By Thomas E. Aquino and Biquan Zhao et.al
Summary with Implications
This two-year study was conducted to determine if virtual fencing (VF) could be used to manage strip grazing by comparing its performance to traditional temporary electric fencing. The second goal was to compare the effects of strip grazing to continuous grazing on animal performance and carrying capacity. In each year, growing steers were assigned to one of three grazing treatments: continuous grazing (CONT), strip grazing with poly-wire electric fence (POLY), or strip grazing using eShepherd virtual fencing collars (VF). Overall, new strips of forage were allocated every 9.5 days, and the grazing period lasted 54-59 days. Grazing treatment did not impact individual animal performance, but strip grazing increased carrying capacity by up to 24%. The VF system also kept the steers within the virtual boundaries 99.2% of the time. These results suggest VF is just as effective as poly-wire fencing for strip-grazing management and would be useful for producers who are concerned about the labor requirements of physical fencing.
Introduction
Strip grazing is a common grazing management practice where animals are allocated to a smaller portion of a paddock for a short time, then they are allocated a new area by advancing the fence without moving a back fence. Strip grazing is commonly utilized in stockpiled dormant forages and had been shown to increase carrying capacity by up to 47% when compared to continuous grazing of the same forage (2024 Nebraska Beef Report, pp.37-41). It is hypothesized that strip grazing reduces trampling loss compared to continuous grazing, therefore increasing the amount of forage that can be consumed by the cattle. While this seems beneficial, strip grazing management requires additional fencing infrastructure and labor to maintain fences and physically allocate new forage to cattle. This increased labor may deter producers from adopting strip grazing management of dormant forages. Virtual fencing (VF) technology has proven successful as a tool to manage cattle grazing across a variety of systems by creating virtual boundaries to keep cattle contained within their designated area. Currently, there are limited data exploring the use of VF to manage strip grazing and no direct comparison of VF to traditional electric fencing in terms of managing strip grazing. The goal of this research was to determine if VF can serve as a “low labor” alternative to traditional electric fencing for producers who are concerned about the labor and fencing requirements associated with strip grazing. This would allow those producers to realize the increased carrying capacity of strip grazing, without needing to build and maintain the physical barrier fences used to allocate new strips of forage. However, the economic advantage of VF relative to poly-wire will depend on operation-specific factors such as labor availability, travel time and distance to pasture, and how frequently fences must be moved.
Source : unl.edu