Technology might provide the answer to an age-old Wyoming quandary — keeping cattle contained without putting too many fences in the path of migrating wildlife.
Three Sheridan-area ranches this year tried “virtual fencing” through a pilot program sponsored by the Sheridan Community Land Trust.
Cows are fitted with electronic collars that respond to signals transmitted through signal towers from the rancher’s phone.
The rancher configures an invisible, electronic perimeter through a phone app. Signals sent to the collars make them vibrate, telling the cows which direction to go.
If a cow strays too close to the virtual barrier, there can be consequences.
The collar will “transmit a sound to alert the cow of the boundary,” and then deliver an electric shock if the cow keeps pushing forward, Dan Reinke, one of the ranchers in the pilot program, told Cowboy State Daily.
He has grazing leases on the east slope of the Bighorn Mountains and tried virtual fencing with 120 cows this summer.
He said he was so pleased with the results, “I ordered myself 280 more collars” so that he can run 400 cows with virtual fencing.
In addition to streamlining his cattle operation, virtual fencing helps wildlife, he said.
“When you minimize the number of fences, it’s a benefit for wildlife” by giving deer, elk, pronghorn and other critters more freedom of movement, he said.
Game And Fish On Board
Fences can impede wildlife during long-distance migrations or when the animals are making daily treks between food and water sources and bedding areas.
Wildlife researchers say that antelope became trapped and froze or starved to death in the Wyoming’s Red Desert during the harsh winter of 2022-2023 because they were blocked by fences in some places.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and conservation organizations promote wildlife-friendly fencing that’s designed to be easier for antelope to crawl under them, or for deer and elk to jump over.
Virtual fencing could also be a huge help, according to Game and Fish.
The agency and other organizations plan to host a symposium on virtual fencing Jan. 8, 2026, at the Cam-plex Central Pavilion building in Gillette.
“While most of the discussion of this event will focus on livestock movement, virtual fence has potentially huge benefits for wildlife movement as well,” Todd Caltrider, Game and Fish terrestrial habitat biologist for the Sheridan Region, said in a statement from the agency.
“Construction and conversion of existing physical fences to wildlife-friendly standards has been a focus of wildlife conservation work in recent years and will continue,” he added. "But in areas where it is an option, virtual fence can eliminate the possibility of fences altering or blocking wildlife movement, and prevents animals from becoming entangled in wires."
Virtual fencing could be “another tool in the toolbox” to mitigate problems with wildlife, said Gregory Nickerson, a writer and filmmaker for the Wyoming Migration Initiative.
It could enhance existing approaches such as laying over sections of cattle fence during wildlife migration season, he said.
Antelope and mule deer, which have some long migration routes across Wyoming between summer and winter range, might stand to benefit the most from virtual fencing, Nickerson said.
It should be left up to ranchers to decide, he said.
“Livestock managers are the ones who are in charge of making these decisions,” he said. "Whatever fencing, or virtual fencing, they want to use is up to them.
"That’s the way it should be, because they know their animals and their operations better than anybody."
Ranchers Intrigued
Whether virtual fencing is the next big thing for ranching in Wyoming remains to be seen, but some ranchers told Cowboy State Daily that the idea is intriguing.
“You hear a lot about it, and people are pushing for it,” said Casper-area rancher Dennis Sun.
He said he could see it working in some areas, particularly in flat terrain where’s there’s good “line of sight” transmission between signal towers.
His daughter, Andrea, recently attended a symposium on the Sheridan-area pilot program, and said she was impressed by what she saw.
“It’s kind of interesting how the cows respond to the cues (from the electronic collars),” she said. “I think it’s a tool to be used in certain instances."
Brett Moline, spokesman for the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, agreed that there’s been a lot of chatter about virtual fencing.
“As with any new technology, for some people it’s going to work beautifully. For some people, it ain’t going to work worth a dang,” he said.
There’s no escaping some front-end labor, he noted.
Putting collars on hundreds, or even thousands, of cows takes effort and time, Moline said.
And tower placement is also vital to success, he said. In areas with steep hills, deep canyons and such, more towers will be needed to maintain a good signal.
If cattle become accustomed to a virtual pasture, and the negative consequences of pushing the boundaries, it might be difficult to move them out when the time comes, Moline said.
“They could be like, ‘Uh, I’m not going through there because I’m going to get shocked,’” he said.
Making It Cost-Effective
There’s also the cost to consider.
For the pilot program in Sheridan County, the Nature Conservancy pitched in to cover the costs of the transmission towers, which are roughly $4,500 each, community land trust spokesman John Graves told Cowboy State Daily.
The equipment for the Sheridan County program comes through a New Zealand-based company called Halter, one of four major virtual fence makers.
Reinke said he leases the cow collars from Halter for $72 each. The collars have an estimated three-year lifespan.
He pays a $600 yearly subscription fee for the app to run the virtual fencing.
There’s cost associated with any system, and physical fencing isn’t cheap, he said.
Traditional barbed-wire fencing can cost $10,000 per mile on ideal terrain.
In rugged, rocky terrain, such as where he runs cattle, fencing costs can run $24,000 per mile, or more, Reinke said.
Easy Configuration
One handy feature of virtual fencing is that it can be quickly reconfigured through the app. Whereas moving wire fences to reconfigure pastures is labor-intensive and time-consuming, Reinke said.
The system can also make grazing more efficient. By using the vibration cue, Reinke said he can prompt cattle to move to different parts of a pasture rather than just camp out in one spot.
The area where his grazing leases are was hit hard by the massive Elk Fire in 2024.
Reinke said using the electronic collar prompts has made it much easier to guide his cattle toward areas with less burn damage and better forage.
The system also helps him guide cattle to graze down the grass in areas that need to be subsequently spayed with herbicide to stop invasive weeds from taking over, he said.
Graves said the Sheridan County pilot program is on a three-year timeline.
This year involved deploying the systems with Reinke and the two other ranchers. Next summer, there will be field tours so people can see firsthand how virtual fencing works.
In the third year, there will be an assessment of how everything went, he said.
If all goes well, virtual fencing could take off in Sheridan County, Graves said.
Ranchers will probably always use physical fences along property lines.
Virtual fencing could replace the need for many “interior fences,” which could make things more efficient for ranchers and better for wildlife, he said.
“Virtual fencing will never replace property perimeter fencing, which is why we support wildlife-friendly fencing,” Graves said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
