Virtual fencing study targets public land grazing conflicts | University of Idaho

Researchers hope the project will provide a case study demonstrating that much of the permanent interior fencing could be removed from federal grazing allotments and be effectively replaced with virtual fencing.

The first season of the planned two-year study started in mid-April and will conclude in October. The Foundation for America’s Public Lands funded the project with a $235,000 grant.

Furthermore, the ability to track livestock movements via the collars will provide the team with insights into other research questions. The researchers want to use data from their collared cattle to better understand important animal traits and to assess different management approaches.

“We’ve seen that where cattle spend the most time is not where they’re doing most of their grazing,” Ellison said. “We’re starting to learn little things like that by evaluating the data we’ve collected so far.”

The research team also includes K. Scott Jensen, an area Extension educator specializing in rangeland management and livestock grazing; Hadley Dotts, a research associate; and three graduate students — Henning Krúger and Maxine Walas, master’s students in animal science, and Abigail McClaflin, who is pursuing a master’s in water resources.

Ellison began research using virtual fencing in 2023, when she started a project on federal grazing allotments through which a wildfire had burned the previous grazing season, and in subsequent years, combined targeted grazing with collared cattle and aerial herbicide spraying to control cheatgrass. The team also used the collars to keep cattle away from critical fish habitat during the spawning season.

Ellison is also the lead on a separate, $181,000 grant from the Foundation for America’s Public Lands also involving virtual fencing. The project, scheduled to begin in March 2027, will entail grazing collared cattle in strips along roadways to establish wildfire fuel breaks.