Across Europe, livestock graze on vast pastures, often surrounded by miles of electrical wires and occasional currents.
But what happens if that fence is gone?
The idea of virtual fencing, which replaces physical barriers with digital ones, has gained momentum globally in recent years.
In Norway, a startup called Nofence has developed a GPS-enabled collar to create digital boundaries that allow farmers to place animals exactly where they want without any wires, and allows these invisible boundaries to be changed in just seconds.
When the animal approaches the virtual boundary, the collar emits a gentle audio cue, followed by a gentle pulse if the warning is ignored. Over time, the company says the livestock will learn to recognize and respect the sounds and stay safely within their designated areas.
The solar-powered collars are controlled remotely through a mobile app, allowing farmers to define pastures and move boundaries using their mobile phones.
Nofens says this flexibility allows farmers to save significant time and effort on fence repairs, while also reducing their reliance on supplementary feed.
Lotte Valland, a researcher at Sweden’s RISE Institute who has been researching the use and impact of virtual fences since 2019, said invisible fences can also be installed in “places where it would be impossible to install a physical fence, such as wetlands, rocky areas, or… very dense vegetation.”
“Thanks to the virtual fence, we are now able to graze more land than before, and we are now able to utilize areas other than those that are said to be used for crop production for human consumption, so other types of land can be used for meat production,” Valland told EuronewsNext.
Is it safe for animals?
Norfence says its goal is to help farmers “make better business decisions.”
“In the long term, we are collecting a lot of data with our products, so we can use this data to help farmers make better decisions and further optimize how they manage their animals,” Lars Kvaalen, CFO at Nofence, told Euornews Next.
When it comes to animal welfare, Norfens says virtual fencing is a better solution for animals because the electrical pulses used are “much gentler” than electric fencing, which is “already well-established worldwide.”
Nofens said animals are typically trained using physical fences with virtual boundaries and learn to respond to audio cues within a few days.
Over time, thanks to this training program, Nofens says, 96% of livestock interface interactions are now done through audio cues, without the need for electrical pulses.
In a 2022 study, Valand examined stress levels in animals when using virtual fences.
Although there is “very limited data” on how animals respond to traditional electric fencing, a Swedish study found no evidence that virtual fencing increases cortisol levels in animals compared to physical fencing.
“The current results show no difference from traditional electric fencing, where we looked at the animals’ behavior and also looked at their stress levels, namely the stress hormone cortisol levels,” Valland said.
Still, she believes more research is needed to protect welfare standards.
“In the future, I think it will be very important to clearly define what kinds of features should be included in virtual fences to achieve a high level of animal welfare,” Valland said.
“Because it should be easy for animals to do the right behavior, and if the system is built in a certain way, it can have negative effects on the animal. For example, animals need (sufficient) time to orient on vocal cues,” she added.
Where can I use it?
Although Nofence wants to make virtual fencing the standard around the world, virtual fencing researchers believe that the technology cannot replace wires due to network reliability and battery life.
“I do not believe this system should be used as the only alternative for grazing management,” Valland said.
“For example, collars rely on batteries, GPS signals, and mobile connectivity, which can sometimes cause interruptions, especially in remote locations.”
“For some farmers, this will work very well and they will take full advantage of it. For others, it may work as a complement to the system they currently have, so one approach should not exclude another,” Varund added.
More than 7,000 farms use Nofence collars, and most of their customers are in Norway. The company says it is expanding the technology to the U.S. and Canada.
Although many European countries still ban virtual fencing, several countries have approved its use, including Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
In 2018, the Swedish Agriculture Board banned virtual fencing due to concerns about its long-term impact on animal welfare. But last week Sweden announced it would legalize virtual fencing for cattle and sheep from next year, and Denmark plans to follow suit for cattle.
“We are now going to be the first country to legalize this technology, not be the first country to do so. So I think there will be discussions between the two countries and we will discuss our thoughts on this process with Sweden.”
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.