Schrodinger’s fence: How shock collars corral cows

If the fence is down, the cows are getting out. But what about when there is no fence, and they’re still fenced?

In 2022, the Colorado River Valley Field Office dealt with this conundrum when it participated in a pilot program with virtual fencing. Virtual fence are created using a base station that transmits a signal encompassing up to a 12-mile radius.

Within that radius, an area can be “fenced in” for cattle wearing shock collars. With no posts to install, no wire to run and no fence to down, this is a tool that requires virtually no physical footprint and has little physical impact. It does not require a National Environmental Policy Act review to install fencing, no dozing on the landscape to create space for fence line infrastructure, no reinstalling fence that needs to be moved or was lost to fire, and there is nothing physically there to impact the flow of wildlife.

“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Kristy Wallner, rangeland management specialist with the CRVFO. “It is a tool to help change the workload for us and the producer. But you have to work at and have the commitment to do it. You have to train the herd, and you are going to have failures, but that is not different than with real fencing too.”

Now, the virtual fencing network is being used by producers on nearly 120,000 acres throughout 16 allotments. The shock collars are GPS-enabled and intended to keep cattle within a certain virtual fence line and the goal is 100% control of herd movement, although they can fall off or malfunction. A similar issue can happen with physical fencing if it falls, meaning there is still benefit to the collars. It also has a benefit to the producer.

“If they know where cattle are with the GPS in the collars and something happens, they can find them faster so it’s more efficient,” said Wallner.

Having no physical fencing also allows grazing in areas where it was previously not feasible to install physical infrastructure. This can allow for efforts that focus on land health and restoration by using grazing to help with seeding and fuels projects. It now involves 2,000 collars on cows in partnership with the Eagle County Conservation District under 11 BLM-administered permits.

Wallner explained that when a grazing animal eats part of a plant, that plant must work harder by using its reserves and nutrients in the soil to produce more above-ground biomass that would eventually result in a seedhead. If done at a correct pace, this makes the plant stronger and the land healthier. Being bitten off too much causes the plant to overuse its resources, making it harder for it to regrow. This can lead to land health issues and make areas less resilient to drought, plus cows and wildlife eat much of the same foods. Targeted grazing can help ensure neither is competing with the other for forage.

“With virtual fencing, you can prevent cows from going out and hitting what they have already grazed,” Wallner said. “Instead, you can send herds throughout a space where you know something needs to be grazed. Meanwhile, the areas not being grazed are getting to rest. By targeting the grazing and reinvigorating vegetation, it helps them start liking a variety of foods rather than cherry picking what they like in one spot.”

By building resiliency in an allotment for drought, producers are benefiting from building soils due to less bare ground and more residual cover, soil holds water better, and forage is of better quality. This enables wildlife habitat and also improves the overall health of the herd.

“Fencelines lead to trailing of wildlife and livestock, which contributes to erosion,” Wallner said. “With this tool, we can increase fences at no extra cost, change fence boundaries more easily, and minimize the time and effort it takes to move a herd by being able to find livestock more quickly.”

The cost of virtual fencing is also exponentially different from the cost of physical infrastructure. With old fencing, partners and staff would have to go in and clear out old structure, try to recycle materials for new fencing, or try to find areas for repair in the case of fires or downfall trees. Between labor and materials, small portions of physical fence can cost just as much as one 12-mile transmitter.

“At the moment, we are developing a plan to bring five pastures to the land with three base stations, that cost about $30,000 total,” said Wallner. “If we didn’t have virtual fencing, we would need everything from the fencing to gates to cattle guards — which cost about 10 grand each — and if a gate gets left open, we lose all of the management objectives we had in place with installing physical infrastructure.”

Virtual fencing changes workload for implementation by eliminating the need for NEPA, it can be faster for the producer to benefit from, and it prevents physical infrastructure from impeding the flow of wildlife. This benefits the movement of animals and people using public lands, supporting a socioeconomic output of $8.4 million and 112 jobs for grazing and $107 million and 837 jobs in recreation.

“We are an agency with a multiple-use mission, and a lot of our lands are the gateway to the forest,” Wallner said. “It is even more important to manage forage for all of the animals moving up and down in elevation, and producing grass helps everyone win when it comes to land health. It puts weight on cows, feeds wildlife, creates habitat for birds and pollinators, and reduces growth of invasive nonnative species.”

By adjusting the timing, frequency, intensity and duration of grazing with the virtual fence tool, it can benefit all users. It still comes at a cost to operators and takes time to implement, but as a tool it can enable more efficient management of grazing without spooling out strands of wire or having a physical impact on the land.

This pilot project began as a test for how the technology could aid in land health and restoration, and evolving grazing practices are nothing new to this area. The father of the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is buried within the CRVFO in Glenwood Springs. This act is considered “one of the greatest conservation measures put into law” because of requests from Western ranchers to create apportioned and regulated grazing practices. To create more forage, it is vital to rotate pastures and help native grasses to flourish. And it all starts with grass. As Wallner puts it, in agriculture “green is gold.”