Spyglass Field Day showcases long-term virtual fencing trial
A field day focused on adaptive techniques for improving pastures and animal production in a variable climate, attracted an enthusiastic group of graziers, scientists, industry representatives and government staff.
Held at the Department of Primary Industries’ (DPI) Spyglass Beef Research Facility, the event showcased a long-term virtual fencing trial aimed at improving drought resilience for North Queensland grazing enterprises.
NQ Dry Tropics partnered with the DPI to deliver the five-year Virtually Fence Free project, testing the eShepherd virtual fencing system capacity to enable rangeland graziers to effectively implement fine-scale, adaptive grazing systems in commercial-sized beef cattle herds.
NQ Dry Tropics Senior Climate Adaption Project Officer, Sarah Willis, said the trial, supported by the Australian Government’s Future Drought fund, aimed to determine whether virtual fencing-enabled cattle movements led to improved land condition and carrying capacity.
“Cattle are fitted with an eShepherd neckband, and their movements can be guided remotely by modifying digital paddock boundaries via a phone or desktop app,” Ms Willis said.
“They are trained to keep within these boundaries, so if a cow approaches a virtual fence, their neckband emits a beep.
“If it ignores this audible cue and doesn’t change course, the neckband delivers a gentle electrical pulse — far milder than an electric fence.
“Cattle generally prefer grazing in specific parts of a paddock, especially flatlands and riparian areas, while avoiding other, more challenging, terrain.
“Physically fencing off these preferred areas to allow rest and prevent degradation can be cost-prohibitive, so this trial is investigating in detail how virtual fencing can overcome preferential grazing to achieve desired outcomes for land condition, carrying capacity and ultimately, drought resilience.”
The project is taking place on treatment and control paddocks with similar land and soil characteristics. On the treatment paddocks, the eShepherd virtual fencing neckbands are used to implement adaptive grazing movements, where adjustments to grazing pressure is based on available pasture and cattle nutritional needs. Cattle in the control paddocks graze freely and are managed according to standard best practice.
Regular monitoring and comparison of all treatment and control paddocks will determine the extent to which adopting virtual fencing systems impacts grazing distributions, sensitive riparian areas, land condition and prevalence of preferred 3P (perennial, palatable and productive) species, ability of pastures to respond to rain, and cattle welfare and production.
Accelerometers fitted to the cattle provide additional data on behaviour under a variety of rangeland conditions. The trial is investigating how the cattle herd, predominantly young breeders, behave in hilly country, and the implications for live weight production.
Cattle are yarded for pregnancy diagnosis each year, and in June 2025 all 270 cows involved in the trial were pregnancy tested. First lactation cows that had successfully reared their first weaner recorded a 70 per cent pregnancy rate, well above average for this class of young cow in northern forest country.
DPI Animal Production Scientist, Jarud Muller, gave an engaging presentation on how the trial aimed to influence grazing patterns to benefit live weight production.
He said the virtual fencing system was being used to discourage cattle from only grazing on “ice-cream country” — the tastiest and most accessible pastures on flat ground.
“So cattle will chronically overgraze specific areas while leaving others to go to waste, meaning we can have overgrazing and under grazing in the same paddock,” Mr Muller said.
“So even if we get our stocking rate right, this irregular grazing means the live weight production potential of our paddocks is not being achieved.”
Mr Muller said initial concerns about how cattle would adapt to the virtual fencing system had been allayed during the early part of the trial.
“The system works well on dairy farms down south, but we wanted to know how beef cattle in northern rangelands would respond,” he said.
“So during the early part of the project back in 2023, we ran our first 50 heifers through the crush and fitted them with neckbands, ensuring they weren’t too loose or too tight.
“For the first 30 seconds after we let them out of the head bail, it was like a proper rodeo, but they settled down quickly and became calm and happy. And once they were in the trial paddock, they soon got used to the audible and physical cues — after about 24 hours they were calmly turning round when they heard the beep.”
DPI Grazing Land Management Scientist, Nicole Spiegel, said extensive monitoring aimed to quantify how virtual fencing-enabled adaptive grazing impacted pasture and land condition on different soil types.
“The trial and control paddocks reflect different combinations of land types and topographies,” Ms Spiegel said.
“So there’s a lot of diversity out there, for example, loamy alluvials, flat plains, sandy soil, creek frontage and rocky outcrops.”
