Virtual Fence
At AgNext, we are working to find sustainable solutions in many areas of animal agriculture, including grazing and rangeland management. Virtual fence has emerged as a digital alternative to physical fence lines for cattle management. Virtual fence has the potential to reduce vehicle, human, and fuel energy, which makes it an appealing feature to many producers.
What is Virtual Fence?
Virtual Fence works to replace metal or wooden fencing through a collar system on cattle. Each animal in an area is fitted with a chain link collar with a battery attached at the bottom. The neck size of each animal is taken into account and collar sizes are adjusted to best fit them.
Base stations are placed in the determined area with the cattle and they are powered by solar batteries to increase environmental sustainability. These base stations communicate by sending signals between the animals’ collars and the producer’s remote device, which may be a phone or computer.
Once the base stations and collars are up and running, a producer may can put up virtual fence lines via a remote device. These fence lines will be downloaded to the animals’ collars through communication with the nearby base stations. Animals are kept within the fence lines by their collars via stimulus transmitted through the collars when the animals approach the virtual boundary.