Herd Instinct for better results

By Customer success

Collaring the herd

Nofence works because of the technology we've developed and because of natural herd instinct. Understanding how these work together explains why every adult in the herd needs a collar, and why Nofence works best with medium to larger herds.

Why every adult needs a collar

A herd's instinct is to stay together. This is what makes Nofence work, but it also means uncollared livestock can undermine the system. Livestock without collars can cross the boundary freely. When they do, the rest of the herd will try to follow, even if it means ignoring audio warnings and pulses. This puts more stress on the collared livestock, not less.

What about collaring only the dominant livestock?

This doesn't work the way you might expect. If the leaders stay within the boundary, the hierarchy shifts and new leaders emerge from the uncollared livestock. If the leaders cross the boundary to maintain dominance, the herd follows them out.

Either way, the virtual fence loses its effect.

Start small at first, but Nofence works best with medium to larger herds

Herd instinct affects how well Nofence contains your livestock. The system is designed for herds of 5 to 200+ head.

When one member crosses the boundary, its instinct is to return to the herd. In larger groups, this pull is stronger. In smaller groups, the livestock still inside may follow the escapee instead of staying put. Livestock also learn the system faster in larger groups. They learn from their own interactions with the boundary and from watching others. This shared learning is one of the reasons Nofence becomes more effective as herd size increases. For animal welfare reasons, we require a minimum of five collared adults per herd.

Calves, lambs, and kids

We don't have a collar sized for young livestock. While at foot, they'll generally stay with their mothers and don't need their own collar.

What's on the other side?

Young livestock will stray a little from their mothers. If it's more grass, many farmers see benefits from creep grazing. If it's your neighbour's garden, that's a different situation.

When do you wean?

The older they get, the further they roam. If you wean late, be prepared to collar them. In our experience, the earliest farmers typically need to collar young stock is around 6 months.

Are they ready for a collar?

Consider both physical size (especially for smaller breeds) and whether they're mentally mature enough to learn the system. Most young livestock that have followed their mothers already understand how it works.