencing to run more productive and sustainable operations — at a time when they face rising fuel costs, labor shortages and aging workforce pressures.

Halter’s internal modeling estimates direct-to-satellite capability expands coverage of the U.S. beef cattle market by 2.5x.

Until now, Halter’s solar-powered, GPS-enabled collars relied on Halter’s proprietary long-range radio towers. With direct-to-satellite, the collars can communicate via Starlink, eliminating ground infrastructure entirely.

“Connectivity has been the final barrier to bringing virtual fencing across remote and expansive ranches,” says Craig Piggott, CEO and founder of Halter. “Direct-to-satellite allows ranchers to manage hundreds of thousands of acres in the most remote terrain on the planet. Combined with our new suite of product features, these ranchers can be even more productive.”

HALTER 2026 | High Lonesome Ranch | Loma, CO

(Halter)

Case Study: Managing 225,000 Acres at High Lonesome Ranch

Lloyd Calvert, livestock and agriculture manager at High Lonesome Ranch in western Colorado, has been among the first to deploy the satellite-enabled system across the ranch’s 225,000 acres of complex terrain.

“Halter has changed the game completely,” Calvert says. “Satellite unlocks the ability to run very remote country while still seeing what the cattle are doing, without needing someone with them all the time. We call ourselves Halter junkies now because we can check to see where the cows are any time of day, no matter where I am. It gives me a great deal of assurance and that’s irreplaceable.”

Beyond the Fence: New Tools for Heat Detection and Feed Demand

Alongside the launch, Halter has rolled out its largest-ever product upgrade for beef cattle ranchers. The update includes an all-in-one heat detection tool to identify non-cycling animals before breeding, a new behavior tool providing near real-time insight into how feed allocation and pasture quality are influencing cattle performance and advanced grazing features including high-resolution pasture mapping, pasture metrics, zone and block management and a feed demand calculator.

Since Halter launched in the U.S. in 2024, it has expanded to more than 25 states. Globally, its customers have created nearly 900,000 miles of virtual fencing.

Halter direct-to-satellite will be available to beef operations in the U.S., New Zealand and coming soon to Australia and Canada. Interested ranchers can learn more at halterhq.com/beef

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5 Ways Smart Collars Improve Grazing

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:31:22 GMT

Virtual fencing is suddenly everywhere in ranching headlines — but not every operation is a fit. In a wide-ranging discussion on the “ Future of Beef Show ,” Halter President Andrew Fraser walks through the practical questions producers should ask, from herd size and terrain to water infrastructure, labor and available cost-share programs.

Fraser, originally from New Zealand, with a background in management consulting, mining and tech startups, was the featured guest on episode 20 of the Future of Beef podcast. Halter spent about five years in research and development, and is now commercially active in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. with more than 750,000 animals on the system.

“If we were being fancy, we would say that it’s an operating system for a farmer. But really at the heart of it, we are a collar for cows,” Fraser explains.

Beyond grass and fencing, Fraser sees Halter as a tool for addressing some of ranching’s most pressing human challenges: labor and succession. By automating low-value tasks like shifting poly wire and checking distant pastures, Halter lets employees focus more on animal care and land stewardship.

A Collar, an App and Virtual Fences

Halter’s system centers on a lightweight, above-neck collar and a phone app. Ranchers use the app to draw virtual fences or breaks on a map. The collars then hold or move cattle using sound and vibration cues, with a very mild pulse as a back-up.

When an animal approaches a virtual boundary, it hears a directional beep in one ear to encourage it to turn back. When it’s moving the right way, it feels a gentle vibration — something Fraser likens to a smartwatch buzz — as positive reinforcement.

Halter can also shift cattle between paddocks, replacing the need for riders, dogs or temporary electric fence to move a herd. Behind the scenes, the collars continuously track behavior such as grazing, ruminating, resting and walking, plus GPS location.

In dairy herds, Halter already uses this behavior data for heat detection and health alerts. In beef systems, it’s being used for grazing management, stock location and early warning of unusual behavior.

Training Cows with Sound, Not Shock

Fraser is quick to point out that Halter is designed around sound, not pain.

“Even our strongest pulse is 1/50 the strength of an electric fence,” he says. “So, this is not a significant shock, or anything like what cows are used to with hot wire or poly wire.”

