By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The Kansas state quarter, issued in 2005, prominently features a bison on its back side. The more than 40,000 high school students who voted on the design understood the importance of the animal to the state, despite millions of the animals being wiped from the Great Plains more than a century earlier.
More than just an icon of the plains and American West, the bison also served an ecological purpose. With the absence of the thundering beasts now, conservationists are turning to another bovine to serve the environment: cows.
"Out here at Cheyenne Bottoms, we use cows to manage for shorebirds and grassland birds," said Elsi Miller, Great Bend Sand Prairie assistant manager at The Nature Conservancy. "With virtual fencing, we'll be able to move the cattle kind of where we want in a way we can concentrate cows in certain spots to bring the grass down really short for the shorebirds, but also leave some parts of the grass more dense for our grassland birds."
Using cows to graze offers several benefits to the environment. The animals not only fertilize the soil as they work, but virtual fencing is also gaining steam on large ranches in the West. The Nature Conservancy has collared 190 head of cattle - cow and calf pairs - near the Bottoms. Using a computer program called Herd Manager, Miller can create virtual fence lines to guide the cows where she wants them to graze. Using GPS and satellites, those fence lines are communicated with a base station location on the TNC preserve. That station communicates with the collars on the cows.
"When the cow is approaching the virtual fence, it will get an auditory signal," Miller said. "It gives it that auditory signal for however many meters, and it then shocks them if they don't listen to the auditory signal and they keep going toward the fence."
The cows have been quick learners thus far. Vence, the company behind the technology, stresses animal health so there are safeguards to keep the cows safe, including breakaway collars should the animals get caught, and defaults to turn the collars off in certain instances. The Nature Conservancy will always keep its exterior fences up to ensure cows never enter roadways, but the goal is to remove all physical interior fencing.
"This will be very beneficial to the wildlife out here," Miller said. "It's very important to have continuity within a landscape. A lot of our different birds, they will actually fly into the fences and get caught. Deer will jump over the fence and get caught, and the fence breaks."
Less fencing is not only better for wildlife but also for those who have to check and maintain the fencing on the preserve. The Conservancy operates approximately 8,000 acres of land adjacent to the Bottoms, and the virtual fencing will cover more than 3,200 acres.
Virtual fencing is being used on various ranches and preserves around the country. There are bound to be some hiccups, but conservancy staff is hopeful for big, beneficial changes.
"This year is definitely our pilot year," said Miller. "We only have the cattle out here on the preserve for six months. In about November, we'll really see how this virtual fencing worked for us."