Don’t fence me in

A virtual fence for livestock that enables the animals to be confined without using fixed fences is being developed by the CSIRO in Australia.

At this stage in the development of what is designed to be a commercial product, the research team has developed a prototype system and successfully demonstrated its use on a herd of cattle.

CSIRO’s Dr Andrew Fisher said the system works in a similar way to a conventional electric fence for livestock, except that the fence is invisible.

‘The boundaries are drawn entirely by GPS and exist only as a line on a computer,’ Dr Fisher said. ‘There are no wires or fixed transmitters used at all. Importantly, what we’re developing, achieves the same result as a conventional fence but without the need for posts and wire.’

The cattle wear electronic collars which emit a sound to warn them when they are approaching a virtual boundary line.

Conducted strictly in line with animal welfare requirements, the virtual fencing project involves collaboration between the CSIRO Livestock Industries in Armidale and the CSIRO ICT Centre in Brisbane.