Training a herd typically takes two to seven days. Ranchers start with an existing strip of hot wire, then gradually move it and pair the fence with sound cues, teaching cows to use sound instead of a visible wire as their boundary.

According to the podcast discussion, here are five ways a smart collar can change how producers graze cattle:

1. Turn Fixed Fences into Flexible, On‑Demand Paddocks

With virtual fencing, producers can draw the paddock on an app instead of building it with posts and wire.

“On your app, you’ll draw where you want your cows to stay, or your cattle to stay, and they will stay there,” Fraser explains.
Using the Halter system, producers can:

Tighten or loosen breaks day‑to‑day.
Change paddock shape, for example hub‑and‑spoke around water instead of rectangles.
Redraw setbacks along waterways or sensitive areas instantly as rules or conditions change.

According to Fraser, using Halter, producers can graze to the residuals they want, in the spots they want, without being locked into permanent fencelines.

2. Intensify Rotational Grazing and Boost Pasture Utilization

For all the technology involved — solar-powered collars and towers, satellite data, and machine learning — Fraser insists Halter’s value proposition starts with something simple: better grass management.

Because cattle can be kept in tighter areas and moved frequently with sound cues, rotational grazing becomes much more precise and practical. Fraser says producers “should be able to make the cost of Halter back from gains in pasture alone.”

By holding cattle in small areas and moving them often, Fraser says:

You push cattle to eat more uniformly — not just the “ice cream” spots.
You protect regrowth by not overgrazing favorite areas.
You can raise stocking rate or hold numbers steady with fatter cattle.

He gave an example of a Wyoming ranch that went from grazing approximately 800 to 1,500 head in a year, pairing Halter with better water infrastructure to fully use its grass.

3. Replace Chase-and-Pressure Moves with Calm, Low‑Stress Shifts

Instead of horses, bikes, dogs and yelling, with the Halter system cattle learn to move on their own in response to sound and vibration. Fraser explains the cues are beeps in one ear or the other to turn left or right. Apple Watch–style vibrations are positive reinforcement when they’re headed the right way.

This changes how producers graze by turning musters and shifts into scheduled, low‑stress, almost “hands‑off” events, which is better for cattle, people and time use.

4. Use Data on Behavior and Biomass to Refine Grazing Decisions

Smart collars and supporting tools give real data on what’s happening in the paddock, not just gut feel. Behind the scenes, Halter has invested heavily in data science and artificial intelligence (AI). Today, Halter uses on-collar machine learning to interpret behavior, plus satellite imagery and weather data to estimate pasture biomass and residuals.

Halter helps producers track where cows are, how long they graze, ruminate, rest and move. It can help calculate how many tons of dry matter are consumed.

“We’re able to tell you what the residual is when the cow goes in, what the residual is when the cow leaves,” Fraser says.

This helps ranchers understand herd-level dry matter consumption between moves. Looking ahead, Fraser is especially interested in individual cow feed efficiency — answering a question many ranchers have wondered about for years.

Right now, he said, producers know which cows are the heaviest or give the most milk, but not how much forage each one eats to get there. Halter hopes to help identify animals that eat less but still perform well, offering new levers for genetic selection, profitability and sustainability.

Today, consumption data is built from satellite data plus time in paddock plus behavior. He says the research and development aim is to go from herd-level to cow-level intake, so producers know which cows are genuinely efficient, not just big eaters.

5. Integrate Grazing with Water, Labor, Risk and Regulations

Fraser summarizes once producers can move virtual fences easily, grazing decisions connect more tightly to other constraints:

Water access: Producers can design hub‑and‑spoke paddocks around fixed water or move small troughs and redraw breaks to match.
Labor: Less time on poly wire and fence repair frees people up for land and animal work; Fraser notes that avoiding “boring tasks” is a big benefit.
Risk and emergencies: Ranchers have used Halter to move cattle in floods or fires when it’s unsafe or impossible for people to go in, and fences might burn or wash out.
Changing rules: When riparian buffer rules tightened in New Zealand, farms with Halter simply redrew the virtual exclusion zones. “If you had fencing, that would have been a huge cost to move all of that. If you had Halter, you just drew a different break on your phone,” Fraser says.

