Cool & Useful Tech

Ag tech investments have gotten a bad rap in recent years, for good reason, but it’s not all doom and gloom and only public money supporting innovation. Let’s explore a bright spot: virtual fencing.

In Canada, the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) is a federal $1 billion purse allocated through regional organizations to support farmers in adopting practices that reduce emissions, increase biodiversity and improve soil health. The Prairie Watersheds Climate Program (PWCP) has recently added virtual fencing to the list of tools able to be funded for farms implementing rotational grazing systems.

This past winter, at a series of gatherings that brought together thousands of like-minded Prairie farmers, there was much interest in this technology, that uses satellite signals and shock collars to keep herds within their assigned paddock. These digitized, virtual barriers can be changed and the livestock moved, remotely using a tablet.

Physical fencing isn’t just subject to constant wear and tear, it’s time-consuming and expensive to build. Cross-fencing within a paddock is necessary for a farm to switch from conventional grazing (where the animals all randomly graze a large pasture all season) to rotational grazing (where the herd grazes much smaller blocks sequentially).

Rotational grazing is widely recognized as the fastest and most effective way to establish a thriving habitat for the farmers and their animals, and for all the wildlife and beneficial biology above and below ground necessary for ecologies to function. Hence, OFCAF and the PWCP are validating the co-benefits to society by funding virtual fencing as well as cross-fencing, to encourage more rotational grazing on Canadian farms.

The Investment Backstory

The technology company Vence was part of a large-scale pilot project started in 2023 in Saskatchewan. The farmers who piloted their system of collars, GPS and software, are featured conference presenters nowadays, inspiring audiences with their fascinating explanations of how the land and herds adapted to this new technology.

Vence was a California-based startup back in 2021 when this author first heard about it at an investor conference in Oakland. They received an investment around that time from a regenerative agriculture-focused venture capital fund, who then flipped the business to Merck Animal Health.

This is the dream pathway of every ag tech startup founder, and investor, but it’s an extremely rare story. Vence solved a real problem and delivered on their tech’s promises, before they ran out of cash, and ended up in a position of influence in agriculture within Merck.

Pro Tips

Battery-powered shock collars have been around for a while and used to contain pets, and they’re far-from-invincible. A scared dog, or even a curious goat, wouldn’t be fazed by the beeps and shocks warning it’s crossing the barrier.

For this reason, farms maintain a strong perimeter fence, and use collars the same way as cross-fencing for the frequent moves between smaller paddocks within field. Perimeter fencing is also important for protection against predators.

Learn More With Us

If you’re interested in learning more about rotational grazing (which is the same as adaptive managed grazing, for fans of Carbon Cowboys), wondering if it could be a fit on your farm, the short answer is yes! The long answer is what the Prairie Routes team helps farmers to answer.

To set up a call to learn more, email hello@prairieroutes.ca or fill in the form on our new website. Prairie Routes’ professional programs are designed to establish long-term financial resiliency on farms, via 1-on-1 coaching and business systems development in:

• Grain and meat marketing,

• HR and succession planning,

• Budgeting, cash flow planning, and financial forecasting, and

• All the tools, including rotational grazing.