Virtual fencing implements GPS tracking and collar-based deterrents to allow ranchers to manage cattle without the need for physical fencing.

A recent USDA cattle behavior-based grant focused on beef production decentralization, especially among small farmers.

Just as the steam engine and mechanization revolutionized agriculture during the first and second industrial revolutions, today's digital technologies are ushering in what some call the third industrial revolution.

“It’s not a complete silver bullet, but nothing is,” says Jay Smith of the J Lazy S Angus Ranch of Carmen. He and his wife Chyenne are using virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on their Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) permits after the 130,000-acre Moose Fire scorched their USFS grazing allotment in 2022. “I think the proof’s in the pudding when I say we want to keep using it,” he says. “The cost and the work were worth it.”

Have a livestock management concern? No doubt someone is working on tech to address it.

The use of virtual fence technology using GPS collars with the ability to provide audio and electrical cues may offer an economical management tool to strategically graze areas based on specific land and livestock management objectives.

Rangeland scientists at the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center (EOARC) tested whether virtual fencing could prevent cattle from grazing recently burned areas within sagebrush steppe pastures.