Those factors change grazing from a mostly fence‑ and labor‑limited system to one that’s more data‑, water‑ and policy‑aware, and much quicker to adjust.

Not a Fit For Everyone

Fraser was upfront that Halter falls short or isn’t a fit yet for:

Very small “hobby” herds — fewer than 50 head — return on investment doesn’t pencil out.
Extremely large, ultra-extensive ranches — tower-based communications still limit practicality.
True cow-level feed intake/efficiency today — still herd-level, with individual metrics as an research and development goal.
Full system integrations and “AI for everything” — they’ve done relatively few integrations so far and intentionally avoid AI where it doesn’t clearly help producers.

For an industry built on barbed wire and sweat, the idea that cattle might one day move mostly to the sound of a beep and the buzz of a collar is a big shift. But for Fraser, that’s exactly the point: use technology to make ranching more controlled, more flexible and more humane — without losing sight of what matters most on the land.

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Old Ranching Heritage Meets New Tech

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:30:46 GMT

In Kingsville, Texas, near the Mexico border, the only thing thicker than the accents is the ranching culture.

Natives call it the birthplace of American ranching.

“This is where European immigrants from Scotland, England and Ireland combined with a lot of the native peoples and the Spanish-descended settlers,” says James Clement.

Kingsville is his home, and he knows that heritage well.

“This is where the Catholic mission system and the Western European farming systems collided to create what is known as ranching,” he says.

Much of today’s ranching terminology and practices originated in this South Texas region, and Clement is quick to note that the tradition endures.

“You still see a lot of commitment by the people that own land in this part of the world to maintain large-scale ranches,” he says. “We call this region the last great habitat.”

With his well-worn and scuffed cowboy hat, Clement not only has ranching culture in his heart, it flows through his veins.

At the King Ranch Museum in downtown Kingsville, Clement traces his family’s lineage on a massive, framed portrait that hangs above a stone fireplace. Capt. Richard King and his wife, Henrietta, were Clement’s triple-great-grandparents. His family has all matriculated from the famed King Ranch, a major corporation of modern ranching that has expanded to include farming, luxury retail, recreational hunting and more.

Land of His Own

Though Clement maintains ties to King Ranch, he also now manages his own operation, Bloody Buckets Cattle Co., a ranch deeply steeped in family tradition.

“Our Clement family has been in American military service since the War of 1812, beginning with Sgt. Maj. Kay Clement and his son, Gen. John Clement,” he says. “Four of those generations (from 1812 to 1945), served in the 28^th Division of Pennsylvania.”

During World War II, Clement’s grandfather, Capt. James “Jim” Clement, fought with the division dubbed the Bloody Buckets Division by German forces due to its red keystone insignia

“My grandfather wore the bloody buckets patch on his left shoulder, and we still brand our cattle on the left hip with a brand that is modeled after that patch,” he says.

Bloody Buckets Cattle Co. uses King Ranch American Red genetics. All wear the Bloody Buckets brand on their left hip to pay homage to the ranch’s founder and the family’s military service record.

(Angie Stump Denton)

His grandfather, wounded in France, returned to South Texas as the recipient of a Purple Heart Medal and began a long career with King Ranch, ultimately serving as CEO from 1974 to 1988.

While living in South Texas, he founded Los Hermanos Ranch in 1967, which Clement now operates under the Bloody Buckets Cattle Co. brand. In the 1970s, his father, James “Jamey” Clement Jr., and his uncle, Martin “Martín” Clement II, assumed ownership and day-to-day responsibilities for Los Hermanos. Together, all three men shaped the ranch’s history while each spent his full-time career working for King Ranch.

Clement and his family have been exposed to 400 years of ranching in three operations. Clement’s mother came from the historic Beggs Cattle Company, established in 1876. They, along with their partners, have put that knowledge together and found a way to manage their land and cattle.

“We used the lessons learned from Beggs, King, the experience of our partners and the King Ranch Institute of paying attention to the land, natural resources and wildlife,” he says.

“As we were continuing to grow our operation, we were seeing that we were surviving droughts better, our wildlife quality and quantity was increasing, our water retention was improving and our business lines were growing,” he adds.

A New Approach

Now supporting those heritage practices on-ranch is a host of ag tech advancements. Certainly, they were not seen on his grandfather’s ranch, but Clement knows they are the way of the future, making practices more efficient and easier to accomplish with less labor and fewer man-hours.

