BURNS, Ore. — Virtual fencing to manage cattle grazing on sagebrush rangelands has the potential to create fuel breaks that help fight wildfires, according to a new study from Oregon State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
Virtual fencing uses GPS-enabled collars placed on livestock. Ranchers program fence boundaries, and the collars emit an auditory cue when cattle approach the limit.
Virtual fencing uses GPS-enabled collars placed on livestock. Ranchers program fence boundaries, and the collars emit an auditory cue when cattle approach the limit. If they cross the boundary, they receive a benign shock.
“We’re seeing the challenge related to wildfires that land managers, particularly on public lands, are facing in the western U.S.,” said David Bohnert, director of OSU’s Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Burns. “They just don’t have the tools to manage those public lands in a way that is timely, particularly related to wildfire. This new study should help begin to change that.”
Sagebrush landscapes cover much of the interior West. Wildfires in these ecosystems have increased in frequency and size, with federal spending to fight them also on the rise. Researchers point to invasive annual grasses that dry out early and grow quickly, increasing fuel loads for wildfires.
Past approaches to fuel reduction have included cutting or burning shrubs and trees. More recently, agencies have begun placing fuel breaks across rangelands to help firefighters contain blazes.
The OSU–ARS study, published in Rangeland Ecology & Management, tested whether cattle grazing guided by virtual fencing could be an effective tool to create those breaks.
Study design and results
At OSU’s Northern Great Basin Experimental Range, about 35 miles west of Burns, researchers set up a 200-meter-wide by 3-kilometer-long fuel break within a 1,000-acre pasture. In June 2021, 16 cows and 23 cow/calf pairs were introduced to the area. Only cows wore GPS collars. After 30 days, the cattle were removed and researchers analyzed the data.
Key findings included:
- Cows without calves spent 98.5% of their time within the fuel break
- Cow/calf pairs spent 80.6% of their time within the fuel break (calves without collars often wandered, with mothers following)
- Cows consumed 48.5% of the grass fuels inside the fuel break
- Cows consumed only 5.5% of the grass fuels outside the fuel break
“These results add to a growing body of evidence that virtual fencing can be successfully used for a variety of livestock management applications,” said Chad Boyd, ARS research leader in Burns with a courtesy appointment at OSU.
Broader applications and next steps
Researchers are also studying how virtual fencing can:
- Keep cattle out of riparian areas to protect salmon and steelhead spawning habitat
- Use remote sensing to identify high fuel load areas and strategically deploy grazing to reduce wildfire risk
“Grazing shouldn’t be seen in absolutes,” Boyd said. “It’s one tool that can be used along with everything else. It requires knowledge of the land management objectives, and the grazing needs to be managed appropriately. Virtual fencing helps do that in a sustainable, strategic and defensible manner that helps not only the producer and land management agency but also has beneficial impacts on society.”
In addition to Bohnert and Boyd, co-authors included Juliana Ranches and Dustin Johnson of OSU’s Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences; Rory O’Connor, Jon Bates and Kirk Davies of USDA-ARS; Todd Parker of Vence Corp., a San Diego-based virtual fencing company; and Kevin Doherty of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
