Chaulk Creek Cattle Turns Cattle Onto CRP Land Using Virtual Fences

Shalane Bright and her family at Chaulk Creek Cattle in Bridgeport, Nebraska, are using Monil Virtual Fences to graze cattle on land that has no physical fence. The system uses GPS-enabled collars and a phone app to set boundaries for the animals.

Bright said the drought left her normal pasture without grass. "We were posed with the question: Do I drylot our cows and take them somewhere else, or is there a way we can keep them here on the farm?" she said. The family chose to look at virtual fencing.

Chaulk Creek Cattle operates about 1,800 acres. Roughly 1,200 acres are enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program with pollinator habitat and trees planted in strips across the property. After the drought, the family accessed grazing on eligible CRP acres through the USDA Farm Service Agency. Bright said much of that grass had gone ungrazed for about 25 years. The Monil system let the family set boundaries and turn cattle out without building fence around the trees and pollinator strips.

Before moving the cattle to the additional acreage, the family trained them in the normal pasture, where the animals already knew the water systems. The cattle stayed there about two and a half weeks. Bright said the animals adapted to the virtual boundaries after the move.

Bright said the app makes it easy to create and adjust virtual fences and move cattle without being present for every change. The system also locates an animal that moves beyond its assigned boundary. Her teenage daughters use the app on their phones to check the cattle.

"Everybody can go check the cows, look at the cows, and if one escapes, you can find it and put her right back in," Bright said. She discussed the operation on Market Day Report.