He uses Ranchbot Monitoring Systems to keep an eye on his watering systems. Frontiers Market Artificial Intelligence gathers animal health data. On-vehicle cameras are helping to map his land and resources through Enriched Ag.

But his greatest passion lies below the surface in soil carbon capture, so much so that he works as senior vice president and general manager of grass and rangeland for EarthOptics , a company that uses the study of soil biology to predict agronomic outcomes and measure soil carbon. In the role, he helps landowners measure and monetize soil carbon through data-driven insights.

For Clement, it’s a business model that he likens to one he knows well.

“Using an oil and gas analogy, EarthOptics is the drilling company; other people sell the crude (soil carbon in this sense), but we find it.” he says. “What we’re trying to do is help people make more efficient decisions on their land, reduce cost and then potentially also look at additional cash flow streams through the sale of carbon credits.”

Clement calls himself “bullish on carbon” for one particular reason.

“This is really the first opportunity in ranching — first of the growing ecosystem markets — where large companies are paying people to make good stewardship decisions,” he says. “Historically, how did you judge other ranches against each other? Who was selling the most cattle for the most money, selling the most expensive hunts or had the most pump jacks? Now we can pay for taking care of the land and making long-term decisions.”

EarthOptics not only finds a way to quantify and qualify good land and soil stewardship, they validate the data in such a way that farmers and ranchers can capitalize on them.

“We’re at the crossroads of the industry,” Clement says. “EarthOptics is not selling the credits. We’re just advising the ranchers on how to partake in these markets and then also making the introductions and building the industry.”

In November, Bloody Buckets Cattle Company hosted the final 2025 stop in the Trust In Beef Sustainable Ranchers Tour. Owner James Clement III used the event to share the importance his operation places on heritage land stewardship and ag tech advancements for profitability.

(Trust In Beef)

New Land Equals an Accelerated Approach

Clement is broadening the scope of Bloody Buckets Cattle Co., buying additional land and leasing land with his partners, “Poncho” Ortega Sr. and “Poncho” Ortega Jr. They are currently ranching on six ranches in four different South Texas counties. Acquiring new ranches and leases means the work on some of the new land is just beginning.

“On the west side, we acquired some ranches in the last 20 years that had previously been farmed,” he says. “We spend most of our time and resources in the pastures with the worst conditions to build back soil health.”

By applying the same technology he’s helped develop and test elsewhere, Clement is accelerating the restoration process. Their ranching operation has become a testing ground for many of the new ag tech companies in the industry, seeing if these concepts can work in rough country and be beneficial to the operation.

“We’re on a mission to get each of these newer owned or leased properties back in better shape,” he says. “As we expand, we want to make sure that acre is productive.”

Trust In Beef™ works to secure the future of American ranching by providing the information ranchers need to make the decisions that impact the resiliency, profitability and resource management of their working lands. Learn more about Trust In Beef and their Sustainable Ranchers Tour by visiting www.trustinbeef.com

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Now is the Time for Beef Producers to Invest with Purpose

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 13:08:32 GMT

No two cattle operations are the same. With the recent record-breaking cattle prices, many cow-calf producers are considering how to reinvest in their business and capitalize on the market’s current momentum.

In a recent University of Nebraska Beef Watch article , Aaron Berger, Nebraska Extension livestock educator, shares options producers should consider before spending.

“Cow-calf producers are looking at the potential for exceptional levels of income for 2025 due to high calf prices,” he explains. “This income will give many cow-calf producers the opportunity to invest capital back into the operation in ways that can prepare them for future success.”

Two ideas he shared were:

Contemplate adding a scale
Evaluate working and loading facilities

Berger says producers who do not have a scale should consider investing in one.

“Being able to accurately know the weights of cattle has management and marketing benefits,” he explains.

He also encourages producers to consider if facility upgrades could provide a safer environment and better working experience for cattle and the people who are handling them.

Pay Down Debt, Consider Record Keeping

Likewise, a recent Kansas State University Beef Cattle Institute Cattle Chat podcast focused on options for producers to consider with the current profit potential this fall.

