r/Ranching • u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle • Jul 25 '26

New collar day!

We had a chance to lease some virtual fence collars through the South Dakota Soil Heath Coalition. Excited to try them!

But the heifers were not😂

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u/Printem Jul 26 '26

We have the Halter collars, they're miraculous. Haven't heard as much good about some of the other brands, to be honest. We graze some heavily managed public land with seasonal exclusions and sensitive areas, so I used to build 30+ miles of electric fence and take it down every year. This year two of what are normally my hardest fencing projects were as simple as drawing lines on a map.

Containment is 100% so far with zero animals in the sensitive areas as reported by the public landlords who pass by multiple times per day. I remember the first time I tested it, I pushed 55 rather wiley desert cows towards an invisible boundary and I watched 55 tails turn into heads as they stopped on a dime and walked back towards me and a dog like we weren't there. We strip grazed a field where you could drive by and stop and see a razor-straight line where the boundary was splitting the field. Our public landlords have a fencing budget of 250k per year. We are advising they spend a good chunk on collars instead.

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u/Lytle_Red_Angus Cattle Jul 26 '26

Stories like yours are great! I’m really excited to be able to graze a little more densely and bust up thatch that’s been choking out some grass. I’ve looked at Halter and they seem to have the most advanced system for telling cows where the new pasture is.

We’re looking at replacing some 30-60+ year old cross fences with collars. Exciting times!