Innovations in land management: virtual fencing and multi-species grazing

[Note: In 2023, Megan Torgerson from Reframing Rural, a podcast with a mission to share stories of people and places in rural America in an effort to celebrate culture, preserve history and cultivate curiosity and conversation across geographic, class and cultural divides, had the opportunity to attend WWF’s inaugural Sustainable Ranching Initiative gathering. What follows is Megan’s account of her experience at the event, and what participants can expect at this year’s gathering, which will take place on Sept 10-11, 2024 in Spearfish, South Dakota. This is the final post in four-part series. You can read the previous posts here: Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3.]

A difficulty producers face today is the rising price of land. With inflated land prices now reflecting the value of land’s recreational rather than agricultural potential, absentee landownership is on the rise making it harder for ranchers, young and old, to purchase pastureland and hay ground. This makes it more challenging for new producers to get into the business and for senior ranchers to pass down their operations (Reframing Rural). One way ranchers are adapting to this challenge is through the recent innovation of virtual fencing.

Virtual fencing, explained panelist Tyrel Obrecht, has enabled his family’s multigenerational ranch to run a greater number of cattle more efficiently on the land they have. The new technology uses collars worn by livestock that is fit with GPS that communicates with reception towers to outline a virtual fence set by a rancher. When a cow reaches the permitter of the virtual fence, the collar emits a series of loud beeps, followed by a benign shock if that cow proceeds past the boundary. Olbrecht, who runs the Louie Petrie Ranch near the Saskatchewan border in North Central Montana, said that virtual fencing has not only proved useful for increasing livestock density in pastures, but it has been a good resource for rotating cattle. He is now able to run 60 more heifers on his ranch without negotiating another lease. This enables him to better utilize the existing grasslands he stewards.

Holly Stoltz, who ranches near Pompeys Pillar, Montana, northeast of Billings, echoed the benefits of virtual fencing. It has fostered better pasture utilization by enabling them to direct cattle to the tops of hills where they normally wouldn’t go on their own. Stoltz also acknowledged shortcomings of the new technology, sharing that it was a challenge at first to determine how to attach the collars onto young cattle so that they had room to grow. Olbrecht added that battery life on the collars could be improved, but both agreed that the long-term potential of the emerging technology outweighed its flaws.

Dave Ollila, former South Dakota State University Extension sheep specialist and rancher near Newell, South Dakota, discussed his experience using collars on sheep for targeted grazing. Ollila, a proponent of integrated cattle and sheep grazing, creates virtual fences to direct his sheep toward patches of sweet clove and other weeds that cattle won’t eat. Targeted grazing enables ranchers to train animals to eat undesirable plants so they can refrain from apply pesticides on the land. Ollila concluded that with a growing population, ranchers play an essential role in producing food and restoring vitality to the land.

For the SRI Gathering Ollila also participated in a panel dedicated to multi-species grazing.

"The diversity in livestock is every bit as important as the diversity in the plant community,” Ollila told USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) earlier this year. Ollila ranches on the same land as his grandparents who also raised cattle and sheep Western South Dakota in the 1930s. Integrating multiple species is a way of mimicking the multitude of antelope, deer and bison that freely roamed the prairie before the arrival of settlers. It is also a tool for profitability.

“Sheep and cattle provide different revenue streams,” Ollila told NRCS, acknowledging that sheep have the added benefit of producing both textile and meat products.

Ollila runs his cattle and sheep together while the panelists he was joined by, Dusty Emond from Malta, Montana and Bryan Phipps from Brusett, MT, run their cattle and sheep herds separately. While they all utilize electric fencing options for their herds, Ollila is the only one testing virtual fencing and collars with his sheep. The panelists advice to ranchers in the room curious about diversifying their livestock, was to reach out to neighboring ranchers who have managed their rangelands with multiple species.

Looking ahead: planning for RSVP’s future and Temple Grandin ranching to heal the planet

Near the close of the SRI Gathering, the audience broke into groups to discuss how the Ranch Systems Viability Planning program could further support ranchers. Participants documented ideas on poster boards around the room where they listed the priorities of increased baseline ecological monitoring, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, technical assistance and cost-share programming. Ranchers also shared takeaways to “move at the speed of trust,” and “you can’t change what you don’t measure.” One attendee wrote that RSVP could provide matching funds to ranchers who don’t own land to help them access grazing leases or bring an enterprise onto an existing operation.

The gathering in Billings concluded with a keynote speech by distinguished professor of animal science at Colorado State University, National Woman’s Hall of Fame inductee, New York Times Best Selling author and autism advocate, Dr. Temple Grandin.

Dr. Grandin’s latest book, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions, posits the need for institutions to welcome the unique talents of visual thinkers. “Visual thinkers tend to be good at arithmetic that is directly related to practical tasks, such as building and putting things together. Visual thinkers like me easily grasp how mechanical devices work or enjoy figuring them out. We tend to be problem solvers, and sometimes appear to be socially awkward,” wrote Dr. Grandin in her book’s intro.

Dr. Grandin recognized that there were likely many visual thinkers in the room as ranchers need to visually identify the needs of their cattle and make calculated decisions about ecological systems. She argued the need to respect visual thinkers and steward their talents from an early age, calling for a reboot to the education system. She said American culture sticks its nose up at vocational industries when as a society we should be teaching people from a young age how to fix and build things.

Grandin, who is also celebrated trailblazer in low-stress livestock handling, a practice that prioritizes animal welfare and rejects the use of force, named in her keynote the critical role of ranchers in stewarding a healthy planet.

“Grazing is part of the solution to healing the land,” celebrated Grandin. To do so, she said the next generation should be more like ranchers, and learn to work with their hands.