Virtual Fencing at Whiskey Creek Ranch: Part 1- The Why & How

With the help of our friends Lee & Sarah over at Okanagan Ranch & Fence Supplies we fitted 100 yearling heifers with Gallagher's eShepherd virtual fencing collars this June. Sine we don't believe in gatekeeping, we will be updating the blog & instagram with our thoughts- the good, the bad and the broken hands. 

The Why. 

As an operation who loves implementing technology that saves time/labour, we have had our eyes on virtual fencing technology for some time. In fact, my friend reminded me this week of some humorous conversations 10 years ago at a grazing conference where we both said "nah, that will never work..." 

Well, here we are 10 years later. And by golly, it seems to be working. 

We posted a video on our Instagram discussing more, but here's the Cole's notes version of what we hope to accomplish: 

• increase grazing capacity of current land base by utilizing unfenced marginal areas that otherwise go unused
• improve pasture management by forcing cattle to graze areas they don't typically favor (areas that are further from water sources) 
• reduce labour costs associated with frequent paddock changes
• reduce fencing costs (materials & labour)
• provide flexibility to operation when grazing opportunities become available 
• more reliable winter corn grazing fencing 
• use the yearlings as trial to decide if investing in whole-herd collars is viable

The How. 

The process of ordering the collars through Lee and Sarah at Okanagan Ranch & Fence Supplies was pretty seamless. The first step was determining whether the area to be grazed was best suited to cellular or base-station service. At this point with Gallagher, you have to pick one or the other as they are separate units. We don't have trees or hills, so we went with the cellular option. According to Sarah & Lee you only need enough cell service to be able to send a SMS text (about 1 bar)-- we have more than that in these pastures so we haven't had any communications issues yet. 

Before the collars arrived, Okanagan Ranch & Fence Supplies sent us a series of videos and checklists to review prior to collaring the animals. Their resources were extremely thorough and answered 99% of our questions. We then had a one-on-one virtual call with Lee to ensure all technology was set up and ready for fitting day!

The Gallagher eShepherd collars being charged on a fence prior to fitting them on the yearling heifers.

You do have to turn on the collars and charge them prior to fitting them on your animals. They recommend 3-7 days, depending on the level of sunshine, as they are charged with solar power. We tied them all to our fence on Friday and left them there until we put them  on the cattle on Tuesday. All but one was charged 100%. 

When it came to actually putting the collars on, I would say the biggest challenge is just safety of the crew. We used what we had in this pasture, which was a Stampede Steel chute. But honestly, I'm not sure there would be any chute available that would be ideal and free of risk. You are essentially trying to put a necklace on a 1000+ lb animal that doesn't want it on, without pinching your fingers. My recommendation would be to let the animal settle in the chute for a moment. Go slow and steady instead of trying to get through them fast. We tried the Stampede Steel chute with and without the neck extender-- with seemed to be better. There are just lots of places for potential pinch points so work cautiously-- I don't know what else advice to give. We pinched a few fingers and had one really good hand crunch with a bull. The whole process took about 4.5 hours to collar 100 head. I think if we did it again we would be more efficient as we now know the process. We used a tight fists worth of space between the animal's head and collar. Be aware though. if the animal is resting on the brisket bar or has its head too far down or up, the fit will be off. You really need to wait for them to stand like a nice 4-H steer in the chute, which isn't always easy. 

Below is a video of Sarah interviewing Clay about the process of collaring, plus here is another about the chain size. We're two weeks in and only lost one collar so far- which was a bull. We do suspect we will have to likely bring this herd of yearlings in at some point and re-adjust the sizing since they are still rapidly growing. Stay tuned for more as we share this journey throughout the year! ​

The next blog post will be all about training the animals and using the app to manage animals and pasture. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask!

I had to include this photo to remember the summer it actually rained. When we were about 10 head away from being done, it started to torrentially downpour. And of course, that's when Sarah and I wanted to do a few more videos with Clay. Whether you are a rancher or not, you can imagine how happy my husband was with us. And in the end-- we got our videos, obviously. ;)