“Eliminating as much debt as possible is crucial,” encourages K-State veterinarian Todd Gunderson. “Operating debt-free is a significant blessing for ranchers when possible.”

Record keeping, while not directly profitable, can play a major role in identifying ways to improve margins. Good records are often the foundation for more informed and profitable decision-making.

“Investing just a few hundred dollars in a disciplined record-keeping approach can provide valuable insights into operational performance,” adds K-State agricultural economist Dustin Pendell.

K-State veterinarian Bob Larson emphasizes the relationship between improving forage utilization and economic efficiency, encouraging producers to look at long-term investments in such cost-saving strategies as cross-fencing and water improvements.
In summary, don’t make a hasty decision just because you have some savings in the bank. Spend time to come up with a plan for strategic purchases and investments to position your cow herd for future profitability and success.

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The Surge of Technology Adoption and Data-Driven Decision-Making

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 11:05:03 GMT

Producers are increasingly embracing new technologies, with adoption of drones, AI systems and genomic tools. The industry is moving toward more data-driven decision-making and precision agriculture practices.

South Dakota cattleman Ken Odde says: “The industry’s future will be defined by technological integration, data-driven decision-making and the ability to adapt to changing economic landscapes.”

He says technology is the most transformative force in the beef industry. He points out emerging technologies like 701X tracking tags will be game changers, allowing ranchers to monitor bull health, movement and breeding activity remotely. These innovations address critical challenges like labor shortages and provide unprecedented insights into herd management.

“We don’t have enough labor, and these technologies fit perfectly into that challenge,” Odde adds.

He predicts artificial intelligence and machine learning will dramatically reshape the industry within the next three to five years.

“This industry has never been a very high-tech kind of industry, but I really think that’s about to shift,” Odde says. “If I can save one bull because of this technological oversight, it easily pays for itself.”

According to the 2025 Farm Journal State of the Beef Industry survey , 66% use at least one tech tool on-farm.

Respondents indicated technology is a challenge to achieving their goals in the next few years.

They also mentioned these challenges related to technology:

Limited access to the latest agricultural technologies can hinder competitiveness
Finding the right technology solutions that align with business goals can be a daunting task
High cost of technology for a small operation

Troy Rowan, University of Tennessee assistant professor, summarizes: “I’m excited about the technologies that we’ve been innovating on over the past decade finally becoming affordable enough for deployment across the industry. Things like genomics have typically been reserved for seedstock breeders, but prices have dropped to a point where there is clear return on investment for commercial operations. Genomics is starting to break through in the commercial heifer replacement arena, but I’m most excited to see how genomics being deployed in feeder calves can add value and increase our industry’s efficiency. Other technologies like virtual fencing, drones and wearable sensors are also approaching price points where wider deployment will come fast.”

The State of the Beef Industry Report includes input from nearly 500 beef producers. The annual report provides information to help producers when making decisions. Click here to download the full report.

For more insights to the report as well as producer and economist perspectives, watch the State of the Beef Industry Webinar exclusive on FarmJournal.tv . The panel includes Ken Odde, a South Dakota cattle producer, along with Matt Perrier, Angus seedstock producer from Kansas, and Lance Zimmerman, RaboResearch senior beef industry analyst. You won’t want to miss their thoughts on the beef industry today and in the future.

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Unlocking Odde Ranch Success: How Profitability, Tech and Education Drive Innovation

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 18:23:41 GMT

“We collectively have three objectives in our ranching business,” says South Dakota cattle producer Ken Odde. “No. 1 is to build a profitable business. The second objective is evaluating new technologies and incorporating new technologies when we deem those appropriate. And our last objective is educating young people.”

A DVM, Odde had a distinguished career in education and animal health before retiring to his ranch near Pollock in 2022.

With the goal of building a profitable commercial cow herd and ranch, Odde and his wife, Arlene, purchased land four miles from his homeplace in 1996. Since then, the ranch has grown and now includes 700 acres of owned land and 3,500 acres of leased land. Their commercial cow herd has grown from 150 cows in 2007 to approximately 500 cows today.

Retired Kansas State University Animal Sciences and Industry Department Head Ken Odde values continuous learning and applying scientific principles to ranch management.

