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The Cyber Cow Whisperer
and His Virtual Fence
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Posts and barbed wire are part of the scenery
on most ranches. But satellite technology is making it possible
to guide animals over rangeland with electronically generated
cues rather than traditional fences and cattle drives.
(K9101-8)
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Some call Dean M. Anderson Sky Rider,
but he's really a Cyber Cow Whisperer.
His colleagues call him Sky Rider because he rounds up cattle with the help of
Global Positioning System (GPS) signals coming from satellites.
But his prototype locator/controller cow collar also whispers electronic
versions of the cowboy's "gee" (go right) and "haw" (go
left) into the cow's ears. By controlling movement, the whispered commands act
as a virtual fence.
"Cows can seem ornery if they don't do what we want them to do," says
Anderson, an ARS animal scientist in Las
Cruces, New Mexico. "After all, they still have some wildness in them from
their prehistoric ancestors, aurochs." These wild oxen once roamed Earth
freely. They stood 6 feet tall and were the subject of many a cave painting,
along with wooly mammoths and bison. |
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On the 300-square-mile Jornada Experimental Range
near Las Cruces, New Mexico, technicians Rob Dunlap (left) and
John Smith round up cattle the time-honored way. High-tech equipment
may make roundups easier in the future.
(K9102-6)
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Anderson is a longtime student of
using cattle's innate behaviors to manage them in a kinder, more effective, and
gentler way. He has automated the husbandry principles of better-known
practitioners of low-stress animal management, such as Bud Williams, Burt
Smith, Temple Grandin, and Buck Brannaman, the real Horse Whisperer, played by
Robert Redford in a movie of the same name.
Anderson also teaches low-stress animal-handling concepts, such as how to
control cows by invading and retreating from their personal space.
"You can make a cow move in different directions depending on where you
stand, or by the direction, angle, and speed of your approach," he says.
"The virtual fence uses electronically generated cues instead of a person
to achieve the same effect." |
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Craig Hale (left), of Future Segue, and animal
scientist Dean Anderson examine the prototype virtual fence device
they invented. Audio cues generated from the device tell the cattle
which way to move.
(K9102-1)
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Hands-Off Cattle Drivers
Anderson oversees his "sky-riding" research from a pickup truck. He
gives the cows their marching orders with a manually operated signal
transmitter, which looks like a remote control for toy airplanes and cars.
Anderson says manual control is necessary in the research-and-development
phase, but eventually his virtual fence will be completely automatic, with all
signals coming from satellites. Ranchers will be free to have their morning
coffee while they check their computers to see their cows' movements over the
past few days and then program future meanderings.
Anderson says that the patented invention won't replace resource managers or
the cowboys who ride the range, but it will help them accomplish their goals by
working on "animal time." |
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Technician Roy Libeau (left) and Anderson place
a neck saddle containing the prototype virtual fence system on
a cow.
(K9102-7)
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"Animal time is preferable to
human clocks when managing cows and their behaviors. This reduces stress for
both the cowboys and the cows."
Traditionally, cowboys and ranchers rise before the cows and then wake the cows
up to move them to another pasture. Balky cows often stand stubbornly between
the ranchers and a second cup of coffee, not to mention the rest of their busy
schedules. If the electronic whisper is used correctly, it can lower the stress
of these cattle roundups.
Anderson explains: "It is desirable to administer the sound cues when the
animal is moving. As a foraging animal approaches a virtual fence line and
passes a programmed point, it activates sound cues to the animal's right or
left side. Software in the device mathematically determines to which side the
cues should be applied, based on the animal's angle of approach to the virtual
fence line. Since animals tend to move away from startling sounds, if we want
the animal to move left, we'd give the cues to the right side, and vice
versa." |
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The prototype virtual fence device is shown here
as a neck saddle. Future versions may be reduced to the size of
an ear tag or smaller.
(K9102-9)
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First, Get Their Attention
The initial sound cues are soft, although they can get louder if the animal
continues to move without changing direction. At another predetermined point, a
mild electrical shock—also capable of increasing in intensity, if
needed—is applied from a battery on the collar to reinforce the sound. The
shock is the same as that given off by electronic collars used to train dogs or
keep them within safe boundaries. It's designed to get the animal's attention
without inflicting physical harm. Preliminary research indicates it's seldom
necessary to use the electric shock, or even raise the decibels, once cows
learn the consequences of not responding appropriately. It takes only a few
times for them to learn the correct response.
