Logistics a big part of the Virtual Fencing Trial
The Virtually Fence Free Long Term Trial being conducted by NQ Dry Tropics in conjunction with the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is also an exercise in advanced logistics.
The entire herd used in the trial — more than 300 adults plus follower calves — went through the yards at the DPI’s Spyglass Beef Research Facility near Charters Towers recently.
The team needed to:
- conduct a welfare check on every animal;
- replace existing eShepherd virtual fencing collars for an upgraded model; and
- fit ear-tag accelerometers on a select group.
The process was spread out across three days at the yards to allow time for the data collection across the different herds while handling cattle in a low-stress manner.
DPI Animal Production Scientist Jarud Muller said the response from cattle to the virtual fencing system had been encouraging.
The collars deliver an audio cue to indicate the boundaries of a virtual paddock. If cattle do not respond, they receive a mild electric pulse to reinforce their learning to respond.
“The cattle have learnt the system and respect the virtual fences on the small scale we have trialled so far,” he said.
“After this yarding, we will begin to test the virtual fencing technology on a larger scale.”
Mr Muller said while the cattle were fitted with upgraded collars, it was an ideal opportunity to begin a new facet to the trial using accelerometers to examine in detail the activity of individual animals in the paddock.
The combination of upgraded collars and accelerometers would be critical in understanding changes in grazing behaviour of cattle in a virtual fencing environment.
The first step to making use of the data from the accelerometers was to understand the information coming from the devices.
“We need to observe individual cattle and note what they are doing at any given time — perhaps grazing, drinking, resting or moving — and match those activities to the signature pattern produced by the accelerometer,” Mr Muller said.
To facilitate that learning phase, cattle with the devices were painted with identifying marks, so their activity could be matched with the corresponding accelerometer readout.
The data collected from the collars and accelerometers will help guide innovative grazing and pasture management systems, especially around farming practices that improved drought resilience in an enterprise.
“If, by using virtual fencing, we can encourage cattle to graze out further from water, and through sloping country, we can expect to see benefits for land condition and cattle production,” Mr Muller said.
He said the trial will test whether a virtual fencing enabled grazing management system will lead to a more even graze across paddocks, to ensure more of the available feed was used while allowing grazed areas to rest.
The Long Term Trial, funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, began in August 2023 and should help graziers come to grips with several areas of technology previously thought unavailable to them.
The Spyglass Beef Research Facility, like many remote cattle properties, has little to no mobile phone coverage, so installation of a connectivity network was necessary for the virtual fence collars to work.
A network of Starlink transmitters ensures the collars were in touch with the base station holding the virtual fence coordinates.
NQ Dry Tropics Grazing Field Officer Callum Olver, helping to process cattle through the yards at the Spyglass Beef Research Facility, said proving the efficacy of the Virtually Fence Free collars in a rangelands scenario made the trial relevant to graziers in every part of the country.
The Long Term Trial is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