(Provided by Odde Ranch)

Odde credits his son, John, for playing the crucial role in managing the day-to-day operation. After John graduated from South Dakota State in 2008, he assumed the daily responsibilities of the ranch while also assisting his uncle and starting a seed corn business as the family added land and increased cow numbers.

As commercial cow-calf producers, the Odde family focuses on heterosis and believes in its correlation to fertility and longevity.

The Odde cow herd is Angus-based using Simmental and SimAngus bulls.

John says his goal is to produce the best cattle they can with the options available. These philosophies have led father and son to seek continuous improvement in their herd.

To improve the cow herd, they use available tools such as expected progeny differences (EPDs) and indexes to make genetic improvement.

“We’re very interested in genetics and its contribution to our herd profitability,” Odde says. “We are very much influenced by and appreciative of data.”

Since day one, the Odde family has been committed to using innovative cattle management strategies such as artificial insemination and exploring genetic improvement through available tools.

(Provided by Odde Ranch)

Using Technology to Build a Profitable Cow Herd

Odde’s experience in research and his willingness to try new technologies have been key to the ranch’s implementation of innovative strategies.

Realizing steer calves are worth more in the marketplace, Odde and John started using sexed semen to increase the steer calf percentage.

“When we first started using sexed semen, we were putting female semen into our heifers and 2-year-olds, and we were putting male semen into our mature cows,” Odde explains. “We decided that we would shift, and the last two years, we’ve been putting male semen into our heifers, because we get a little better fertility with our heifers.”

With the goal of producing approximately 65% male calves, the Oddes have been working with ST Genetics to improve fertility rates and optimize insemination techniques.

“We haven’t quite got there yet, but we’re moving in that direction,” he says. “The fertility with sexed semen is still somewhat less than it is with conventional semen, maybe in the neighborhood of 5% to 7% — though it’s been getting better.”

With heifers, they average 58% to 59% conception rate using artificial insemination (AI) and about 50% to 51% on cows using timed-AI breeding.

Another the Odde family is also looking into GPS ear tags.

“We will be doing a sizable project with 701X ,” Odde says. “They have a GPS tag we will be using on all of our replacement heifers.”

He explains they have two objectives with the project. The first is evaluating the tag’s potential as a tool for heat detection. Then, next spring when those heifers are calving, they will be evaluating the tag for its potential to detect the onset of calving.

“Right now, those technologies are probably too costly for the average producer,” he admits. “But technology gets cheaper over time, and I would anticipate there will be a point in time where GPS tags in cattle, especially in large range environments, will be very common.”

John is excited about the opportunity to use his iPhone to check cattle that are 30 miles away and tell if they are in or outside the pasture without having to make a trip.

“We don’t want to be too optimistic, because these technologies have to work in cattle environments, and cattle environments are varied,” Odde summarizes.

The Odde family has hosted 42 interns since launching an internship program in 2014. Interns gain practical, hands-on experience with a comprehensive exposure to a commercial cow-calf ranch. The interns are exposed to all facets of beef production and ranch management.

(Provided by Odde Ranch)

Developing the Next Generation

Spending much of his career in education and understanding the importance of hands-on learning, Odde started an internship program for the ranch in 2014.

Through the years, the Odde family has hosted 42 interns. Interns typically spend two to four months on the ranch, with spring semester and summer intern options.

The goals of the internship program include: 1) provide practical agricultural experience with a comprehensive exposure to a commercial cow-calf operation; 2) expose students to ranch operations; 3) teach ranch-specific skills and technologies; 4) offer mentorship and professional development; and 5) help the interns learn about genetic selection, technologies and ranch management.

“It’s not just good for them; it’s good for all of us,” Odde explains. “It’s a life-changing experience for most of the students.”

John agrees, adding, “They learn a ton, and I’ve learned a ton. I’ve learned how to manage people and how to deal with different situations.”

Most interns have been pre-vet students with limited livestock experience. Odde says he takes pride in how the program helps develop young people into capable livestock producers.

In fact, one intern even returned to the ranch to work as a full-time employee. Haylee Leingang was an intern three years ago.

“An opportunity to get your feet wet is very important,” Leingang says about the internship. “It gave me the experience required as a prerequisite for other jobs.”

All About Family

John and his wife, Jaimie, and their three children recently moved to the ranch property. John says he appreciates having his family on the ranch and being able to involve them in ranch work and spend more time together.

