Episode 366 - Virtual Fencing for Dairy Cattle: Lessons from the Pasture - UMN Extension's The Moos Room

Virtual fencing is drawing plenty of questions from grazing dairy and beef producers. In this episode of The Moos Room, Brad shares what the University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center learned from using NoFence collars with heifers during the summer grazing season.

Undergraduate interns observed 27 heifers from June through August and compared their behavior with collar records of audio warnings and pulses. The heifers spent most of their observed time grazing or standing, although grazing increased as the summer progressed. Observations associated with pulses showed less grazing and more walking, while warnings and pulses varied widely among individual heifers. Brad discusses what those patterns might mean, including how heifers respond when a virtual boundary moves.

He also looks ahead to testing additional collars and virtual fencing systems with dairy cattle. Future work will examine animal behavior alongside the labor and economics of managing pasture with virtual fences.

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