Gallagher is showcasing a virtual fencing system at Fieldays® that will revolutionise pastoral livestock operations, helping farmers meet environmental regulations and saving them millions of dollars on traditional fencing.

The development and commercial expansion of eShepherd will accelerate following the announcement that Gallagher has acquired Agersens, a leading Australian-based developer in virtual fencing technology. Gallagher first began investing in eShepherd in 2016.

eShepherd allows graziers to control the location and movement of cattle using a web application and an intelligent, solar-powered neckband connected to the internet via a base station. Testing, through a beta trial programme in Australia and New Zealand, shows the technology is proving effective in rotational grazing and the protection of riparian zones.

Gallagher Global Strategy & New Ventures Manager Sarah Adams says eShepherd will provide farmers with a valuable tool for maximising pasture utilisation and productivity, but also help them tackle a number of bigger industry challenges.

“The future of farming is digital and hi-tech. Farmers need tools to make their lives easier on farm and provide them with data to drive good decision making.

“There are also bigger issues at play, with farmers coming under increasing pressure to produce more with less. From animal welfare and climate change to protecting our precious natural resources, the pressure is on them as food producers.

“eShepherd is an example of the type of technology our industry needs to remain efficient, profitable and sustainable, and ultimately maintain our license to operate.”

Sarah says livestock producers with operations spanning thousands of hectares, often on hilly, remote terrain can be extremely difficult to fence. Add to that Government regulations and fencing becomes a challenging and expensive business.

“eShepherd is an exceptional example of clever, customer-inspired technology that will change the way the livestock industry manages pasture and animals. And the potential cost savings are huge.”

Using eShepherd, farmers can set up virtual paddocks and fence lines to effectively manage their stock. They create the virtual fence from either their tablet or computer using GPS coordinates on a digital map of their property.

Animals are then fitted with a GPS-enabled neckband. As they near the GPS fence, they are alerted by an audio cue from the neckband - a loud beep. If they move away from the fence, nothing further happens. If they ignore the cue and cross the boundary the neckband delivers a short aversive electrical pulse – a training approach similar to that used for a traditional electric fence.

Commercial trials have been conducted involving animal behaviour specialists in Queensland (Australia) and on a number of New Zealand properties. Results showed cattle typically learn to respond to the audio cue within seven days.

The GPS-driven interface also has the capability for farmers to create exclusions zones within the inclusion area, allowing overgrazed paddocks, areas prone to pugging or waterways within a paddock to be virtually fenced off.

All trials have been run under animal ethics approval. The technology will detect if an animal is being chased or has bolted through the eShepherd fence and will automatically turn off.

“Once the animal gets back to walking speed the system will again put a fence in front of them and start herding them back to where they should be,” says Sarah.

Farmers can set up as many virtual paddocks as they need. When cattle are ready to be moved, the farmer selects the virtual paddock destination and, if it is contiguous, the system pushes them to the new paddock from the back.

If cattle are being moved a large distance the virtual fence is simply deactivated and then reactivated in the new paddock.

Producers can currently register their interest to become part of the Beta programme. To find out more and to register your interest about eShepherd click here.

There is a perfect storm on the horizon in agriculture; population growth, tech advances, government regulations and changing consumer behaviours are pushing farmers and businesses into new and ground-breaking practices to stay productive and profitable. At Gallagher we’re keeping one step ahead of the storm, developing the solutions that will guide farmers and consumers into the future.

One year after acquiring Agersens, the founding developers for the eShepherd solution, we’ve been working behind the scenes to build a product that farmers will love.

eShepherd Virtual Fencing

eShepherd increases productivity and profitably through more efficient use of your land and time by being able to section livestock remotely, avoiding over and/or under grazing your pasture, improving your soil health and stocking rates. All this, while improving the management and welfare of your animals through monitoring individual animal locations at any time from your tablet or PC and moving their location without stress.

The neckband itself is comfortable and safe for animals with a flexible strap that releases under load if the neckband becomes snagged. The surfaces are smooth and prevent rubbing or chaffing under continued wear. It's also solar-powered, and fully adjustable ensuring a great fit for each animal.

