The Benefits of Virtual Fencing

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Digital technologies are opening up new opportunities in agriculture. One that’s come of age in recent years is virtual fencing, which is like an invisible fence that a dog owner may have around their house, but for cattle. This could save a lot of money in fencing costs and time in moving rotational grazing paddocks, but will ranchers adopt it? Frank Wooten is the CEO of Vence, whose virtual fencing technology will cover close to three million acres of grazing land this year.

Wooten… “Nobody likes putting up fence. We don't find any ranchers that are like, 'man, I loved putting up that five miles of fencing and that back pasture last year, that was fabulous'. Or like 'I love it that that drift blew out three miles of fencing last winter because I get to put it back up'. So that's one pain point for them that they inherently know that they will like about the product. The other thing that people don't necessarily always think about is how much time they spend tracking down where their animals are on large-scale ranches. I mean you talk to a rancher who's got a 20,000 acre property in Colorado or an Idaho. They may spend three hours going to track down where their cattle are on any given day.”

Wooten pointed out that this provides benefits to ranchers’ lifestyles, as well as adds to the overall efficiency of their operation.