Managing free-ranging animal distribution in real-time remains a worldwide challenge. Most conventional approaches to improve animal distribution cannot be implemented in real-time because the tool to bring about the change is fixed in time and or space while forage and animal resources are temporally and spatially dynamic. Until recently Bilateral Virtual Fencing (BVF) was only theoretically possible; however, with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology combined with low stress animal behavior principles, manipulated electro-mechanically, free-ranging animals can now become prescription tools used in management. With BVF animals not only can be contained but moved, and all of this in real-time. To develop a new low stress method for managing the distribution of free-ranging animals (beef cattle in this particular research) that is flexible in time and space by combining electronics and animal behavior to accomplish control of the animal. This method of free-ranging animal control we have termed Bilateral Virtual Fencing (BVF). OBJECTIVES: This proposal is aimed at developing sustainable agricultural production systems for livestock and the ecosystems on which they forage. The focus is on affecting the distribution of free-ranging animals by combining electronics and animal behavior into a methodology that can be autonomously administered in real-time. The research has three general goals. First, a more energy efficient and compact hardware/software package for the Bilateral Virtual Fence (BVF) device will be built and tested based on the test results obtained from Prototype 3 Ver. 2 used during the Phase I SBIR to establish proof-of-concept for this method of animal control. In addition, to an improved electronics package, the physical design of the BVF device will take the form of a streamlined neck-belt rather than the bulky neck saddle. Prototype 4 will weigh less than Prototype 3 Ver. 2 mainly as a result of the smaller and lighter electronics package and the use of a light weight flexible solar panel that conforms to the neck-belt design. Once the first neck-belt has been equipped with electronics and field tested an adequate number of these units will be built and field tested within the context of an experimental design in which the electro-mechanical aspects of the device as well as behavioral questions addressing the control of animal groups can be evaluated statistically. The electronics package to be used in the BVF Prototype 4 could easily be housed in an ear tag or similar type product when this BVF methodology is commercialized. Second, autonomously move the Virtual Boundary (VB) in time and space by downloading and uploading data that will be added to the electronics package, first from short range and later long range using two-way cellular phone communication. This feature will be added to both the yet to be built Prototype 4 BVF devices as well as the existing Prototype 3 Ver. 2 BVF devices. Third, in conjunction with long-range data downloading and uploading capabilities cellular communication software will be added to the electronics package of the Prototype 4 BVF system. This feature will allow real-time autonomous downloading of satellite data concerning standing crop quantity and or quality that can be fed into the BVF system's GIS software and used to determine where on a landscape VB's should be established to optimize rangeland forage utilization. This third objective will be completely dependent upon the availability of satellite-based standing crop assessment technology that is currently under development. Prototype 4 platform will incorporate technology for two-way real-time communication. Proposed plan: Purchase appropriate satellite mobile telecommunications equipment such as the Iridium system (Inmarsat, 2003) to be interfaced to the remote computer to transmit data from the remote computer that has captured the BVF data as the animal came to drink water to a laboratory computer for processing the data. With this capability the remote computer will not only send but receive data such as new geographic coordinates to upgrade the BVF device's CPU for establishing new Virtual Boundary's. APPROACH: Our approach has the following three overall goals: First, improve the electro-mechanical efficiency and reduce the size and mass of the BVF device by improving the circuit design and experimental platform (neck-belt). Second, develop software that will autonomously move the BVF in space and time in order to gather animals to determine the device's ability to autonomously control free ranging animals in real-time. Third, using cellular telephone technology build two-way communication into the BVF device for downloading data and uploading new Virtual Boundaries (VB) based on satellite images of forage quantity and quality. The following details focus on three previously stated objectives and how specifically they will be carried out: UPGRADE THE THREE PROTOTYPE 3 VER. 2 BVF DEVICES WITH SHORT DISTANCE COMMUNICATION CAPABILITIES: Design a protocol for transferring and receiving data autonomously through an RF link between the BVF device and a remote stationary computer. BUILD AND FIELD TEST ONE OPERATIONAL PROTOTYPE 4 BVF DEVICE: BUILD AN ADDITIONAL 39 PROTOTYPE IV DEVICES FOR EXTENDED FIELD-TESTING: Determine how many animals in a 'small group' must be instrumented with the BVF device to control the entire group. Select one paddock with adequate forage in which to conduct both the pre-cuing and cuing portions of the trial. Determine the distribution pattern of each cow individually in the group for a minimum of five days prior to activation of the BVF cues (Pre-cuing). Use video film to document cow behaviors and record physiological data including heart rate to help establish selection criteria. Build a VB within the paddock which will substantially alter the movement of all the animal's distribution pattern. Select a leadership pattern and create a subgroup of cattle that have had their BVF devices activated (Cuing). Initiate cuing: Add one animal to a Cue-Activated Subgroup (CAS) every seven days. Repeat adding animals to the CAS until this subgroup is consistently controlling the distribution pattern of all the animals in the paddock. (Control is defined as not penetrating the VB.) At the end of fourteen consecutive days in which the cattle in the CAS are controlling the entire herd at least 95 percent of the time, the trial will be terminated, the data summarized and the results prepared for publication. Make sure the group from which animals are chosen have been together at least thirty days prior to selection to ensure all animals have become socialized to one another. Animals selected should be of similar kind, class, mass, and physiological status. SELECT ONE PROTOTYPE 4 BVF DEVICE AND UPGRADE ITS CPU SO IT CAN BE CONTROLLED BY A VB THAT AUTONOMOUSLY MOVES IN SPACE AND TIME. UPGRADE THE ADDITIONAL 39 PROTOTYPE 4 DEVICES FOR EXTENDED FIELD-TESTING OF THE CAPABILITY TO HAVE THE VB MOVE IN SPACE AND TIME. SELECT ONE PROTOTYPE 4 BVF DEVICE AND UPGRADE IT TO HAVE CELLULAR REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION CAPABILITIES. UPGRADE ONE PROTOTYPE 4 BVF DEVICE FOR EXTENDED FIELD-TESTING OF THE CAPABILITY TO ESTABLISH VB's THAT CAN MOVE IN SPACE AND TIME BASED ON STANDING CROP DATA OBTAINED IN REAL-TIME FROM SATELLITE IMAGERY
