Kyle Peveto

The cattle grazing on Stacy Taylor’s ranches in Caddo and Red River parishes are herded two times a day — but not by a worker on horseback or a four-wheeler. Instead, they’re gently guided by the orange-and-black collars that emit audio cues to keep moving to greener and thicker pastures.

Virtual fencing collars like those used by Taylor aid cattle producers who follow regenerative agriculture techniques designed to maintain healthy pastures by rotating livestock regularly and allowing their grass to recover.

“We’ve been able to stockpile a lot of extra grass and get more out of the ground and grass during the drought that we’ve been in,” Taylor said in late May. “We have more grass than we probably have ever had because we’re able to move our cattle twice a day.”

While Taylor and others experiment with virtual fencing technology, LSU AgCenter researchers and Extension personnel are learning from them, evaluating the various systems to pass along advice to other interested Louisiana producers. These systems show promise for small-to-medium-sized operations, especially those interested in regenerative ranching, said Ashley Edwards, the AgCenter state livestock beef specialist.

“It’s reducing the need for interior fencing,” Edwards said. “We still need the exterior fence to keep cattle from getting out onto roads, but it allows producers to rotationally graze within a pasture, which is better for both forage and soil productivity.”

Virtual fencing collars allow cattle producers to create a grazing area by setting a boundary using GPS coordinates. As an animal wearing the collar approaches the boundary, the collar will emit a tone that encourages it to move away. If the animal ignores the audio cue, the collar will buzz and can eventually give a small shock if needed.

Taylor first experimented with virtual collars last year and bought 100 collars. He was skeptical that it would work for his Brahman-mix cattle, a spirited breed with a reputation for overreacting to loud noises. His first trial worked well, and he increased his order of collars to 500. He plans to eventually collar all 800 of the cows in his cow-calf program.

When it was time to sort females into paddocks with bulls for breeding, Taylor consulted his list of cattle genetics and paired bulls and heifers with desirable traits in virtually fenced pens. From his smartphone, he sorted 150 females in multiple paddocks to breed with separate bulls.

“What would normally have taken three cowboys to come in and do, I did in three hours sitting in my recliner,” he said.

In Franklin Parish, dairy producer Ted Miller has also found success with virtual fencing. Miller and his wife started their dairy operation in their native Pennsylvania in 2003 and moved to Louisiana in 2009. Attracted by more affordable land prices, warmer weather and the abundant irrigation water of the Mississippi River Delta, they took the opportunity to relocate and expand. They follow a New Zealand-style dairy model with seasonal milk production that relies on leaving cattle in pastures year-round to graze primarily on grass.

On 1,200 acres, the Millers milk 500 to 600 cows while raising about 600 replacement heifers and keeping 100 or so bulls for breeding. They have always practiced rotational grazing, and in Louisiana, they divided their land into 60 paddocks and regularly moved them. Their cattle caught on to virtual fencing quickly.

“It surprised me how fast they really took to it. Two to five days is how long it takes a group to learn the virtual system,” Miller said. “It’s really remarkable how quickly they pick up on that.”

Earlier this year, Miller hosted a field day at his dairy farm for LSU AgCenter Extension agents and other producers to learn more about virtual fencing. AgCenter forage agronomist Jose Pereira Neto said he was impressed by the technology and is discussing a research project to help Miller precisely estimate how much forage is available in each paddock using drones or sensors.

“Taking pictures can introduce errors and may not be very precise,” Neto said. “That’s why I would like to do a trial and see if we can improve it.”

One drawback of virtual fencing systems is the lack of cellular system signals on most cattle operations, Edwards said. Producers must invest in more costly towers to connect the collars to the cloud.

While Miller’s virtual fence system costs $70 per animal each year to lease, he has seen a reduction in labor and material costs. The collars cost a few hundred dollars to purchase, which is the route Taylor has chosen. Both producers have seen the value in the system and say it can likely pay for itself over a few years. Miller hires fewer hands to build and move temporary polywire fences and has watched his pastures grow healthier as cattle put less pressure on the land.

“We couldn’t produce that effect, even if we wanted to, even with an unlimited supply of labor with polywire,” Miller said. “So, we’re able to rotationally graze on a different level than we ever could have before.”

The electronic collars provide additional benefits to producers. Miller’s collars can monitor rumination, heat activity, rest times and grazing times.

“You have a lot of data coming at you that the collars are collecting all the time in real time,” he said.

Collars also can monitor whether cattle are mobile and send alerts when they have not moved in a few hours. This feature has saved two pregnant heifers as well as their calves, Taylor said.

“I know exactly where the heifer is. When I get to the property, I drive straight to where she’s at,” Taylor said. “I pulled two calves out of heifers that were in distress and assisted them at birth because I had the alert. I wouldn’t have had that, and it may have been several more hours before I realized I had a problem.”

Taylor, a sixth-generation cattle producer, has heard stories of his family moving cattle by horseback and then adopting motorized ways of herding animals. Virtual fencing is the next step, he said.

“You know, times have changed,” he said. “I think you have got to change with them.”

Kyle Peveto is the editor of Louisiana Agriculture.

This article appears in the summer 2026 edition of Louisiana Agriculture.   

Cattle producer Stacy Taylor is using virtual fencing collars to move his animals within pastures. Photo by Kyle Peveto

Virtual fencing collars hang from a fence at Stacy Taylor’s cattle pen near Shreveport. Photo by Kyle Peveto

Virtual fencing collars allow cattle producers to move animals using boundaries marked on a map using a smartphone app. Photo by Kyle Peveto