They're using euphemisms, the "virtual fence" is just shock collars.
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Is this really that much of a euphemism? It's the same idea as electric fences for dogs, except the range involved is obviously quite different.
It's staged shocking also - cows first hear beeping / buzzing, followed by mild shocking - less than a regular electric fence, then a greater shock.
It also reduces physical fencing costs and adds the ability to herd by "moving" the virtual boundaries so that cows can be moved from pasture to pasture.
There's more on this on Landline
* https://www.thetvdb.com/series/landline/episodes/11325308
* https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/programs/landline/2025-09-...
The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Australia) is still reserving judgement on this, so far in seems that in "normal operation" animals recieve less shocking than with trad roll out electric fence lines (which are mostly a visual bright white tape cue that often are unpowered once animals "learn") .. BUT there's also a question of "how bad can this get in fail conditions".
> It's staged shocking also - cows first hear beeping / buzzing, followed by mild shocking - less than a regular electric fence, then a greater shock
Yea, that’s basically exactly how the electric fences people have used for dogs for decades work.
Sure - save for the "live updates of boundaries" part -
the worst case fail situation here is likely a boundary being broadcast that was on the opposite side of the planet ("a simple error of plus/minus sign") and the entire herd is constantly(?) being buzzed and shocked.
As opposed to the actual fence, which is an electrified wire at 10k volts.
They explicitly say that the signals are audio and vibration, not electric shock.
The signals are audio and vibration Backed UP by an electric shock.
CHARLIE BAKER: Cows learn that a sound cue and increasing beat is a warning that they're approaching a virtual boundary, and they learn to turn away from that boundary.
In the first few days of training, if they ignore that sound cue, they would get a low-energy pulse. That's significantly weaker than an electric fence, but it's enough to give meaning to that sound cue.