Virtual fencing technology for cows is currently being trialled at the Victorian government’s Gippsland smart farm, with the help of New Zealand-based company Halter. Farm manager Troy Ainslie outlines how this tech is already making a difference at one Tasmanian dairy
Virtual fencing technology is one step closer for Victorian farmers, after the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) announced that Agriculture Victoria would be trialling the technology at its Ellinbank SmartFarm, in Gippsland.
These types of technologies are already seeing great benefits in international markets and around Australia, including in Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
New Zealand-based company Halter will provide its virtual fencing technology, which is already being used on more than 200,000 animals and on hundreds of farms, for use as part of the Victorian trials.
Smart collar
Halter’s technology combines virtual fencing with animal guidance technologies, through a smart collar worn by cows.
Cows are trained to follow guidance cues from the collar, encouraging them to stay within virtual fences that are set on a farmer’s mobile app.
Using the app, cows can be virtually herded to a new location such a fresh pasture or to the milking shed – reducing the need for physical fences, motorbikes and dogs to move the animals.
The smart collar works by guiding cows with two primary cues – sound and vibration. The sound cues give the cows directional guidance if they cross a virtual boundary, while the vibration cues encourage them to walk in the correct direction.
If these two primary cues are ignored, a ‘low-energy electric pulse’ cue is used to reinforce the primary cues and encourage the cow back within the virtual boundary. Halter says this pulse is significantly weaker in energy than the shock produced from an electric fence.
“The energy of this pulse is set to the lowest level that will stop a cow from ignoring the primary cues,” the company says.
“If it is set any lower, they will ignore it.”
Once the cows are trained, Halter says the pulse is used far less frequently, because cows quickly learn to follow the primary cues.
“Cows are intelligent, they learn and adapt quickly to our system,” Halter says.
“Once they associate the sound cue with crossing a virtual boundary, they quickly learn to correct their direction and avoid a pulse.”
According to the New Zealand-based company, cows wearing the smart collar are only exposed to the sound and vibration primary cues for 0.1 per cent of the day – equivalent to 96 seconds. This means that for over 99 per cent of a day, cows are undisturbed and receive no cues.
One farming operation that is reaping the benefits of Halter’s technology is Tasmanian-based Woodrising Dairies.
Woodrising Dairies
Owned by Compass Tas Dairy Operations, which has six dairy farms across Tasmania, Woodrising Dairies is located in Cressy, a small town south-west of Launceston.
Farming across 155 hectares (383 acres), farm manager Troy Ainslie has been using the virtual farming technology for over 12 months. Since implementing it, he says it has increased safety for his team members when getting in the paddock – which often contain more than 500 cows.
“Safety is a big focus for us,” Ainslie says.
“With Halter’s technology, we no longer need our team members to go in the paddock when it’s dark and try and move the cows into the dairy.”
Instead, cows are brought into the dairy each day at 5am, using the cues from the smart collar, which helps guide the animals to the dairy. This is all controlled from the Halter mobile app and eliminates the need for team members to use motorbikes or dogs.
“It’s usually freezing and really dark at that time of the morning, so the smart collar saves us the time of physically getting into the paddock,” Ainslie says.
Grazing management has also become easier for Ainslie, as Woodrising team members have more control and no longer need to do the manual work required of strip, block and cell grazing.
The Woodrising farm manager can also monitor his cows’ health as a result of the technology, because alerts go off on the mobile app to monitor the animals’ reproductive status, location and health.
For example, Woodrising uses Halter’s smart collar to monitor cows during the mating season.
“Instead of having to visually pick cows for artificial breeding, the smart collar flashes at us to show the collar’s machine learning has detected behaviour that indicates heat detection,” Ainslie says.
This feature can help identify which cows need to be shifted out of a paddock or moved to a shed.
Halter’s technology has also reduced the need for tedious jobs, such as sitting on a motorbike behind the cows and trying to move them.
“Everything is controlled on the Halter app, so we can move the cows around, set virtual boundary fences, change herds and change what mob the cows are in – all remotely,” Ainslie says.
Praising the virtual fencing technology, the Woodrising Dairies farm manager emphasises that it has given him a lot more control over day to day operations at the property.
Usually, a team member would walk around the property once a week to check on pasture levels, but now with the Halter pasture satellite recordings, there is no longer a need for this.
Another example of time being put to better use is Woodrising remotely moving cows into a block and then checking in after a couple hours to see how well they’ve grazed.
“We can then decide if we want to move the cows to extend that block, or move them out of the area,” Ainslie says.
“Halter’s smart collar virtual fencing technology has given us more control with much less work required.”