Making Virtual Fence Cost Effective for Ranchers

This week on the Casual Cattle Conversations Podcast, Shaye interviews Jay and Cheyenne Smith, cattle producers on Idaho’s eastern edge near the Montana border, about adopting Vence virtual fencing and coordinating with neighboring permittees to make it cost-effective. After the 2022 Moose Fire and grazing restrictions, they partnered with the University of Idaho and worked with BLM and the Forest Service to implement virtual fencing on rugged public-land range; five permittees now use shared base stations while owning separate collars.

They discuss early hesitations about data being used against producers, onboarding lessons about placing fences to match natural cattle trails, and management gains including fewer emergency rides, more schedulable work, improved utilization control, and more efficient gathers. Virtual fencing enabled their shift from winter to fall calving by keeping cattle positioned to come home, reducing labor needs, and providing movement data useful for investigating events like wolf predation or other disturbances.

Learn more about Vence here: https://bit.ly/4kfWrCG

Catch more conversations like this one and learn more at https://www.casualcattleconversations.com/

00:00 Virtual Fence Neighbors

01:08 Meet the Smiths

01:34 Ranch and Grazing Setup

04:05 Fire Sparks Adoption

07:02 Getting Neighbors Onboard

09:32 Workload and Riding Changes

11:43 Sharing Towers and Data

14:14 Training and Fence Design