Aussie farmers and the new ballad of the virtual drover
James Rodgers leads his herd of cattle around lush pastures at dawn, under the noon sun, and into the middle of the night.
However, since the Angus herd is herded around the pastures at all hours, he may be fast asleep in the meantime, eating breakfast at the kitchen table or doing other tasks.
He is one of thousands of farmers in Australia, New Zealand and the US who have adopted virtual fencing technology to manage their stock remotely.
“Every night I decide which cattle I’m going to move,” Mr Rodgers told a large group of curious producers at a show at his farm at Cudal in central western NSW.
“I set it to go live at 6am… I drink my coffee at 7am and I can see them all moving.”
Virtual fencing has been launched in five Australian states in recent months, and the SA government on Thursday gave agricultural company Halter the green light to operate.
States have legalized virtual fencing after lengthy consultations with tech companies, farmer groups and animal welfare experts.
So, after centuries of moving cattle on horseback, by bicycle and even by air, farmers can choose to manage their herds through an app.
The technology involves wearing smart collars that use vibrations and sounds to move cattle around the farm.
A farmer can use the app to map unfenced boundaries, direct herds to grazing areas, or move dairy cows to the milking shed.
If an animal ignores repeated soft cues, it will receive a low-energy blow to send it back to a boundary; This is a small fraction of the shock emitted by the electric fence.
By rotating herds more regularly, farmers can prevent overgrazing and improve soil health.
They can also send cattle to areas they wouldn’t normally feed, collect their weights, and closely monitor their health and welfare.
Using connection towers on the farm, the technology aims to minimize labor and increase productivity as costs soar.
Mr Rodgers and Anna Shaw put Halter collars on their cattle in February after the bulls kept entering their home garden and damaging trees.
The new practice expanded grazing areas, preserving the landscape while also making the herd calmer.
“This changes the behavior of the cattle significantly,” Mr Rodgers said.
“This makes them much quieter.
“Now we can walk over there and they’ll just stand there and look at us.”
The NSW government’s Indigenous Land Services senior official, Brett Littler, said using more pasture land could significantly increase farmers’ profitability.
The virtual fence also had the potential to protect animals from dangerous areas, including places where poisonous weeds are known to grow, and reduce damage bills in the event of floods and droughts.
“Removing this virtual fence where we can control where they go and where they don’t go… is really advantageous,” he said.
“Not having those fences, not spending dollars.”