In New Zealand we’ve partnered with the Pāmu Group who manage over 100 sheep, beef cattle, dairy and deer farms, as well as forestry and avocados orchards. Pāmu Group tell us that “we would move mountains to get this technology permanently implemented on our farms” and say that eShepherd is helping to drive their business strategy forward, including bringing innovations that enable their digital journey to support compliance, assurance, and revenue growth, and boosts automated processes which save time for their teams and support other areas of the business such as genetic improvements.

The future is connected, and wearable...

eShepherd will provide a quantum leap for sustainable, efficient livestock production - the next evolutionary step in your pasture management. We know that going without physical fencing is ground-breaking tech and could be a challenging concept, but what we love about eShepherd is not that different from the products and services we use every day – here's how:

• Connected: From our TVs and music to fridges and doorbells, more items every day are being added to our connected homes, and farms are no different.
  Data is increasingly being used by farmers to understand and best manage productivity, make data-driven decisions to find ways to grow more from less, and demonstrate traceability. Connecting the data points is key to getting this right.
• Wearable: For hundreds of years farmers have used on-animal technology. From bells on goats, to the more modern practice of visual and electronic ear tags and health collars. The difference now is that the on-animal technology is smart, connected and adding so much more value through real-time analysis – think of it as a Smartwatch for your herd!

The great thing is that this is not the future; this is now - information is being collected, it just needs collaboration to pull it all together, and importantly, be easy for the farmer to analyse to make better farming decisions.

At Gallagher, we know eShepherd™ will be the next evolutionary step in pasture management, but for many customers going without physical fencing is ground-breaking tech and could be a challenging concept. So, as we continue to prepare for launch, sharing our story and letting people see the system in action is important. Many of our trials have been in traditional agricultural settings, where this technology and other developments in farming technologies are the key to unlocking the future of farming... but it turns out virtual fencing could be just as effective in many events, as we recently found out at our first trial in Europe.

Sutton Park is a national nature reserve located near Birmingham in the UK, covering approx. 900 ha, with around a third being grasslands. Each year, Adam Neachell, a local farmer, brings his cattle to the park for around six months, to naturally graze the grasslands, maintain the ecology and encourage local biodiversity... but there is an issue with this...

Coldfield Golf Club is located in the north-west of the national park and in the past cattle have caused damage to the course. However, because the club is on public land, they are not allowed to use physical fencing to protect the fairways and greens.

In addition to the golf club, in July 2022, some events of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games were held at Sutton Park – and no one wants to run their sneakers through a cowpat in the middle of a triathlon!

Savvy club member, Keith Hopkinson, saw an opportunity with Gallagher to trial the virtual fencing solution to keep animals off the Golf Course, so he and Adam worked with Birmingham Council and the Games Organizers to set up for the summer.

“The city council’s Animal Welfare team backed the proposals for a range of reasons including the fact that traditional electric fencing poses a threat to wildlife, especially deer – but the virtual system does not affect any other wildlife and allows them to move freely without risk.” Birmingham City Council
After a short trial and training period with the eShepherd™ solar-powered GPS collars fitted to the cattle at Adam’s farm to let the animals learn the alert and electric pulse actions, they were moved to Sutton Park in May 2022.

Keith was really pleased to be able to run the trial after it had first been submitted in 2017, saying “It was clear from the outset that a virtual fencing system offered many advantages to all stakeholders in the park. This includes better visibility and control of grazing patterns throughout the park, improving the quality of the historic heathland and woodland, and improving animal welfare as well as protecting the golf course from the risk of costly damage.”

During the trial in an interview for the BBCs Midlands Today program, Keith said, “It’s working really well – we're all delighted with the way it’s working.”

“Have you ever heard the like? Clever stuff!” Midlands Today presenter, Mary Rhodes

The grazing season at Sutton Park came to an end in early September, which means the neckbands have now been removed from animals and packed away, ready for another season next year.

Gallagher’s Customer Support Lead for the Sutton Park Trial, Andrew Zipsin has been reviewing the data and says, “The eShepherd Web App has collated the animal location data for the entire season and a ‘heatmap’ clearly shows that the animals were effectively kept off the golf course, and away from the Commonwealth Games Triathlon area. Everyone involved has been absolutely delighted with the application of this new technology to solve an otherwise difficult problem.”

