Towards a Virtual Fencing System: Training Domestic Sheep Using Audio Stimuli

The potential of virtual fencing technology to facilitate sustainable livestock grazing management

Virtual fencing (VF) technology is gaining interest due to its potential to facilitate sustainable grazing management. It allows farmers to contain grazing livestock without physical fences, thereby reducing the time and labour associated with the implementation of conventional fences. From a conservation perspective, some sensitive areas within uplands should not be grazed during certain periods of the year, and VF provides an invisible and moveable fence line that can exclude livestock from these areas. However, there are also concerns associated with its use, including animal welfare impacts, cost-effectiveness, and public perception. The extent to which VF can contribute to make livestock systems more sustainable remains to be investigated. To address this gap, this study investigates the potential of VF to promote sustainable grazing management using the Efficiency, Substitution, and Redesign framework, which has been used for the first time in this context. The framework is particularly relevant in taking an active and normative approach to identify key aspects to focus on to help achieve sustainability. We consulted stakeholders including farmers, wildlife inspectors, veterinarians, policy officers, researchers, NGOs, farm advisors or certification managers, through focus groups (N = 4) and in-depth, semi-structured interviews (N = 5). Stakeholders have highlighted the potential of VF to provide new opportunities to increase the efficiency and sustainability of livestock grazing systems, enabling their redesign, and contributing to improved environmental and animal welfare outcomes, as well as higher financial and social performance. However, there are important aspects that remain to be addressed to achieve such redesign, including issues of reliability due to poor network signal, animals' ability to learn, biosecurity and safety issues related to the absence of physical fences, farm suitability and farmers' ability to use the systems effectively. This study highlights the need to ensure that the development and uptake of VF are mutually beneficial to farmers, animals, and the wider farming industry. This includes a highlight on the importance of participative approaches to involve key stakeholders to address concerns and maximise the potential of the technology.

The groundbreaking impact of digitalization and artificial intelligence in sheep farming

The integration of digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has marked the onset of a new era of efficient sheep farming in multiple aspects ranging from the general well-being of sheep to advanced web-based management applications. The resultant improvement in sheep health and consequently better farming yield has already started to benefit both farmers and veterinarians. The predictive analytical models embedded with machine learning (giving sense to machines) has helped better decision-making and has enabled farmers to derive most out of their farms. This is evident in the ability of farmers to remotely monitor livestock health by wearable devices that keep track of animal vital signs and behaviour. Additionally, veterinarians now employ advanced AI-based diagnostics for efficient parasite detection and control. Overall, digitalization and AI have completely transformed traditional farming practices in livestock animals. However, there is a pressing need to optimize digital sheep farming, allowing sheep farmers to appreciate and adopt these innovative systems. To fill this gap, this review aims to provide available digital and AI-based systems designed to aid precision farming of sheep, offering an up-to-date understanding on the subject. Various contemporary techniques, such as sky shepherding, virtual fencing, advanced parasite detection, automated counting and behaviour tracking, anomaly detection, precision nutrition, breeding support, and several mobile-based management applications are currently being utilized in sheep farms and appear to be promising. Although artificial intelligence and machine learning may represent key features in the sustainable development of sheep farming, they present numerous challenges in application.

Toward assessing the role of dietary fatty acids in lamb's neurological and cognitive development

Understanding and measuring sheep cognition and behavior can provide us with measures to safeguard the welfare of these animals in production systems. Optimal neurological and cognitive development of lambs is important to equip individuals with the ability to better cope with environmental stressors. However, this development can be affected by nutrition with a special role from long-chain fatty acid supply from the dam to the fetus or in lamb's early life. Neurological development in lambs takes place primarily during the first two trimesters of gestation. Through late fetal and early postnatal life, the lamb brain has a high level of cholesterol synthesis. This rate declines rapidly at weaning and remains low throughout adulthood. The main polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the brain are ω-6 arachidonic acid and ω-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are elements of plasma membranes' phospholipids in neuronal cells. DHA is essential for keeping membrane integrity and is vital for normal development of the central nervous system (CNS), and its insufficiency can damage cerebral functions and the development of cognitive capacities. In sheep, there is evidence that supplying PUFA during gestation or after birth may be beneficial to lamb productive performance and expression of species-specific behaviors. The objective of this perspective is to discuss concepts of ruminant behavior and nutrition and reflect on future research directions that could help to improve our knowledge on how dietary fatty acids (FA) relate to optimal neurological and cognitive development in sheep.

Automated Virtual Fencing Can Effectively Contain Sheep: Field Trials and Prospects

Virtual fencing technology uses on-animal devices to communicate boundaries via a warning audio tone and electrical pulse signals. There is currently limited validation work on sheep. This study used modified cattle eShepherd^® virtual fencing neckbands on reduced-wool sheep with clipped necks to enable automated trials with small groups across both day and night. The first 5-day trial with six Dorper crossbred sheep was conducted in an experimental paddock setting, with a second 5-day trial conducted with 10 Ultra White sheep on a commercial farm. The animals across both trials were contained in the inclusion zone for 99.8% and 92.2% of the trial period, with a mean percentage (±SD) of total audio cues as audio only (i.e., not followed by an electrical pulse) being 74.9% ± 4.6 in the first trial, and 83.3% ± 20.6 for the second trial. In the second trial, sheep crossed over into the exclusion zone on the third night and remained there until they were walked out for their daily yard check in the morning. These preliminary trial results are promising for the use of automated technology on sheep, but suitable devices and algorithms still need to be designed specifically for sheep in the long term.