Northeast Wyoming ranchers express calculated interest in virtual fencing at symposium

GILLETTE — Looking back on the past five years, Colorado State University Research Scientist Tony Vorster opined Thursday that the real serious consideration of virtual fencing technology came in the wake of a fire.

“There’s a ranch up in the mountains of Colorado, and their BLM and Forest Service allotments had been burned by one of those big 2020 fires, the East Troublesome Fire,” Vorster said. “And they were looking at millions of dollars to replace those fences or taking a risk with what was then really new technology here to the U.S. with virtual fencing.”

A rapidly growing technology over the past half decade, virtual fencing makes use of special GPS collars to set boundaries for animal grazing. The collars, which use radio or cell signals to connect with stations set up as part of the process, allow ranchers to track each member of the herd and keep them within a predefined area, the collars administering audio irritants and/or light shocks if the animal leaves the zone.

Vorster spoke to a crowd of about 200 ranchers, who had their pads and pencils out, in the Cam-plex Central Pavilion as part of Thursday’s Northeast Wyoming Virtual Fence Symposium. He was the keynote speaker for the event, which also featured talks with product manufacturers and adopters of the technology, who spoke on their own experiences with virtual fencing.

Vorster said that by taking a chance on the new technology, the ranchers were able to work with federal agencies to get their herds back faster than they otherwise could. It allowed them to comply with federal requirements without having to go through the time and money to rebuild the old fences that kept their herds in place.

It also opens the door for “more nuanced conversations about grazing,” he added.

“Virtual fencing at its best can be this tool to improve grazing management, but it can also provide these opportunities for ranchers that are otherwise lost,” Vorster said. “Instead of saying, ‘No, you can’t graze on this partially burned allotment,’ it becomes more of a conversation about ‘How can we graze here in a way that works for everybody?’”

In addition to hosting ranchers with some more experience with the technology from both Wyoming and Montana, the event also brought in representatives of virtual fencing companies who talked about their own products and how the technology has developed over the years.

Framing the event as a joint effort coming from a multitude of northeast Wyoming conservation districts, foundations and state offices, Clear Creek Conservation District Manager Zach Byram said that he was initially inspired by a similar event held in Cody last year.

He wanted to provide local ranchers with up-to-date information, so he reached out to other conservation districts and related organizations, with the planning committee feeling that casting a wider net would attract more interest. Byram stated that he was pretty happy with the interest, seeing the technology as one that is still “on the horizon” for many Wyoming ranchers.

“I think it actually went really well, Byram said. “I spent some amount of time afterwards, talking to some of the attendees, and then also talking with each of the manufacturers that were there... and had really good feedback from both groups.”

Some of the ranchers who attended the symposium said that while they were certainly interested in the technology, it’s not going to be the right fit for everyone. The upfront costs for purchasing the collars were a point of concern, but they recognized the potential monetary benefits if that hurdle could be overcome.

“Cattlemen have to move forward,” said Tom Streeter, a rancher and member of the board of directors for the Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts. “The romance of cow business is being replaced by technology, and we have to either get behind the technology or get out of the business. If I could work this into a budget where I could survive the initial cost outlay, I would eventually recover that cost by less maintenance, because our time is worth money.”

Others, such as Weston County Rancher Chuck Grieves, pointed out the different utilities provided by virtual and more traditional fencing as a calculation each rancher should make.

“I’m still on the fence right now,” said Grieves with a laugh. “I’ve been sitting here penciling, doing just electric fence versus virtual fencing. There’s advantages and disadvantages to both. Your physical fence, if it’s a good electric fence, will probably keep the cattle in better than the virtual fence, but also your virtual fencing, with the technology to show you where your animals are that have gotten outside the containment area, is a huge plus.”

This calculated interest in the technology was echoed by many of the event speakers, with Vorster and the producers noting issues they have seen or experienced over the past few years, although Vorster did note that manufacturers have worked to address some of those issues as they have come up.

“It’s not a silver bullet,” he said. “It’s right in some cases, but it’s not going to work for everybody. There’ve been some real challenges in the early years of virtual fencing.”

The reliability of the collars has been one issue, for example. Some collars fall off or are not waterproof, for example.

“It’s not a replacement for being out in the land or with the animals,” Vorster said. “It is something that can amplify what you do, rather than replace what you do.”

Still, speaking on the other benefits of the technology, he noted its utility not just for the individual rancher, but for the ranching community as a whole, especially into cooperation with related agencies and the wider population.

“A real hope is that technologies like virtual fencing can maybe reduce some of the conflicts, particularly in federal lands, with other land uses, like recreation,” Vorster said. “If you have a virtual boundary and somebody leaves the gate open, it’s not as big of a deal. There’s also things like, maybe the public sees this good grazing management that they’re going to be more in touch with all the work that you’re putting into managing those lands and recognize and value that service provides.”

While there are no plans to repeat the event down the line, with Byram saying that the organizers had been able to get pretty much all of the information out to the public that they had wanted to, the director said he was very happy with how things went.

“We really did appreciate the turnout, in terms of producers,” he said. “It’s hard for them to carve out an entire day out of their schedules to come sit and listen… to take an entire day out of their schedule; the planning committee was really appreciative and grateful of them being able to do that.”

This story was published on Jan. 13, 2026.