Grandpa Ken and Grandma Arlene are excited to watch the next generation of Oddes on the ranch, learning about beef production and feeding the world.

Looking to the future, John says his primary goal is simply maintaining the ranch’s success. He recognizes technology and industry shifts might dramatically alter agriculture. His philosophy centers on remaining adaptable, staying informed about new technologies and avoiding falling into the habit of how things have always been done.

The Odde family’s traditional agricultural values with forward-thinking management strategies demonstrate how cow herds and the next generation can evolve.

Your Next Read: Four Key Takeaways from the CattleFax Cow-Calf Survey

Vence: Innovative Grazing Solutions Post-Wildfire

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 14:31:34 GMT

Like many ranchers in the West, the Thompson family manages cattle on large Bureau of Land Management (BLM) allotments of public land. Located in southwest Idaho, they experienced two wildfires within 10 days of each other in the summer of 2024, which burned approximately half of the fields used for winter grazing. Jessie Jarvis and her husband, Justin, ranch with her folks, Allen and Kim Thompson. Jessie worked with their local field office to utilize Vence virtual fencing to allow grazing on part of their allotment.

“Because we have BLM permits, putting a traditional five-wire fence wasn’t an option and due to the landscape, temporary fencing doesn’t make sense,” Jarvis says. “We were left with trying to find another place to run cows or feed them hay and supplement through winter. The cost of feeding the amount of cows we collared would have been about $26,000, so it’s far more financially friendly for us to use Vence than it is than any of our other options.”

This technology also allowed Jarvis to keep the cows in locations they were already familiar with.

“Virtual fencing allowed us to run our cattle in two fields they already know and do really well, which was a lot easier than putting them in a completely different field,” Jarvis says.

When it comes to fires on public lands, the BLM has two weeks from the date of containment to put together a fire recovery plan.

“The BLM office was under the clock to make decisions about the recovery and whether it will be seeded or it won’t be seeded, if it can be used, and how all that works,” Jarvis says. “We had less than two weeks to make our decision and how we were going to operate.”

The family worked with their local field office in Twin Falls, and the Shoshone office to borrow a base station, which had been used for a previous virtual fencing project. They purchased the collars and batteries themselves.

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Installing batteries and preparing collars to use for virtual fencing.

Jessie Jarvis

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Easy-to-install collars are adjustable to fit each cow.

Jessie Jarvis

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The Jarvis family uses virtual fencing collars and a base station on their BLM allotment to keep cows off area burned in wildfire.

Jessie Jarvis

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The base station would be moved three times within the allotment to communicate based on where the cows were located.

Jessie Jarvis

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Computer software shows where the virtual fencelines were and the movement of cattle throughout the boundaries.

Jessie Jarvis

Jarvis admits the first two weeks were a big learning curve as they had to work with Vence to determine where the base station would be located in relationship to the cows.

“We are moving the cows three different times, so there will be three different base station locations and they had to be predetermined so we knew we had the right amount of coverage for grazing that area,” Jarvis says.

All this took place during the fall and one of the busiest times when the family was gathering, weaning, processing different sets of calves, and preg testing. While learning new technology on top of all the fall work was a little overwhelming, Jarvis explains it was completely worth the extra effort.

“I think for us and other ranchers in our situation, being able to use this tool and continue grazing after a fire has such a positive impact,” Jarvis says. “I look around at all the fires that happened last summer, and I know how many people have had to liquidate their herds or completely sell out, and that breaks my heart. It takes so much time, energy and effort into building the genetics that are in your cow herd, and to have to completely get rid of that, that is life changing for all of us. We probably would have been faced with some of those very same difficult decisions had we not had this technology available to use.”

Vence Success Manager, CK Wisniewski, joined the Jarvis’ to help collar cattle and set up the system. She says every ranch has different goals for using virtual fencing.

“Some ranchers are wanting to track their cows more easily even within interior fencing,” she says. “Barbed wire fence is not fun to build, especially if you’re in very tough terrain. Sometimes that fencing cost can be $15,000-$50,000 a mile. When you have all those wildfires that are happening and it’s eight miles of fence, rebuilding is too labor and cost prohibitive. There are lots of different types of stakeholders who are always wanting to get engaged with our Vence system.”

