Project Overview
Information Products
Commodities
- Animals: goats
Practices
- Animal Production: grazing management, rangeland/pasture management
- Crop Production: silvopasture
- Sustainable Communities: urban/rural integration
Proposal summary:
A technology is available that could expand regenerative agriculture, help mitigate climate change, and increase food system resilience. The current tools lead to financial, physical, and quality of life sacrifices that significantly limit the biomimicry potential of the most natural management and movement of livestock. A virtual fence system is a device placed on an animal that gives cues to the animal about the allowable perimeter area. These devices can mimic herd movement as natural predators would with wildlife. The device sends a signal to the network about its location and the program sends the device information in response. In its simplest application, graziers can move a herd of animals while sitting at home. The technology has been demonstrated effective in other countries, with thousands in use worldwide. What needs to be tested is our local available technology in our local environment. We will test key issues of labor, containment, and setting with devices on 30 goats, one of the most challenging species from a containment perspective. When the technology is established it replaces physical fences, reduces labor, and leads to revolutionary advances in rotational grazing, targeted grazing, silvopasture, firebreaks, and improved soil retention and water quality on non-arable land.
Project objectives from proposal:
3. Record time and labor associated with virtual fences and portable net fences.