In the last six months, I’ve had my biggest paradigm shift in about 20 years.
I’ve been looking at virtual fencing for a long time now at the trial work that’s been done and even completed economic analysis on behalf of one of the companies.
The technology wasn’t adequately addressing two primary concerns being stock psychology/animal behaviour and the economics/business case.
Mid last year Danny, one of the team from Halter attended the 2.5-day grazing clinic I was running in Emerald, Qld. That started me revisiting the tech and understanding more about how the Halter technology works and the very clever design features of their system.
It started to shift the way I thought; however I was still very uncertain about the economics. Then in America late last year I was fortunate enough to speak with several ranchers who were using Halter collars. Anyone using them was very much a fan. This was different to the trials I’d seen in the past where people were on the fence. Like me, people were excited about the concept, however they weren’t sold on the technology yet.
The Halter collars are a nice sleek design with excellent battery life and quite a robust tough build. US ranchers were using them on cows in Redwood National and State Parks, and were impressed with how it was working; despite losing a few collars a year where cattle were rubbing up against the timber. The losses weren’t enough to counteract the benefits they were experiencing from using Halter in that hilly, heavily timbered environment.
The other aspect that is impressed me, in addition to the design, is their fail-safe options where you can send new messages to a collar, even if a tower or technology fails. This was a concern that I’ve had with other companies operating in this space which I didn’t feel was adequately addressed.
Virtual fencing collars rely on three primary cue systems to communicate with cattle. They are audio, vibrate and electric pulse (a zap). I like how it adapts to the animal in terms of what cues are provided. Cattle that push the ‘fence’ more receive bigger cues than another one in the mob who hasn’t been testing the limits as much. It also has the ability to provide directional cues via only using left- or right-hand side cues.
Clients in Australia that are using Halter have found the cattle are learning what the cues mean within a few days. These advances have made me comfortable with the stock behaviour aspect. However, it is still vitally important to continue to handle animals and educate them to move off pressure from a person or dog, stopping at a physical gate etc.
On the back of many conversations with clients, I’ve developed a business analysis tool to help calculate the business case for using Halter. If you want to book a time with one of our team to step through this model, then call or email us at advisory@rcsaustralia.com.au.
NB. For Executive Link members, you have access to this calculator in your members’section.
What I’ve found interesting when using this with several clients is the range of reasons that make or break the business case. The collars aren’t only a substitute for a physical fence – this is an important consideration in thinking about the numbers. We need to think about what management options will be available from using Halter that weren’t possible or easy before.
Grazing management is a big component. We know from experience that shorter graze periods increase animal performance. This may create a movement in gross margin on those cattle. We also know from decades of grazing charts that smaller paddocks (higher density) will increase grass production. So, we can consider an increase in carrying capacity.
Aminya Pastoral, clients who have been putting collars on this week at Theodore are excited to be able to increase utilisation in paddocks. They aim to stop cattle from hanging on the sweet grass on the flats and getting them to graze the hills more effectively. Depending on the situation both or none of these factors may be applicable to use in the analysis.
There is the more obvious cost reduction in building some new fences. However, you’ll still need boundary fences and plenty of internal fences for young animals (can’t collar under 8 months of age), new arrivals, animals waiting to be sold, sheep, goats etc. So, if you were picturing a fully fence free farm, I’d encourage to not take that approach.
Reduced R&M is a major factor for some places. With the cost of bikes and buggies now and slow turnaround in repairs, not having to bounce across every acre in a paddock to get a clean muster saves a lot of wear and tear, and might increase lifetime on gear.
Other cost savings may come from reduction in helicopter hours, labour for mustering and checking fences, reduced stock losses (from theft or floods for example), reduced injury costs on the team. RCS advisors Andrew Dowd and Michael Gooden are both using Halter now. Andrew on trade animals and Michael on his cows. The ability to implement the RCS Grazing Principles with such flexibility has been a standout to them.
There is also the ability to effectively graze country after a fire, cutting hay or dieback. You can draft animals in the paddock based on previous weights or preg-test results if you want to split a mob. You can give some animals access to lick or supplements and not others. The potential application is limited by our imagination.
Like any tool, it isn’t going to be the right one for everyone. Planning, monitoring and managing the animals and grazing plan remain as important as ever. The need for RCS Grazing Management Principle #1 actually increases as you increase intensity.
A number of people I’ve spoken with are concerned it will replace them in the paddock and prevent them from doing stock work – the bit they love. I see that it will reduce workload, however it won’t replace you. In many cases we are confident there will be an increase in carrying capacity so there will be more cattle to educate and work with.
Stay curious.
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