Directional Virtual Fencing (DVF^TM) and flerds. Anderson, Dean^*,1, Nayak, Purushotham¹, Nolen, Barbara¹, Fredrickson, Ed¹, Estell, Rick¹, Hale, Craig², Havstad, Kris¹, ¹ USDA-ARS-Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, NM, USA² FuTure Segue, P. O. Box 1063, Las Cruces, NM, USA

ABSTRACT- Controlling free-ranging animals is among the most challenging jobs a producer faces when managing livestock. Combining a practical understanding of animal behavior with emerging technologies provides opportunities to autonomously control the temporal and spatial location of cattle and sheep on arid rangelands without conventional fencing. Flerd refers to a mixed species group of sheep (flock) and cattle (herd) in which sheep consistently remain within line-of-sight of cattle even when given the opportunity to remain only with peers. This atypical sheep behavior results from modifying sheep behavior preferably at an early age through a process called bonding (Anderson, D. M. 1998. Pro-active livestock management –Capitalizing on animal behavior. J. Arid Land Studies. 7S:113-116). Using Directional Virtual Fencing (DVF^TM), which delivers audio sound and or electric shock cues to either the right or left side of a cow^,s head, it was possible to contain cattle behind an activated Virtual Boundary (VB^TM) that defines the perimeter of a Virtual Paddock (VP^TM) using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology (Anderson, D. M. 2001. Virtual fencing –a prescription range animal management tool for the 21st century, p. 85-94. In: A. M. Sibbald and I. J. Gordon (eds), Proc. Tracking Anim. With GPS Conf. March 12-13, 2001, Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen Scotland). Peer relationships among and between individual sheep affected flerd cohesiveness when combining bonded sheep with cows equipped with DVF^TM devices. Preliminary results indicate three cows wearing DVF^TM devices influenced the spatial location of 13 ewes and one wether.

KEY WORDS: Distribution, Animal behavior , Cattle, Sheep