Goats are able to adapt to virtual fencing; a field study in commercial goat herds on Norwegian farms

Virtual fencing technology has been developed over the last decades with the goal of giving farmers a flexible fence solution especially for remote rangeland. The latest technology is based on the use of Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile phone networks and internet applications. During the autumn of 2017 a field study was performed on eight commercial goat farms in Norway by using the Nofence virtual fencing technology. The main aim of the study was to describe the ability of goats to adapt to virtual fencing with three different sets of conditions. The first condition consisted of six groups with a total of 53 goats naive to virtual fencing, that were introduced to and enclosed by a virtual fence. The second consisted of ten groups with a total of 92 goats already accustomed to virtual fencing being held on their regular pasture enclosed by a virtual fence. The third condition consisted of four groups with a total of 45 goats accustomed to virtual fencing that were moved to or given new rangeland areas enclosed by a virtual fence. All sets of conditions lasted for five days, and the number of audio cues and electric stimuli were automatically registered for all individual animals. A success ratio was calculated based on these measures. All variables were analyzed using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model with either a Poisson or Binomial distribution. The number of escapes were also registered. For the naive goats, the mean number of audio cues and electric stimuli per goat were reduced from day one to day five, while the success ratio increased. On day one, 22 goats escaped whereas on day four and five no goats escaped. For the accustomed goats, the success ratio was significantly higher than that for the naive goats, but not different from accustomed and moved. The total number of escapes in this condition was 7. For accustomed and moved, the success ratio was similar to the accustomed goats, but there was large variation across days, also in the number of audio cues. Escapes were only registered in one of the groups. We concluded that goats could adapt to and be confined by virtual fencing in commercial herds, but there were large individual variations as well as variation between groups regarding the number of audio cues and electric stimuli received.