Experimenting with Nofence grazing
If you have previously read this news item, scroll down to the UPDATE to find out how it's going.
About three years ago we became aware of Nofence grazing. Nofence technology enables you set a virtual fence line. The grazing animals, in our case cows, wear a solar powered rechargeable collar. Using GPS the collar constantly tracks the location of the cows. If an animal approaches the virtual boundary, the collar plays a series of tones that increase in pitch. If the cow continues, a mild electrical pulse is delivered. The animals very quickly associate the noise with the virtual fence line and turn around before their collar pulses.
We were very intrigued by this new tec as we could see great benefits for extensive, conservation grazing. Especially in areas that are open to the public and have the added hazards of steep slopes and cliffs. If the location settings on your phone show you are on Scilly, you can view the current boundaries of the virtual field on the Nofence website.
Of course we needed to be very confident that the technology would be fit for purpose. There would be no point in even considering such a major investment if the GPS signal wasn't totally reliable, the collars didn't hold their charge or they failed in Scilly's very damp climate. Luckily, the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust took the plunge first. We followed their experience of Nofence closely and when that seemed to be going well we requested a trial collar.
What followed was a rather bizarre weekend of setting up virtual pastures in different places and tentatively walking around with a collar to make sure it was set off as expected and was connecting well to the Nofence app. This testing went well and we decided to take the plunge.
UPDATE - JUNE 26
So far so good!
The cows seem to be loving having access to a larger area and a wider diversity of grazing matter. We've been really surprised at what they will tackle. New Zealand flax and Chilean myrtle are both problematic invasive species that have taken hold in areas that previously couldn't be fenced; the cows have happily munched on them and impeded their progress.
We were also a little apprehensive about how visitors to the islands would react to the cows grazing across some of the most enjoyed and walked areas of St Martin's. As summer visitor numbers have increased we've had nothing but positive feedback about how much people enjoy seeing the cows in the landscape.
Last week, we virtually moved their fence. We did this by opening up an adjacent area for a few days and letting them get used to having access before closing off the old area. This worked very well with only the most curious - 'Naughty George' getting a buzz!
As you can probably tell, we are delighted with how it is going and the positive impact it is having for nature.
SOME ADVANTAGES OF NOFENCE
The cows can graze far more extensively as we are not limited by fence length or where we can physically fence. The larger grazing areas will give the cows a wider choice of habitat to forage through. Being able to exhibit more natural behaviour tends to increase welfare.
We will be able to enclose areas with a virtual fence that previously we couldn't practically reach. This will increase the area being grazed for conservation and in turn will improve biodiversity.
In a beautiful landscape there will be no fencing poles and orange electric fence wire visible.
WHAT WE WON'T BE DOING
We won't be using our new found ability to track the cows to reduce the amount of actual welfare checks we do. For example knowing where the cows are doesn't tell you if the water bowser is working properly or not.
We won't be using a Nofence collar on Yorkie our bull. We have never grazed Yorkie on open land that the public has access to and this won't change.