Precision Livestock Management on Extensive Rangelands

Precision Livestock Management on Extensive Rangelands

Graduate Student

• Kaitlyn Dozler

Research Technicians

• Madi Hein (Cabela's)

Collaborators

• Andrew Little
• Mitchell Stephenson
• J. Travis Mulliniks
• Yijie Xiong
• Montana State University
• Oregon State University

Funding Source

• USDA-ARS

Virtual fencing - the practice of manipulating grazing management remotely via GPS-linked devices on the animals - is an emerging range management strategy. Virtual fencing allows ranchers to create boundaries to either include or exclude cattle without the use of physical fences. These boundaries can be changed remotely from a smartphone or other device, and they can be changed as necessary, allowing ranchers to have greater control over grazing boundaries. At the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory (GSL), research is currently underway to learn how virtual fencing compares to traditional physical fencing and the effects it might have on cattle management and stress levels of cattle.

Virtually fencing could also be the next great tool in land managers' and ranchers' pockets when it comes to precision management and conservation. With its potential to replace physical fencing, virtual fencing could reduce the impact that physical fencing can have on many different aspects of natural resource management. Virtual fencing has the ability to help create a fenceless migration path for large mammals, eliminate perching points for birds of prey to target small prairie mammals, and even create grazing strategies to help create more habitat for grassland birds like the Greater Prairie Chicken and the Sage Grouse. Overall, virtual fencing can help greatly reduce the time and energy put into helping wildlife and cattle coexist and thrive across the Great Plains.

Our research at the Gudmundsen Sandhills Laboratory will:

1. Use game cameras to observe wildlife diversity on the ranch, determine if species prefer certain topographical areas over others, and find areas of high wildlife use to determine how virtual fencing could be used to aid in wildlife and cattle co-management.
2. Determine how songbird populations are influenced by summer ranch management, such as haying and grazing of meadows.
3. Use heart rate monitors to determine if and how virtual fencing equipment might affect stress levels in cattle.