Virtual fencing offers a new alternative to fencing for Montana’s grasslands and wildlife

In 1874, Joseph Glidden, an Illinois farmer, invented barbed wire by twisting two wires together and inserting barbs between them. He received a patent from the US government, and it soon spread through the Plains like wildfire because it was cheap, easy to mass-produce, and effective at confining livestock.

For nearly 150 years, barbed wire has been detrimental to the livestock producers in the U.S., with an estimated 620,000 miles of fencing stretching across the rural West.  But in Montana, where pronghorn, elk, mule deer and sage grouse move across expansive grasslands, physical fences can also create barriers to wildlife movement.

Now, virtual fencing is offering Montana ranchers an alternative that could make grazing management more flexible while reducing the need for interior fences.

Virtual fencing uses Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled collars to keep livestock within boundaries mapped on a phone or computer. When an animal approaches a virtual boundary, its collar emits an audible warning. If the animal continues toward the boundary, the collar delivers an electrical pulse. With training, livestock learn to respond to the sound and turn away before reaching the boundary.

Instead of building and maintaining additional fence lines, ranchers can adjust virtual boundaries through an app, making it easier to change grazing plans as conditions and management goals shift.

Hunter VanDonsel, Montana state coordinator for Pheasants Forever, said interest in the technology is growing across the state.

“There is a pretty high level of interest in learning more about virtual fencing and a moderate adoption of it,” VanDonsel said. “There are technological advancements with virtual fencing. It can do more, it's more reliable, there are more cost-share opportunities, and more people that have piloted it. It’s gone from just the innovators doing it to now early adopters and a broader subset of producers really considering implementing it.”

For Montana ranchers managing large pastures, virtual fencing can make it easier to move cattle between grazing areas without the expense and labor of installing additional physical fence. That flexibility can also help producers direct livestock toward underused forage, keep cattle away from sensitive areas, or create more frequent grazing rotations.

Shaun McCabe, Montana Pheasants Forever farm bill biologist, said the technology can help producers manage areas that cattle might otherwise overlook.

“Virtual fencing is really versatile in its ability to hammer some of those weedy areas,” McCabe said. “Cows have their preferred forage that they want to go after, and if they concentrate on a certain spot area, you can put a line on the app, and you can corral them to go hit those weedy spots and get that production without all the man-hours of pushing them into one spot.”

Those changes can matter for wildlife, too. When virtual fencing makes rotational grazing easier to implement, ranchers have more flexibility to manage where and when cattle graze. That can help maintain varied vegetation and allow producers to temporarily exclude sensitive areas, including wetlands or known nesting sites.

Meghan Filbert, community and partnerships manager for precision livestock management company Nofence, said that flexibility can support habitat management. 

“We know through studies that more birds are going to thrive in heterogeneous vegetation structures, and the easiest and best way to get to that is through ruminant livestock grazing,” Filbert said. “Before settlers came to America, it was wolves dictating bison herds, so we are just mimicking that. Now the wolf is the virtual fence.”

While virtual fencing is not a replacement for every fence, particularly around property boundaries, it can provide an alternative to some interior cross-fencing.

 “I’m really hoping that someday we see lots of interior fences come down on these operations so that we can facilitate a lot more wildlife movement,” VanDonsel said.

He also said pronghorn can travel hundreds of miles in Montana, while elk, mule deer, and sage grouse also move between seasonal ranges. Physical fences can impede that movement, and wires can pose collision risks for sage grouse.

For producers interested in virtual fencing but concerned about cost, Pheasants Forever works with them to identify funding opportunities through programs such as the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) or the Montana Grasslands and Wildlife Corridors Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which includes virtual fencing among its eligible conservation practices. The organization also provides technical assistance to help producers explore options suited to their operation.

Virtual Fencing does not improve habitat on its own. Its conservation value depends on how ranchers use it to manage grazing and where physical fences can be reduced. But in a state defined by wide-open grasslands and long wildlife migration, the technology offers a new way to rethink how livestock and wildlife share the landscape.