Experimenting with Nofence grazing
About three years ago we became aware of Nofence grazing. Nofence technology enables you set a virtual fence line. The grazing animal, in our case cows, wears 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 the idea 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.
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 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 connecting to the Nofence. This testing went well and we decided to take the plunge.
Last week we fitted the cows with their collars and then set a training virtual fence whilst still keeping them within an actual fence. This will let the cows get used to the new system and learn to respond to the audio cues given by the collars. We are able to see , via the Nofence app, how many times the collars are set off. The cows are definitely learning fast, even one of the younger ones who on day two earned the new nickname, 'Naughty George', is showing considerably less collar action.
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 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 abilty to track to cows to reduce the amount of actual welfare check we do. For example knowing where the cows are doesn't tell you if the water bowser is work properly or not.
We won't be using a Nofence collars on Yorkie our bull. We have never grazed Yorkie on open land that the public have access to and this won't change.
Both the cows and us are still very much at the learning stage. If all goes according to plan, we hope to be fully up and running in a few weeks. Once this happens there will signposting to the Nofence website so that anybody can see the virtual fence line and where the cows are in real time.