Virtual fences could make managing grazing livestock on farms more flexible and more efficient while improving animal welfare. A new study by the University of Göttingen shows that virtual fences trigger behavior in cattle similar to that caused by conventional electric fences, in terms of how they move around the field. This finding puts commonly expressed concerns about animal welfare into perspective. The results were published in the journal Animal.
In previous research on this theme, cattle wore collars that emitted acoustic signals—and, where necessary, electrical pulses—when they approached the boundary. During the learning process, the animals associated the warning tone with the unpleasant stimulus and subsequently mostly respected the virtually defined boundary simply in response to the noise. As previous analyses of the experiment had not revealed any significant behavioral differences between animals in virtual and conventionally fenced enclosures, the researchers decided to take a closer look in their current study.
To map the distance to the fence—and identify any effect on the cattle’s behavior that might occur only in the vicinity of the virtual boundary—they used GPS to assign the movement data of the 31 cows to two different zones (peripheral zone and center of the pasture) and compared them.
The key finding was that it was not the type of fence that made the difference, but the boundary itself—regardless of whether it was visible or not. Regardless of the system used, the animals were less likely to be found at the edges of the field, moved more slowly there, and tended to use the center of the pasture. Virtual fences also led to a more even distribution of the animals across the area.
“Our findings show that it is not the type of fence that is the deciding factor, but rather the animals’ perception of the boundary of the pasture,” says lead author Dr. Natascha Grinnell at Göttingen University’s Institute of Grassland Science. “Virtual fences are respected by cattle just as reliably as conventional electric fences and are not fundamentally more problematic from an animal welfare perspective. This opens up new opportunities for farmers to manage grazing in a modern and flexible way.”
Researchers from the University of Göttingen will also present their findings at the ‘Virtual Fencing’ field day on Monday, July 6, in Alt Madlitz, Brandenburg.