Cattle Responses to a Type of Virtual Fence

Umstätter, Christina; Morgan-Davies, J.; Waterhouse, A.

doi:10.1016/j.rama.2014.12.004

Cited by 45 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…On each day of VF testing, the cows were moved from the home pen to the cattle yards and divided into their treatment groups based on their number identifiers. A test paddock was then randomly selected each morning by selecting a number out of a bag (1–3) to ensure all paddocks were used and to reduce the impact of spatial memory and/or avoidance associated with the EP, and to allow for the transfer of learning between locations [ 16 , 37 , 38 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Dairy Cattle Be Trained to a Virtual Fence System as Individuals or in Groups?

Colusso

Clark

Lomax

2020

Animals

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Pre-commercial virtual fence (VF) neckbands (eShepherd®, Agersens, Melbourne, Vic, Australia) can contain cows within a designated area without the need for physical fencing, through associative learning of a paired audio tone and electrical pulse. Cattle are gregarious, so there may be an impact of herd mates on the learning process. To evaluate this, a VF was set 30 m down one of three test paddocks with a feed attractant 70 m past the VF. Twenty-three Holstein-Friesian cows were all fitted with VF neckbands and trained as individuals or in groups (5–6) for four 10 min tests; then, cows were crossed over to the alternate context for two more 10 min tests. The number of cows breaking through the VF and the number of paired stimuli reduced across time (from 82% to 26% and 45% to 14%, respectively, p < 0.01). Cows trained in a group (88%) were more likely to interact with the VF in the crossover compared to those trained as individuals (36%) (p < 0.01), indicating an influence of group members on individual cow response. Individual training is impractical, therefore, future research should evaluate group training protocols ensuring all cows learn the VF to avoid any adverse impacts on animal welfare.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should Dairy Cattle Be Trained to a Virtual Fence System as Individuals or in Groups?

Colusso

Clark

Lomax

2020

Animals

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“…Virtual fences have scope for controlling grazing in livestock systems and have been reviewed by Umstatter (2011). Trials have been conducted with small groups of cattle given a variety of noxious stimuli to modify grazing behaviour (Bishop-Hurley et al, 2007) and the "Boviguard" system has been developed in United Kingdom (Umstatter, Morgan-Davies, & Waterhouse, 2015) based on GPS enabled neck collars on the cattle and induction cables buried in the pasture. The "Boviguard" system has been trialled in the Netherlands with good control of small groups of grazing animals (Hogewerf & Koene, 2018).…”

Section: Future Technologies To Improve Grazingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some challenges and opportunities for grazing dairy cows on temperate pastures

Wilkinson

Lee

Rivero

et al. 2019

Grass and Forage Science

102

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Grazing plays an important role in milk production in most regions of the world. In this review, some challenges to the grazing cow are discussed together with opportunities for future improvement. We focus on daily feed intake, efficiency of pasture utilization, output of milk per head, environmental impact of grazing and the nutritional quality to humans of milk produced from dairy cows in contrasting production systems. Challenges are discussed in the context of a trend towards increased size of individual herds and include limited and variable levels of daily herbage consumption, lower levels of milk output per cow, excessive excretion of nitrogenous compounds and requirements for minimal periods of grazing regardless of production system.A major challenge is to engage more farmers in making appropriate adjustments to their grazing management. In relation to product quality, the main challenge is to demonstrate enhanced nutritional/processing benefits of milk from grazed cows.Opportunities include more accurate diet formulations, supplementation of grazed pasture to match macro-and micronutrient supply with animal requirement and plant breeding. The application of robotics and artificial intelligence to pasture management will assist in matching daily supply to animal requirement. Wider consumer recognition of the perceived enhanced nutritional value of milk from grazed cows, together with greater appreciation of the animal health, welfare and behavioural benefits of grazing should contribute to the future sustainability of demand for milk from dairy cows on pasture. K E Y W O R D Sgrazed pasture, grazing management, herbage intake, milk production, milk quality, nitrogen use efficiency Highlights• Grazing plays a central role in the nutrition of dairy cows in many regions of the world.• Challenges to efficient management of grazed pastures include variable herbage supply and low herbage intake, which limit milk output per head.• Opportunities for improved efficiency include more accurate diet formulation, breeding superior plant cultivars to improve ruminal efficiency and enhance product nutritional quality, application of robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence to improve grazing management and pasture utilization, and wider consumer recognition of the perceived enhanced value of milk from grazed cows.TA B L E 1 Average size of dairy herd, average annual milk yield per cow and average annual output of milk per herd in New Zealand,

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“…Recent advances on virtual fencing could further improve precise grazing, enabling exclusion or permitting grazing in certain areas, and could also be useful for conservation management of specific habitats (Umstatter et al 2015).…”

Section: Sustainable Ruminant Feedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable ruminant production to help feed the planet

Pulina

Francesconi

Stefanon

et al. 2016

Italian Journal of Animal Science

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Ruminant production has been an essential part of human activities worldwide since ancient times. The expected increase in world population and per capita income, with an increase in the amount and prevalence of animal products in human diet, urbanisation, with a concentration of population in urban areas and an increase in losses in the supply chain, and the growing concern over the environmental impact of animal farming require a long-term global strategy for a more intensive and sustainable ruminant production. Therefore, solutions to increase the supply of high-quality products of ruminant origin, without harming human health, animal welfare, and environment, should consider the following interconnected issues discussed in this review: (a) effects of meat, milk and dairy products consumption on human health, focussing on the imbalance caused by their insufficient consumption, and the alleged increased incidence of certain diseases due to their consumption; (b) importance of the sustainable intensification of ruminant production systems (e.g. better feed conversion and higher production output per unit of input introduced into the farming system); (c) environmental impact of ruminant production; (d) improvement of animal performance by improving animal welfare; (e) adaptation of ruminants to climate change; (f) sustainable ruminant feeding (e.g. precision feeding techniques, optimisation of grazing systems, and use of unconventional feeds); (g) challenges posed by production intensification to animal breeding and conservation of animal biodiversity; and (h) strategies to increase ruminant production in developing countries, thus achieving food security in vast areas of the planet affected by fast growth of human population

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Cattle Responses to a Type of Virtual Fence

Cited by 45 publications

References 8 publications

Should Dairy Cattle Be Trained to a Virtual Fence System as Individuals or in Groups?

Should Dairy Cattle Be Trained to a Virtual Fence System as Individuals or in Groups?

Some challenges and opportunities for grazing dairy cows on temperate pastures

Sustainable ruminant production to help feed the planet

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