No Fence Collars

Toby and Bella’s herd, May 2024

Nofence is one of the world’s first virtual fencing systems for grazing animals such as sheep, cattle, and goats. Created by Norwegian founder Oscar Hovde Berntsen, Nofence is powered by a solar-powered GPS collar that navigates around a virtual boundary, which can be managed through the Nofence app. The fencing feature just uses GPS, however, it is advised to pair it with cellular service so that you can monitor and manage the fence from the app in most areas of the pasture. Nofence has created an audio system that uses a scale to send out alerts to the animal when crossing the boundary. The audio starts at a low pitch and rises gradually; if the whole scale has been played, a mild but effective electrical pulse will be given. The animal will then recognise the audio scale as a warning and turn around to avoid the electrical pulse.

Farmers won't have to waste time looking for their animals when they stray over fence, making virtual fencing potentially the best option. By keeping the animal away from predators like wolves, bears, lynxes, and other animals, the collar increases the animal's protection. Oscar, the founder, makes sure it is highly improbable that the animals will try to break free because they quickly recognise the boundaries and steer clear of the electrical pulse.

Nofence collars can also be utilised to regenerate land. Although Nofence is working on a product specifically used for conservation, some of their clients currently utilise their products for managed grazing.

Toby & Bella’s herd wearing their Nofence collars, May 2024

Violet showing off her Nofence collar, May 2024

Working with The Northern Devon Natural Solutions Team at The Devon Wildlife Trust, Toby and Bella started their journey with Nofence collars at the end of 2023. Although the majority of the herd is housed during the wettest months of the year, a few cows (usually with calves at foot) are chosen to outwinter. These five cows were collared and trained in early December 2023. Every two to three days, the cows were relocated to new areas. These larger paddock winter systems include lots of exclusion zones—such as wet regions, recently planted trees, gateways (and other heavily used areas), and old hedgerows. The virtual boundaries worked effectively to preserve these areas and by May, everything is growing well.

It isn’t just the cows that need to learn the Nofence system. They have also succumbed to a few issues some of which are beyond our control (like poor signal). However, they have learned to be patient while waiting for the collars and the app to sync and as a result, not rush the cows to new areas as they would do if using fencing. There have been some trust issues too; occasionally the cows have been unsure to cross a previous virtual boundary if they have been shocked in that area, and although they usually would come to a call (especially in winter when they’re hungry!) they have had to ask the dog to fetch them instead.

The rest of the herd have recently had their collars fitted. After a couple of days, the cows are happy and comfortable and so the virtual training has begun again.

Once they are confident that the whole herd has learned how to respond appropriately to the aural trigger, they will be transported to a new area of land to begin a long-term process of restorative grazing. The collars will allow Toby and Bella to be extremely proactive when responding to the affect of conservation grazing on land previously under intensive management. As species begin to appear, they can either exclude the cattle from areas of interest (this may include groundnesting birds or butterfly webs) or create a boundary which encourages much tighter grazing. They will also be able to give access to natural water sources at the same time as preventing general erosion or pollution in other water courses.

Mill Barton (species-rich grassland in Hake Bottom), May 2024

Water Avens in a Hake Bottom watercourse, May 2024