In the last few years, buzzwords like “precision livestock management” have been thrown around quite a bit. Although the official name of “precision livestock farming” debuted in a European conference in 2003, usage of technology in beef production systems isn’t a new thing.

Artificial insemination (AI) began in the 1950s, growth implants became commercially available in 1957, and the use of expected progeny differences (EPDs) in bulls started in the 1970s. These three technologies adopted in commercial cow-calf systems would be considered precision livestock management tools.

Innovative technologies will continue to drive improvements in both production efficiency and sustainability in beef production systems. Digital technologies are already transforming agriculture, particularly focused on precision cropping/farming. The adoption of technology in beef production systems has been slower to evolve, but opportunities are quickly becoming available to increase production efficiency.

In the last 30 years, genetic potential of the cow herd and production costs have steadily increased. However, production outputs (pregnancy rates and weaning weights) have been stagnant or have declined. Although not a silver bullet, precision livestock management tools have the potential to address these long-term production and cost trends while potentially decreasing cost of production, increasing output traits and assisting in labor issues.

Virtual fence

In recent years, virtual fencing has emerged in the U.S. market. It has been gaining interest from livestock producers, particularly in the cow-calf sector.

Virtual fencing refers to using technology to create an invisible area that functions like a physical fence. Cattle are managed to stay within or away from the designated areas.

The first virtual fence technology was developed for research in the late 1980s, but more robust testing of different designs was conducted in the early 2000s in southern New Mexico. Virtual fencing allows ranchers to create a flexible grazing system that has the potential to reduce time, labor and physical fencing materials while enhancing grazing management and natural resource conservation opportunities.

The system’s flexibility allows for easy modifications of the virtual boundaries, inclusion zones and exclusion zones and the ability to set up a moving virtual boundary, all designed and assigned to the proper herds in minutes using a virtual interface. Currently, the virtual fence companies with products on the market in the United States include Vence, Nofence, eShepherd and Halter; with others looking to enter the U.S. market.

Advantages and challenges

In general, virtual fence technology allows producers to set and design boundaries of pastures that meet their grazing goals and needs to better utilize their forage base. Each virtual fence technology company may have different advantages or disadvantages, depending on the need and location of the ranch. Some companies are currently just a virtual fence product, while others offer the ability to predict other production attributes that add value in decision-making at the ranch such as calving events, estrous detection and rumination.

Along with opportunities with virtual fence technology, there are some challenges that may occur. Some companies rely on batteries that may last anywhere from one month to nine months. Others recharge from solar panels on each collar, which may have issues during long cloudy periods.

Accuracy in GPS location can be a limitation in high-intensity grazing or grazing smaller pastures, and some companies have large drift or inaccuracy in cow location that may serve better in a large pasture setting rather than small pastures or intensive-grazing situations. As with any technology, understand you will have failure in collars at some point.

Gaining experience

For the last year, we have been working with Halter at our Oregon State University Soap Creek Ranch. Some of the added benefits from the Halter technology are the prediction of important production variables such as health status, heat detection for AI, lights on collars to quickly identify certain cows, calving events, accurate real-time location and grazing heat maps (i.e., pasture utilization).