Click here if you want to find out more about the eShepherd™ system.

An expansive cropping and finishing operation covering 50,000 hectares in Western Australia is using eShepherd™ virtual fencing technology to enhance crop and animal health and productivity.

Chilwell Farms, in Condingup near Esperance, is primarily dedicated to cropping wheat and canola and also runs 2000 head of Angus cattle, grass finishing about 1500 yearlings each year, and 30,000 ewes.

In January 2024, Simon Fowler adopted eShepherd to efficiently manage cattle on his cropping land, aiming to boost both crop and pasture performance and animal productivity and health.

eShepherd, Gallagher’s pioneering virtual fencing solution, uses neckbands to train cattle to remain within a virtual fencing barrier, allowing farmers to move and contain livestock from their laptop or phone.

“We’ve only been using eShepherd since January, but it has been a game changer for us,” says Simon.

Previously, the cattle free-ranged the farm's 150-hectare paddocks, often undergrazing and overgrazing areas.

“Along with having no real control of our cattle in the large paddocks, they would undergraze or overgraze areas and there was no time for pasture regeneration. The lack of efficient grazing was impacting our crop and soil management and meant we weren’t getting the most out of our cattle either,” Simon explains.

eShepherd has enabled the Fowlers to control their cattle with precision, allowing them to implement rotational grazing cells within each 150-hectare paddock. Mobs are rotated weekly through 50-to-60-hectare sized cells, ensuring even grazing of residual crops and summer crops and better cattle management. Simon hopes to intensify the grazing pattern over time.

“Using eShepherd, we have implemented the rotational grazing system. Our mobs are shifted seamlessly, taking the manual labour out of moving cattle and making both our crop and cattle management far more efficient.”

Within five days of fitting the eShepherd neckbands, Simon was surprised to see his mob of cattle contained within a cell behind the virtual fence.

“You could see them standing there, but they were contained within the virtual fence we had created,” says Simon. “The system has definitely helped achieve more even grazing and better recovery for our crops and pastures.”

Simon also uses eShepherd to fence off any wet, under-germinated, or regenerating bush areas in his paddocks. “It’s so simple. You just draw the line where the fence needs to go. We have dams in the paddocks for water, so we draw the line so the cattle still have access to the water no matter where they are in the paddock,” he explains.

eShepherd has also proved invaluable for managing animal welfare. “We get alerts if one of the cattle hasn’t been moving. Recently, I received an alert and found a steer with his head stuck in a tree fork. Before eShepherd, I wouldn’t have known what was happening with that animal until it was too late.”

The biggest win for Simon has been the increased productivity from intensive grazing management without impacting the efficiency our broadacre cropping operation achieves by having large paddocks. And being able to achieve this without any extra labor units.

“We are currently using the collars to make a virtual confinement pen of 500 steers on 8 hectares,” says Simon.

“This allows both controlled feeding and deferred pasture grazing which are both important in a year like this where we have had a very dry start. So far it is working well for this purpose and has saved on the cost of building a physical pen,” he says.

Simon’s next goal is to further fine-tune his grazing strategies and integrate more automated processes.

“Our local grower group ASHEEP and BEEF has also been following our work with eShepherd, and many of them are keen to see what it can do for them,” he says. “eShepherd has definitely enhanced our ability to manage our cattle on our cropping land, improving our efficiency, animal welfare, and productivity.”

To learn more or sign up for eShepherd, click here.

Precision herd management using Gallagher’s eShepherd cattle neckbands just got easier with eShepherd now providing coverage wherever your cellular phone works, removing the need for expensive start-up infrastructure with connectivity base stations.

eShepherd is Gallagher’s pioneering virtual fencing solution that uses neckbands to train cattle to remain within a virtual fencing barrier. It allows farmers to move and contain livestock anywhere on their farm, directly from their laptop or phone. Director of eShepherd Sales and Commercialisation, Sharl Liebergreen, says the eShepherd system has traditionally been driven by long-range communication using base stations installed across farms that can communicate over 5km. eShepherd neckbands are now available with built-in cellular connectivity, removing the need to install base stations on your farm. That means each individual neckband connects to your local cellular network, meaning faster and cheaper startup costs for virtual fencing.

