Virtual fencing.

[vantage]

As this was advertised on the forum, I’m just curious as to whether anyone has experience of virtual fencing.

 

[Boso]

Send them a request for an invoice. Nofence is another Scandinavian company but doesn't cover my area.

 

[gatepost]

Neighbour is using it on some belties grazing their very rough banks/wooded scrubby bits, our cattle broke in last year, we called ours out and theirs came so far then stood and look embarrassed.

 

[sheepwise]

We are going to be doing a trial with them, will try to keep you informed how it goes. The expense is the killer, not so much the upfront cost but the yearly GPS fee. Know some with no-fence callers who hardly turn them on now because of the cost.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

The fly in the ointment is the cost of the collars. Would only work if there was a substantial grant attached to them I think.

 

[box]

Similar to Halter, which when I priced up was prohibtively expensive. May be worthwhile for overly complicated systems with multiple mobs but the numbers just didn't stack up for me.

I've heard they don't work well indoors and eventually go flat.

Also, I've just read this on their website:

Solar charging for all-season battery life​

Our small but mighty solar cell charges the battery, so you don't have to. A charger is included for periods with low light.

Does this mean you have to plug the cows in if the battery goes flat?

 

[ringi]

I don't believe the cost is yet economic if it is possible to setup cells using something like Kiwitech eletric permanent fencing system, and there is someone who can lift a wire each day. But for NT parkland and open moors they may enable mod grazing without having to split the park up with fences. Yet these are the places with poor 4g signal coverage.

But if it is intergrated with existing collars that collects data from diary cows, then the addational cost per cow may become reasonable. Maybe they will be able to replace some of the computer controled grades on grazing base robot milking setups.

 

[ringi]

Does this mean you have to plug the cows in if the battery goes flat?

No the battery can be swapped with a charged battery, the software tells you when a battery needs swapping. If the cows are a long distance from the virtual fence then the collers go into a low power mode, likewise if 4g or GPS signal is poor (eg in a woodland area) the collers uses more power.

 

[pear]

Epping Forrest use them on the longhorns, @Inky is the man to speak to

 

[Oscar]

National Trust here have bought a dozen and is letting a tenant try them out on open moorland . Even the NT bods said they were expensive [and they don't have to pay for them themselves !].
They have a plan with my farm and neighbour [ but I'm not interested] in taking down boundary fence of grass field to let cattle into around 1000acs of broadleaf ancient woodland [full of tracks and footpaths ]and use collars to stop them going on into another 2000acs of neighbours woodland/ground plus town and villages !!! Can t see anything going wrong with that idea !!!!

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

We use Nofence on some conservation grazing which is very inaccessible on a large area that belongs to a local Council. They pay for them.

We had them on Belted Galloway cows to start with, they worked OK nut because the terrain was very wooded and steep the battery life was reduced. The old Belties were lazy old things and actually didn't make a very good job of the grazing.

This year we have put them on some Sussex 15month old steers. It took about 3 weeks to get them trained to the Collars but since then it has worked very well and the steers have covered far more ground that ever the Belties did and made a far better job.

In woodland and 5ft high Bracken and Ragwort the Collars are the only way to check them.

 

[Monil AS]

Hi, I Oliver from Monil, the virtual fencing company with the banner ad at the top of the thread. As this is a forum, I won't do adverticing in treads. However, If any of you have questions, reply to this post.

 

[sheepwise]

Hi, I Oliver from Monil, the virtual fencing company with the banner ad at the top of the thread. As this is a forum, I won't do adverticing in treads. However, If any of you have questions, reply to this post.

Do you do a GPS only collar without the virtual fencing ?

 

[Monil AS]

Do you do a GPS only collar without the virtual fencing ?

Hi. Not as a standalone product. We have a handful of farmers using our collars for tracking in remote areas only

 

[Boso]

I've emailed you for an invoice earlier this week.

 

[Blue.]

@Bowland Bob uses collars .

 

[Monil AS]

I've emailed you for an invoice earlier this week.

I've sent you a PM

 

[sidjon]

Similar to Halter, which when I priced up was prohibtively expensive. May be worthwhile for overly complicated systems with multiple mobs but the numbers just didn't stack up for me.

I've heard they don't work well indoors and eventually go flat.

Also, I've just read this on their website:


Does this mean you have to plug the cows in if the battery goes flat?

How expensive are they? Have tried to make contact with them and not heard anything back

 

[box]

How expensive are they? Have tried to make contact with them and not heard anything back

It's come down a bit in the last few months, I think it's about $10 per cow per month now.

Quite a substantial upfront setup cost too for towers/repeaters etc, + ongoing network charges.

 

[Farmer Roy]