Mr Fowler pulls out his mobile phone and uses an app to map out a virtual fence line. Video credit: Grower Group Alliance.
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00:00Simon Fowler from Esperance, Chilwell Farms is our farming operation.
00:10We got into the Gallagher eShepherd virtual fencing system in January.
00:17I guess what really excited me about the system was the potential to get the productivity
00:26gains from intensive grazings, like an intensive grazing system, without impacting the efficiencies
00:35of our broad agroeconomic program.
00:38So we've been grazing pearl and millet through January through until May in cells and it's
00:47been worked really well, really good containment.
00:49We've now moved on to the confinement feeding set up, so we've got 500 steers on about
00:5610 hectares and they're getting fed every day and it's working really well.
01:05The other benefits I guess of the system as I see it would be, there's going to be some
01:11real benefits in deferred pasture management and also in our crop grazing, so we do a lot
01:19of crop grazing, so using the virtual fence is about keeping the animals off the more
01:23sensitive areas of the paddock.
01:28And then I guess there's also the environmental benefits of being able to keep the animals
01:32out of the bush and the remnant vegetation.
01:36And also the animal welfare benefits of knowing where the animals are and receiving information
01:43about their welfare and any health issues via the system.
01:48So so far it's worked really well, I'm very happy with it.