The updated neckband variant can now use a global SIM card to connect to a local cellular network, removing the need for base stations and saving farmers the initial infrastructure cost of $5,000 per station. The neckbands use specific bands (referred to as IoT bands) of the local cellular network, which provide enhanced coverage and connectivity, especially in remote or rural areas where traditional cellular services might be less reliable, says Sharl. The bands consistently ensure the reliable transmission of data.

Sharl says Gallagher could see the growth in cellular coverage across New Zealand and Australia with recent developments including SpaceX partnering with local cellular companies to improve rural connectivity and Gallagher saw the opportunity to transform the system and save farmers money – enabling them to get straight into virtual fencing, and not spend time and money on connectivity towers. “By leveraging those cellular networks, we can give farmers more flexibility and save them the cost of installing base stations – which are valued at $5,000 each,” says Sharl.

“Recent virtual fencing research described virtual fencing installation with base stations being a huge barrier to entry – with costs as high as $40,000. Farmers have told us they would rather invest in more neckbands than base stations,” says Sharl. He says the cellular option will also be welcomed by Gallagher’s American and Canadian customers who graze large paddocks, often not side by side or nearby each other, but they do have great cellular coverage. “If the farm has cellular coverage, there is no requirement to invest in base stations. Each eShepherd neckband will connect to the local cellular network. The farmer doesn’t have to do anything. The cost of the cellular connection is managed by Gallagher,” says Sharl.

“With a SIM installed in the neckbands to facilitate the cellular connection, farmers will simply need to turn the neckbands on, fit them onto their animals, and they can start managing and virtually fencing their herds immediately. eShepherd will take care of the rest, including connecting to the cellular network and managing the billing between the network and the neckbands.” says Sharl.With cellular network connectivity, we can immediately deliver new solutions and software updates over the network, directly to the neckband. Ensuring the farmer is working with the latest features with minimal disruption to the daily operations of farmers, says Sharl.

Sharl says the new feature will also be particularly useful for small-scale operators or lifestyle farmers. “With no need for expensive base stations, lifestyle farmers can easily implement virtual fencing on their properties, ensuring the welfare of their livestock without breaking the bank,” says Sharl. “In the case of lifestyle property owners. They often work away from their property but even when they are busy juggling multiple responsibilities, they can still efficiently manage their livestock using eShepherd and cellular connectivity,” says Sharl.

Remote herd management has taken a leap forward with eShepherd’s new Scheduled Move feature helping farmers be hands off, freeing up their time spent shifting feed breaks and moving mobs. eShepherd is Gallagher’s pioneering virtual fencing solution that uses neckbands to train cattle to remain within a virtual fencing barrier. It allows farmers to move and contain livestock anywhere on their farm, directly from their laptop or phone.

Director of eShepherd Sales and Commercialisation, Sharl Liebergreen, says eShepherd’s newest features allow farmers to be hands off when it comes to shifting their herds giving them greater flexibility and freeing up their valuable time. “The eShepherd team has been working hard on two new features. Scheduled Move and Panic Detection. Both these features further enhance farmers’ ability to remotely manage their herds with precision and care,” says Sharl.

Scheduled Move allows farmers to streamline the process of rotational grazing, automating the process of shifting their herds from one virtual break to another. During our ongoing customer research, the ability to pre-schedule virtual fencing and cattle moves was the most requested feature from farmers, says Sharl. That insight was evident across all global regions and has been a driving force in our prioritising our product roadmap, he says. “Farmers can now simply input a series of virtual paddocks into the system and schedule when they want the herd to move. The eShepherd system takes care of the rest, ensuring that mobs are moved seamlessly and efficiently.” says Sharl.

The feature will also help to intensify grazing to improve pasture use, says Sharl. Some farmers have told us that they can raise their pasture use from around 50% to 90% with the use of rotational grazing on hill country or large range lands through virtual fencing. eShepherd is all about getting more out of the pasture that farmers already have, he says. With Scheduled Move a farmer can set up a series of virtual fencing moves, slowly releasing more pasture to cattle over time without the need for them to go back online and constantly move each virtual break, says Sharl.

