Foundations of Virtual Fencing: The Vital Role of High-Quality GIS Data

Abstract

In Arizona and other western states, ranchers and land managers rely on thousands of miles of permanent wire fencing to manage livestock on extensive rangelands(Hayter, 1939). This type of fencing has led to improved rangeland conditions in many places by aiding in the application of grazing systems. However, wire fencing can fragment landscape connectivity, pose a risk to wildlife, is a major financial investment, and provides little to no flexibility to rapidly change pasture size, manipulate grazing distribution, or avoid areas of high use or sensitive habitat within a pasture (Holechek et al., 2011; Jakes et al., 2018). As a result, there are constraints on the use of permanent fences as a tool for managing riparian health, post-fire vegetation recovery, or improving livestock distribution. While electric fencing can be used to address some of these problems (Barnes and Howell, 2013), electric fencing can be hard to implement across large pastures and requires a significant time investment to setup and move. Virtual fence (VF) technology is an emerging precision livestock management tool used to address these limitations and increase management flexibility and adaptive capacity to respond to changing.