Nofence has delivered collars to landowners grazing cows, sheep and goats in Norway, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium and Italy, as well as 25 customers in Britain.Īccording to Synne Foss Budal, of Nofence, individual cows have caused the warning melody to begin 400 times but are smart enough never to receive a shock. After a short training session with the collars, the cows swiftly learn to turn away when the melody plays on. If they cross it, the collar administers a small electric pulse, like an electric fence. The solar-powered GPS collars play a melody to alert the animals when they approach the invisible fenceline. Landowners simply draw a map on their phone app of the area they want fenced. The fenceless grazing system was devised by a Norwegian company, Nofence. The technology has also been used in Wanstead Park and Epping Forest, for long a pioneer in fenceless systems, to ensure grazing animals can mix with large numbers of visitors, and it is being rolled out in several dozen locations around Britain. Other Cumbrian landowners are reportedly keen to use the technology as hill-farmers look for more wildlife-friendly alternatives to intensive sheep-grazing. “Fences in the uplands can also be a problem for species such as black grouse, which die when they collide with them.” “These collars allow us to get larger animals such as cows that create a perfect variety of sward into this really difficult upland terrain, and help manage grassland and wood-edges for really picky species such as ring ouzel and black grouse,” said Wright. The cows have been fenced away from springs so they won’t pollute the watercourse, and they can even be fenced away from individual wild flowers such as orchids or ground-nesting birds if required.Įmma Wright, of the North Pennines AONB, said that since the RSPB’s successful trial at Geltsdale, other Cumbrian landowners were keen to use the technology as hill-farmers looked for more wildlife-friendly alternatives to intensive sheep-grazing. The technology has allowed us to do that in a really smart and sustainable way.” The cows have got into the coarse vegetation areas and broken it up, diversifying and improving the habitat. In Cumbria, 19 cows on the RSPB reserve of Geltsdale have successfully trialled the £300-per-collar technology as part of a North Pennines AONB Partnership project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.ĭavid Morris, of the RSPB, said: “The habitat change we’ve seen has been absolutely fantastic. We can use animals as tools to encourage biodiversity and we simply use an app to draw a line around sensitive areas where we don’t want the animals to spend any time.” “If we can restrict or move grazing animals through the landscape without fences or wolves, it’s just bloody brilliant. “This is a gamechanger for us,” said Charlie Burrell, of the rewilded Knepp estate, which is keen to embrace the technology. In Cumbria, 19 cows on the RSPB reserve of Geltsdale have successfully trialled the £300-per-collar technology.
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