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The eShepherd® virtual fencing system being commercialized for cattle has the potential to exclude cattle from environmentally sensitive areas. Animals are given audio cues to indicate a fence line via a neckband device. An electrical pulse is administered if the animal continues moving forward following an audio cue. A commercial trial was conducted in South Australia to assess whether virtual fencing technology could exclude 20 cattle from an area of regenerating saplings, across 44 days, using a contoured fence line. The results demonstrated that the cattle were able to rapidly learn the virtual fencing cues, responding primarily to the audio cue alone, and were excluded from the regenerating area for 99.8% of the trial period. Behavioral time budgets measured by automated devices on the leg changed across the trial duration, but in no consistent pattern. At the trial conclusion, the feed available in the protected zone was double the quantity and quality of the grazed zone. Thus, virtual fencing technology using pre-commercial prototypes was shown to protect an environmental asset within a paddock from cattle grazing in the presence of a large feed differential. |
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