Virtual fencing

Economist ^

[newbie2008]

BUILDING and maintaining the fences needed to control livestock is an expensive and time-consuming business. The materials alone can cost more than $20,000 a kilometre. On top of that, there is the cost of repairing damage caused by wild animals and falling trees. And then there is the need to move some fences around, a bit at a time, so that grazing land can be used efficiently. Strange as it may seem at first blush, many ranchers would therefore like to see the back of fences—if only they could.

According to Dean Anderson, an animal scientist at America’s Department of Agriculture, and Daniela Rus, a computer expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the answer is to move from real fencing to the virtual sort. The idea of virtual fencing is not entirely new. Pet “containment” systems, such as virtual dog collars, have been around since the early 1970s. But previous attempts to come up with system for controlling free-ranging animals have failed.

[NVDave]

Yeeeeeaaaaaa.... right.

This is an invention by a guy who obviously hasn’t been around cattle much.

Cattle love to scratch. They rub their face and necks on anything that is strong enough to stand up to their attention. They’ll have this thing shredded and left by a fencepost, tree, rock, water tank, etc in no time flat.

Cattle love to rub on stuff so much that when we had cattle in to pasture off our fields, we had to fence off everything we didn’t want rubbed down by cattle - irrigation motors, irrigation fixtures, pivots, etc.

[ridesthemiles]

This guy is losing all contact with reality!!!

[ridesthemiles]

I am furious that taxpayer money supports these 2 crazies.

[RedMonqey]

You got that right. And those little virtual dog collars don’t work either not large breed dogs or dogs that run around a lot.

Farmers I know can mend a barb wire fence, they ain't so good at mini circuit board electronics