© Surrey Wildlife Trust
If you’ve spotted our Belted Galloway cows on SWT nature reserves this summer, you may have noticed their high-tech Nofence collars. At first glance, cows wearing jewellery may look unusual. But there is more to these collars than meets the eye.
Nofence is a GPS-based virtual fencing system that allows us to manage their grazing without the need for traditional fencing.
We create virtual grazing compartments using our smartphones. Each cow wears a collar that keeps them in the designated compartment using an audio warning system. The audio warning is a scale of tones, which starts at a low pitch and rises gradually as the cow approaches the boundary zone. If the whole scale has been played, the collar delivers a mild, but effective electric pulse of just 3 to 4 volts.
For comparison, a traditional electric fence delivers between 2,000 to 10,000 volts. Our cows quickly learn to recognise the audio warning and turn around to avoid the electric pulse.
The Nofence collars improve our cows’ wellbeing, reducing the need for barbed wire or electric fencing, which can injure wildlife as well as our cows. They also make our cows easier to find during our daily welfare checks.
Most excitingly, using Nofence means our cows can now graze SWT nature reserves such as Chobham Common and Royal Common that have long been inaccessible or unfenceable, restoring the natural grazing that’s so vital for healthy habitats.
Our partners at the Hampton Estate have recently put a Nofence herd of cattle to Puttenham Common, grazing the land after hundreds of years of absence.
Mob grazing, aka never letting cows graze an area for too long, mimics the natural rhythms of wild herbivores and helps break the 25-day parasite cycle. Fewer parasites in our cows means less ivermectin treatment, which can be toxic to Dung Beetles and other cowpat-eating insects.
We are currently seeking funding to enable the purchase of up to 50 collars for our cows to Nofence graze 1700 acres of Ash Ranges. If of interest and you are able to support us with a donation, please contact fundraising@surreywt.org.uk