He says the feature will be particularly useful for cattle operations in New Zealand and large ranches and stations across America and Australia. “For example, ranching in America uses big paddocks. This feature will allow ranchers to break up those paddocks and rotate animals through them in a way that they've never been able to do before,” says Sharl. While Scheduled Move saves farmers time and offers a proactive approach to herd management, the Panic Detection feature addresses the need for reactive measures and ensures animal welfare in potentially dangerous bolting situations, says Sharl.

eShepherd’s Panic Detection has been developed in collaboration with animal welfare groups and is particularly relevant for farmers in regions with predatory threats such as coyotes, wolves, or bears, which are prevalent in Gallagher’s American and Canadian markets.
When a herd member exhibits signs of distress or panic, such as bolting towards the virtual fence line, the system detects this behavior and temporarily disables the virtual barrier. This allows the animal to flee from the perceived threat without receiving any audio tones or stimuli to encourage it to return within the virtual fence.

“Once eShepherd detects the threat has gone and the animal is settled it will gently return the animal back to the main herd using a series of audio tones and if needed stimuli. With appropriate training, animals respond well to the audio tones within days of wearing the neckbands and the stimuli are not often needed,” says Sharl. Provided the animal is staying still or heading back to the virtual paddock then no stimulus is applied, says Sharl. “They are heading in the right direction.”

He says these two new innovative software features underscore eShepherd's commitment to animal welfare and supporting farmers to create precision herd management, the most effective use of their pasture and efficient use of their time. “By harnessing the power of technology, eShepherd is helping farmers free up time, optimise their grazing, mitigate risks, and ensure the well-being of their livestock with greater ease and precision,” says Sharl.

To learn more and sign up for eShepherd virtual fencing - click here.

The cost of permanently excluding animals from waterways and protected areas is fuelling beef farmers’ interest in virtual fencing as they look for innovative solutions to comply with environmental regulations. The insights were garnered from research carried out by Gallagher as part of its farmer-led product development process to bring its New Zealand-made virtual fencing solution, eShepherd™ to the market.

New freshwater regulations from Government mean that by 01 July 2025, all lakes, wetlands, and waterways wider than one meter will need to be fenced. And that is no small feat. “The new rules pose a unique challenge for New Zealand beef farmers who are often managing remote and vast areas of land interlaced by multiple hard-to-fence waterways,” says Gallagher GM Global Strategy & New Ventures Sarah Adams.

“It could cost some of them millions of dollars in traditional fencing. With rising fencing costs, skills shortages and long lead times for fencing materials, they are desperately looking for alternative solutions that can save them time and money long term. This is a significant challenge that virtual fencing can help farmers tackle.”

The new waterway exclusion rules will be managed by New Zealand’s 11 regional councils. Gallagher has presented eShepherd to a number of the regional authorities for consideration as a viable solution. “We will be working with some of these authorities on proof-of-concept trials over the coming months,” says Sarah.

As well as a viable solution for waterway exclusion, eShepherd can help farmers implement a grazing regime that promotes the health of their land and pasture. “eShepherd gives farmers the ability to implement flexible and adaptable grazing patterns, which can improve the productivity of their soil, pastures, and animals,” says Sarah. “It also means they can move livestock away from nutrient loading areas and hold them on areas of less palatable pasture to clean up and improve soil fertility.”

Removing physical barriers to animal migration paths can also help an areas biodiversity flourish – a huge benefit of eShepherd over physical fence. “A physical fence may contain livestock, but limits the migratory movement of wildlife,” says Sarah. “eShepherd allows livestock to graze a contained area without putting up a barrier that interferes with wild animals that need to pass through.”

As our climate changes and natural disasters become more common place, eShepherd could also help prevent stock loss and injury when disaster strikes. “Physical fencing infrastructure constrains livestock from moving to safety, carries a high cost to recover, and requires human presence in dangerous scenarios to manage,” says Sarah. “With eShepherd, farmers can quickly locate and move livestock away from environmental dangers such as flooding, wildfire and other natural disasters.”

It also enables farmers to reinstate livestock containment quickly. Virtual fences can be reactivated, and livestock controlled immediately, removing the need for costly and labour-intensive reinstatement of physical fences. Allowing you to focus on recovering from the environmental event.
Farmers interested in learning more or wanting to submit an enquiry can register here.