NEWS
Figure 2 : In Cumbria , 19 cows on the RSPB reserve of Geltsdale have successfully trialled the £ 300-per-collar technology ( Photograph : Courtesy of RSPB ).
Figure 3 : Other Cumbrian landowners are reportedly keen to use the technology as hill-farmers look for more wildlife-friendly alternatives to intensive sheep-grazing ( Photograph : Courtesy of RSPB ). plays on .
Nofence has delivered collars to landowners grazing cows , sheep and goats in Norway , Spain , France , Germany , Belgium and Italy , as well as 25 customers in Britain . long a pioneer in fenceless systems , to ensure grazing animals can mix with large numbers of visitors , and it is being rolled out in several dozen locations around Britain .
The fenceless grazing system was devised by a Norwegian company , Nofence . Landowners simply draw a map on their phone app of the area they want fenced . The solar-powered GPS collars play a melody to alert the animals when they approach the invisible fence line . If they cross it , the collar administers a small electric pulse , like an electric fence . After a short training session with the collars , the cows swiftly learn to turn away when the melody
According to Synne Foss Budal , of Nofence , individual cows have caused the warning melody to begin 400 times but are smart enough never to receive a shock . The fact that cows use hearing to detect the invisible fence rather than sight means they don ’ t blunder into it in the dark , as they do with conventional electric fences .
A National Trust trial of fenceless grazing at Studland Bay , Dorset , found that the collar system delivered just 1-2 % of the electric pulses that a conventional electric fence gave to livestock .
Foss Budal said the technology helped ensure that if cows got into trouble in remote areas – falling into a ravine , for instance – farmers could rapidly locate them via the GPS collar and help them .
She said : “ I ’ ve had farmers in Norway who for the first time in 15 years have gone on holiday because they can monitor their animals on the app . We ’ re trying to increase farmers ’ welfare as well as animal welfare .”
23 Grassroots Vol 21 No 1 March 2021