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Cattle and sheep grazing together in a "flerd."
The animals are bonded socially, so they remain together.
(K9101-17)
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"If a cow's too stubborn to go
the way we want it to go, even after a full set of sound and shock treatments,
we leave it alone so we don't put unwarranted stress on it," Anderson
says. "Remember, we're manipulating animal behavior, and a
one-size-fits-all approach is simply not realistic."
He plans to attach heart monitors to some cows before proceeding much further,
to quantitatively document the physiological impact the cues have on the
animals.
"I don't think it stresses the animals unduly because many times I've seen
them resume grazing shortly after being startled by a signal. The only
difference is that afterward they're facing the desired direction,"
Anderson says. |
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Gary Rayson (left), an associate professor at
New Mexico State University, and Anderson use fluorometry to rapidly
determine diet composition of free-ranging herbivores.
(K9101-19)
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Livestock Can Shape Landscapes
So why move a cow at all? One reason is to provide animals with enough
high-quality forage to meet their nutritional needs.
"Improved testing technologies allow us to determine—in minutes
rather than days—exactly what the animal has been eating. This information
allows us to respond immediately in managing their needs, and the virtual fence
can rapidly guide the animals to new areas of forage." Anderson says.
Furthermore, few land managers would dispute the pivotal role animal
distribution plays in shaping landscapes. Past overgrazing certainly played a
part in desert landscapes around the world.
Anderson and his cows operate on a range station established 88 years ago in
the vast Chihuahuan Desert. In 1912, about 190,000 acres of semidesert
rangeland in southern New Mexico were withdrawn from public use to form the
Jornada Experimental Range. Sprawling between the San Andreas Mountains to the
east and the Rio Grande Valley to the west, this research ranch is one-fourth
the size of Rhode Island and is ARS' largest field station. |
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Postdoctoral research associate Mary Lucero and
animal scientist Rick Estell evaluate plant-extract data from
diets of cattle.
(K9101-20)
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Since the Jornada's beginning, animal scientists have worked to establish
principles for proper grazing management by trying various tools to distribute
cattle evenly over large pastures. Separating water troughs from salt blocks
helped lure them to different areas but has never been fully successful.
"There are few, if any, simple answers when it comes to managing
animals," Anderson says. "Fences are the only sure way to rotate
cattle grazing areas, but they're not always practical here in the arid
Southwest, where a cow may have to graze more than 640 acres to get enough
grass in a year."
Early in his research career, Anderson experimentally evaluated rotational
stocking, in which large numbers of cattle were moved through a series of
relatively small paddocks at short intervals to prevent overgrazing. This
procedure had merit; but conventional fencing costs, even electric fences or
suspension fences with widely spaced posts, made it an economically
questionable practice outside the research arena.
For the first time, virtual fencing offers a tool to improve foraging through
manipulating animal distribution and stocking density in a flexible and rapid
manner without the need for continuous human presence or ground-based wire and
posts.
"It is obvious how excluding animals from areas with poisonous plants or
sensitive landscapes—such as stream areas—could be accomplished using
this device; however, it may be less obvious how animal density can be
managed," Anderson says. Virtual fence lines do not have to enclose just
acreage; they can be programmed to surround individual animals. Group
dispersion can be managed by deciding how close together individual animals
should be during foraging or other activities.
Origin of the Concept
The idea of a virtual fence for cows came to Anderson when he was a graduate
student in the mid-1970s—long before current technology was available.
"On Highway 6, just north of Waco, Texas, my graduate adviser and I were
driving and talking when a small paddock came into view. There, with
outstretched necks, leaning against a fence that no longer stood upright, was a
menagerie of livestock, all attempting to secure that last blade of green grass
just out of reach. My professor commented: ‘That is what fences were not
designed to do,’" Anderson recalls.
"I thought, That's right. If you manage cattle correctly so they have
enough nutritious plants to eat all the time, you should be able to manage them
with a fence that's as invisible as radio waves."
