Virtual fence

Need:

• Control where animals are allowed to stay and/or graze
• Monitor animals on pastures and get notification of events: i.e. animals crossing boundaries and unnormal behaviour
• Allocate new pasture without having to move physical fences

Aim:

To control whereabouts of goats and sheep without putting up physical fences

Description:

A virtual fence collar can control the whereabouts of animals. This can be needed for a number of reasons:

• Fence in animals without physical fence
• Fence animals out from an area
• Control whereabouts of animals
• Alerts on behaviour of animals
• Information about where animals graze/use of landscape
• Move to new pastures/edit existing pastures without physical fencing work
• Animals must be provided a learning phase as described by the tech provider.The boundaries of the pasture are set with a smart phone in the app belonging to the solution. The animal wears a collar with GPS and when the animal approaches the virtual boundary, it will first hear repeated sound signals (audio cues) before finally receiving an electric stimuli through the collar if it crosses the virtual fence line.The animal owner gets a message in the app on animal behavior i.e. escaped animals and electric stimuli. The frequency of reports from collar can be adjusted in the app.The boundary of the allocated pasture is a zone rather than a line. Precision depends on terrain (steep terrain gives less precision)  and coverage by satellites at any given time.The user can see in the app how much power is left in each collar. Some users report that their batteries last all summer, while others say they have to take their animals home to recharge their batteries. The collars also have a solar panel to charge battery.

How to implement:

• Buy virtual fence collars for all adult animals.
• Download app on cellphone.
• Provide suitable learning facilities according to product guidelines.
• Assign in product app the recommended fence boarders.

Expected benefits:

• Saves time of putting up fences.
• Gives access to suitable and safe grazing areas, also where physical fencing would be challenging.
• Gives insight in animals’ movements
• Gives alert when animals leave the authorised area, as well as if animals are moving less than normal

Prerequisites and/or limits:

• Need smartphone to receive alerts and location
• Need mobile coverage to get messages from system. However, the virtual fencing system on animal works without mobile coverage.
• Battery capacity depends on frequency of location reports, terrain and animal behaviour
• Precision of fence boundaries can vary
• GPS collars are only for adult animals, not for lambs

Cost to implementation:

• +/- 200 € per collar plus subscription

Subscription daily ~ 0,40 – 1 € per collar