Ms Spiegel said extensive land condition monitoring conducted during the early part of the trial, had provided a baseline from which future changes would be compared.
“We selected 152 sites and scored them on things like pasture condition, soil condition, and the presence of woody weeds. Each site area being assessed was in the order of 100 square metres,” she said.
“Based on the data collected and field notes, we came up with a nine-point land condition scale to provide more sensitivity around the A, B, C, D framework.
“In terms of pasture monitoring, we’re looking at the top five species contributing to yield, including 3P grasses. We’re taking pasture heights, and grass basal area as a measure of plant health.
“We’re also assessing organic ground cover and pasture quality, including the percent level of greenness, and level of species defoliation, which is really important to help us understand grazing preferences and level of utilisation according to species.”
A key outcome of the trial is to be able to share scientifically sound results and practical information with the broader grazing community. A research advisory group and producer advisory group are helping to ensure it is scientifically valid, and addresses the practical needs of rangeland grazing enterprises.
The project is also investigating long-range base station signal coverage to determine minimum running requirements that would enable graziers operating in remote areas without mobile connectivity to adopt technologies like virtual fencing.
Once complete, the wealth of information gathered will enable graziers to more confidently implement practice changes to improve land condition and pasture growth, while reducing sediment runoff.
Producer Advisory Group keeps everything practical
Red Hill grazier, Kylie Stretton, (pictured above on the left) said the Producer Advisory Group ensures the long-term trial addresses the practical side of working on the land.
“I think one of the most important things about this trial is that it’s in a rangelands situation, on a large scale, with extensive rough terrain, and different pastures,” she said.
“It works really well in southern Australia and New Zealand, but northern Australia is a whole different kettle of fish.
She said in northern Australia, fencing to split paddocks was often more difficult because of terrain and the sheer scale of the task.
“We used temporary electric fencing to support high-intensity rotational grazing at our previous property, but the terrain at Red Hill makes that difficult,” she said.
“We’re looking at virtual fencing as a possible solution. It isn’t labour intensive, apart from putting the collars on, obviously.”
Ms Stretton said the Producer Advisory Group ensured the science “matched up”.
“We have so much great science out there, but often it’s not practical,” she said.
“The producers who are in the group have been using rotational grazing, or adaptive grazing, for a decade or more, so we are bringing all our experience to the academics, and melding together to make sure everything is considered.”
She said she thought the benefits of virtual fencing would be that little, tiny, fragile patches of land could be rehabilitated.
“You can cut them out [of the paddock], give them a light graze and then exclude those patches again. You can really focus on rehabilitation. It is the next level of rotational grazing.”
Do the financials for virtual fencing stack up?
Implementing a virtual fencing system, especially in a rangeland setting with limited connectivity, is a major decision for any producer. So, how do the finances stack up?
That’s the question being investigated by DPI Agricultural Economist, Janna Sim, as part of the Virtually Fence Free long-term trial.
Presenting to attendees at the Spyglass Field Day, Ms Sim said she focused on what adopting a virtual fencing system might entail for the average producer.
While a full cost–benefit analysis of the system was yet to be completed as the project was in its early stages, Ms Sim highlighted the anticipated benefits and known costs.
Expected benefits included improved land condition and drought resilience, enhanced animal welfare through reduced mortality, and potential savings from the reduced need for physical fencing, and lower mustering and monitoring costs.
“If we improve land condition, there will likely be improved live weight gains, weaning rates, survival rates and drought resilience, all of which improve farm profitability,” Ms Sim said.
She said economic returns would depend heavily on how the system was used in the context of the overall grazing operation.
“You can put collars around cows’ necks, but the economic benefits aren’t guaranteed. It’s all in the management of the tools,” she said.
She said her analysis would compare implementation costs, including buying the neckbands, subscriptions, setting up connectivity and ongoing management, against potential savings on physical fencing, mustering and monitoring.
She said these costs would vary according to a range of factors including property size and type, existing level of connectivity, and type of collar used.
“It’s going to look quite different for every producer depending on their objectives and their circumstances,” she said.
“But we will evaluate the profitability for commercial investment to determine if it pays off, and how long that might take.
“And if it doesn’t pay off at the current prices, what would the price need to come down to, or what kind of benefits at the current price would we need to see to make it worthwhile?”