Gary Tiller, director or commercial operations with Vence, which is a U.S.-based company owned by Merck Animal Health, says Vence focuses on three pillars — profitability, sustainability and legacy.

“Your first consideration is going to be, ‘how do I intend to make money using this technology?’” Tiller says. “That could be improved stocking density, saving on replacement or maintenance costs for fencing or replacing the cost of an employee to move fence.”

Tiller also notes what’s unique about virtual fencing is the ability to utilize ancillary benefits, which provide support to the main purpose of the operation.

“Ranching properties can also utilize wildlife habitat,” Tiller says. “For example, if fishing is an income stream to the ranch and protecting your stream sides is something that will make you more money in the end, you can exclude those cattle from going into the water and eroding the bank, which can improve your fishing population. That’s an ancillary profit center.”

Tiller points out, the second pillar — sustainability — can have multiple definitions.

“As a ranching community, we recognize wildfires aren’t going away,” he says. “When you look at the western states with a majority of ranchers relying on public lands grazing, if you don’t have fencing or funding to rebuild fences and you can’t keep cattle contained and manage the landscape, will we even have access to that land?

“It’s not only sustainability of the resource, but also of our industry,” Tiller adds. “We can’t lose 50% of our rangelands and still have 28-29 million cows needing to graze.”

Legacy is the third pillar that virtual fencing provides.

“Most everybody on the ranch has a dream of passing it down to the next generation and the only way we’re going to have the right to operate is by being really good stewards and making sure that the public understands how we are taking care of the land,” Tiller says. “I think most ranchers in general, prefer to pass on land at a better state than they inherit.”

Vence was designed for big remote areas to incorporate LoRa (long-range communication) through a system of base stations and collars that work autonomously once the directions are set. They utilize a high-density lithium battery mill spec battery designed to operate in the worse conditions, from hot and humid in Florida to below freezing in Montana.

“We designed a robust system around cattle and rugged conditions and landscapes with very minimal communications that we can magnify,” Tiller says.

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 .

(FJ/UA)

Water Management System Increases Efficiency

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:20:30 GMT

Rancher Mike Turner manages multiple ranches in the Texas Panhandle, about 45 miles north of Amarillo. The water sources on his ranches are spread out, with the farthest a 32-mile round trip from the headquarters.

Last fall, Turner installed Ranchbot ’s Trough Direct monitors at the far-off ranch to beta test. The system has allowed him to reduce trips to the property from every day to a couple times per week.

Turner says the system was easy to install with a side or top mount to accommodate a variety of trough types.

“Despite the cattle having direct access to the Ranchbot units, I have been pleased with how well the system has held up,” Turner says.

In south Texas, Suzanne Schuchart manages a 5,200-acre cow-calf operation where rainfall is irregular and unreliable. To ensure adequate water, the ranch has 30 pastures, each with a water source, such as a pond or tank, and most are connected by water pipes to supplement with well water as needed.

Like Turner, Schuchart was asked to beta test the Trough Direct system and host a grazing management tour during this year’s CattleCon. The system includes a water level monitor, rain gauge and camera on the main water system, as well as trough monitors and pasture direct monitors in other areas.

Running V Ranch in Jourdanton, Texas, uses a water monitoring system, which alleviates the time and distance it takes to check pastures.

(Ranchbot/Suzanne Schuchart)

“It’s very convenient,” she says about the system. “The app is easy to use, and I like that it’s real-time reporting. When my husband used to ask, ‘Did you check the cistern level when you went down there?’ I used to have to go back and check and climb up on this ladder to make sure the float was not messed up. Now I can just look at the app and tell what level it is.”

Schuchart says she appreciates the monitors are easy to install and can be moved between pastures as cattle are rotated.

“The [Ranchbot system] alleviates a lot of worry about water because the minute you walk away, something can go wrong,” she adds.

Read more: Reduce Water Worry

Nofence: Maximize Multi-Species Grazing and Small Paddock Advantage

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 19:34:00 GMT

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.”

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Rancher Mark Mueller uses virtual fencing to cut down on labor to fix physical fences.

Nofence

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Nofence

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Nofence

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.”

(FJ/UA)

Halter: Solar Charged Collars Aid Rancher Response to Summer Challenges

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 19:52:21 GMT

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.

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