Intermingled Species Graze Safely
Anderson and colleagues have used electric fences on the Jornada to protect
sheep from predators. To help eliminate the use of the costly fences, Anderson
again turned to innate animal behaviors as management tools. Cattle and sheep
won't always stay together if stocked on the same pasture. But if a bond
between the two species is formed, the sheep will consistently stay close to
the cattle in a configuration termed a "flerd."
Anderson and Clarence V. Hulet, a retired ARS animal scientist, raised lambs
with young heifers for 30 to 60 days to get them to bond to cattle. The cattle
drive off coyotes and stray dogs.
There is another benefit to intermingling cattle, sheep, and even goats: Bonded
livestock species spread themselves more evenly over the pasture during
foraging, compared to animals that have not bonded. Furthermore, sheep tend to
eat plants passed over by cattle, so more animals could potentially be raised
per acre. Anderson and colleagues found that adding two sheep per cow did not
damage the range during years with average to above average precipitation. With
virtual fencing, sheep and goats could experience the same freedom as the
instrumented cows they follow.
Who's the Boss?
"With virtual fencing," says Anderson, "I'm again trying to
capitalize on innate animal behavior. I will accomplish my management goals,
but on their schedule. It's like doing a job the way you know it should be
done, but letting your bosses feel like it was all their idea.
"For example, after a cow has been in a corral for a drink of water, with
a few subtle cues as she leaves the corral it should be possible to move her to
a new area to graze. A fundamental law of physics is that it's easier to move a
body that's already in motion than to start one moving from a dead stop,"
Anderson says.
"If you let the animals think they're winning and still accomplish your
goals, you have a win-win situation—and you don't need a ‘Berlin
Wall’ to hold them in. My career has focused on the efficient and humane
treatment of animalsÑfrom rotational grazing, to weighing animals as
they pass through gates to a water trough in a pasture without having to gather
them in a barn for manual weighing, to the virtual fence, which allows the
animal to move freely but under guidance based on sound ecological
practices." Anderson credits USDA's Natural Resources Conservation
Service, Grazing Lands Technology Institute, for providing financial support
for his research.
It's Economical, Too
For large areas of the world, conventional fencing is just not economical, yet
animal control is desperately needed to prevent improper resource use.
"Half of the cost of fencing is in the labor, which would go sky-high if
you fence high mountain pastures," says Anderson. But with virtual
fencing, "you no longer have to fence for human convenience. Virtual
fences can go wherever the ecology dictates the cow needs to go. In the past,
we've always placed fences based on accessibility—whether by vehicle,
horse, donkey, or on foot. Human convenience has always won out, not any theory
of range management. But that's not always best for the range or the cow."
Anderson believes that technological advances will eventually make the virtual
fence more affordable. "In the future it may be possible to instrument
individual animals for only a few dollars apiece," he says. "Data I
collected in 1998 suggested that conventional fencing costs from $1,200 to
$14,000 per mile for materials and installation."
But Anderson thinks cost won't be as big a barrier to adopting virtual fencing
as the ability to think differently about cattle management. Since cows follow
leaders, and bonded sheep and goats follow cows, Anderson envisions needing the
virtual fence device only on the leaders. He plans research to find out how and
if he can identify the characteristics of leaders among range animals.
"The leaders on the range may not have the same motivation to lead as the
animals that are always first to enter the milking parlor," he says.
Anderson makes it clear he isn't advocating an end to conventional fences.
"Fences that mark property boundaries or protect the health and safety of
people or livestock should not be replaced with virtual fences," he says.
"But for management of vast acreages, eliminating internal fences may be
ecologically and environmentally judicious."
"The cow won't do the job like a 9-to-5 employee, or even a 4 a.m- to-10
p.m. rancher," Anderson says, "but the cow will do the job—with
a little help from 21st century technology."—By
Don Comis,
Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research is part of Rangeland, Pasture, and Forages, an ARS National
Program (#205) described on the World Wide Web at
http://www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Dean M. Anderson is with the USDA-ARS
Southern Plains Area Range Management Research Unit, P.O. Box 30003, Las
Cruces, NM 88003-0003; phone (505) 646-5190, fax (505) 646-5889. |
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"The Cyber Cow Whisperer and His Virtual
Fence" was published in the
November 2000
issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
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