We all want to improve productivity from our properties and increasing our carrying capacity is one method to do it. 

Salers breeders, Renae Ferris and Rodney Emerick of Half Moon Salers, have invested in eShepherd™, which is a virtual fencing system for cattle and have increased their carrying capacity by 50 percent in doing so.

While promoting their Salers cattle at Elders FarmFest, 3rd-5th of June 2025, Zac Braxton-Smith, from Queensland Country Life, caught up with them and had a chat about their use of eShepherd and its benefits.

Article taken from the Queensland Country Life page.

https://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/8986304/virtual-fencing-collars-improve-carrying-capacity-for-cattle

How to boost your carrying capacity by 50 per cent without boundary fences

By Zac Braxton-Smith     Updated June 9 2025 – 6:57am, first published 5:30am

Renae Ferris and Rodney Emerick of Regenerative Food and Fibre, Mulgowie, at Elders FarmFest on June 4 with their Salers heifer and her virtual fencing collar. Picture by Zac Braxton-Smith.

Cattle producers are turning flat paddocks without fences and steep, inaccessible country into productive pastures thanks to mapping software with a twist.

Renae Ferris and Rodney Emerick of Regenerative Food and Fibre, Mulgowie, were at Elders FarmFest on June 3 to 5 to exhibit their Salers cattle, a handful of which had striking orange collars.

Ms Ferris and Mr Emerick can now move all or part of their herd across 600 hectares of grazing country by drawing lines on an app-based map thanks to virtual fencing sold by agtech business Gallagher.

The collars emit a beeping sound when an animal steps outside the boundary. Picture supplied by Renae Ferris.

The eShepherd technology keeps cattle within a desired area by sending coordinates to a collar, which makes a beeping sound if the animal steps past boundaries.

Ms Ferris said virtual fencing had increased their carrying capacity by 50 per cent while cutting costs on fences, feed, fuel, and labour.

“We can now put our herd in paddocks under cultivation with corn and beans after they have been harvested, without installing boundary fences,” Ms Ferris said.

Ms Ferris and Mr Emerick set up and change virtual fence lines on a mobile app. Picture by Zac Braxton-Smith.

“The collars have also helped us to use the Salers’ natural foraging ability on our hilly country where it is too steep to put up fences.

“We have 63 animals with collars grazing in our virtual paddocks at the moment, and another few hundred collars ordered to arrive shortly.”

Mr Emerick said the technology had given him and Ms Ferris peace of mind, because they could see where each animal was on a phone-based app at any time of the day.

Cattle can graze on harvested paddocks without fences at the Mulgowie property thanks to eShepherd. Picture supplied by Renae Ferris.

“The collars help us with rotational or strip grazing; we have about 40 cows on four hectares of harvested land, and reckon we get about 20 days out of this,” he said.

“The technology paid for itself pretty quickly, at about $350 per unit and with a useful life of about seven to ten years.”

Solar panels on either side of the device powered the collars.

Agtech provider Agersens launched eShepherd in 2020, before Gallagher bought the business out in 2021and rolled virtual fences out at scale.