Rounding up 300 cattle pairs across 12,000 acres is a big job. Doing that across Idaho’s mountainous terrain 150 miles away from homebase is a major undertaking. In years past, the range rider for Union Cattle Company (UCC) would start the roundup around Sept. 20 and hope to wrap up by Thanksgiving. Virtual fencing has slashed that timeline to eight days with three workers.

“Vence has made a huge difference for our business,” says Caleb Berquist, who operates UCC along with his parents and sister. Their cow-calf operation is based in eastern Washington state, but they also rotationally graze cattle in Idaho, including the 12,000-acre open range permit where Vence has played a key role.

Shorter, more productive workdays

Before Vence, range riders might spend an entire summer in the mountains, riding 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week to keep cattle tipped inside the perimeter of the leased ground, Berquist says. “They put in long hours and were away from their families. That’s hard.”

“With Vence, we can keep an eye on things from 150 miles away. Because we’re confident about the location of the herd, we don’t have to cover ground looking for cattle,” Berquist says. That has enabled them to cut the workweek back to three to five days for these range riders.

“I love that I can pull up Vence, see that our cows are all in, and tell our range rider he can spend another night at home with his family,” Berquist says. “That’s good for them and our business.”

Plus, he’s always grateful to have extra hands back in Washington to help with the wheat harvest, putting up hay, or feeding cattle. Shorter workdays are increasingly a necessity given changes in the state’s labor laws.  

Animal tracking also equips operations like UCC to make plans when cattle do start to drift out, and helps ranchers make the most of trips to round them up.

Vence also makes it easier to cover for a crew member who is taking time off, which is something UCC encourages. “We might not know the lay of the land near as well as our range rider, but Vence can take me or another crew member right to the cows so we can push them where they need to go.” 

Major savings in fencing and moving livestock

Fencing is another area where Vence’s virtual alternative can deliver major labor efficiencies. “A mile of fencing costs at least $15,000, with labor factoring heavily into that figure,” says Nat Ruth, a wildlife manager at a South Carolina plantation. He uses patch-burn grazing to create diverse ecosystems ideal for quail.

Before Vence, he had been running roughly 12 miles of temporary fencing to accomplish his sustainability goals, which was both expensive and time consuming. “Deer and elk run through fences on a daily basis,” Ruth says. “That made it difficult to focus on anything other than fence repair.”

Virtual fencing has also saved Ruth and his team countless hours moving cattle. “When it’s time to herd cattle from summer pasture to winter pasture, I can use a one-way Vence line at the gate. I collapse all my summer pastures and push them into the winter pasture,” he explains. “So that’s now a one-person job, whereas before I had three or four people using four-wheelers and horses to herd cattle. It’s also less stressful for the cows.”

In his heavily wooded area of the state, Ruth says the animal tracking mechanism has been invaluable – especially when it comes to tagging and treating new calves. “Our cows calve in the woods, and you’d be surprised how well a 1,400-lb. animal blends into the landscape,” he says. “With Vence, we can run a 24-hour history on a collar and determine where the calf is based on the time the cow spent away from the rest of the herd.”  

Streamlines data sharing

Ruth is also a heavy user of Vence’s data capabilities. “I love that I can import all my GPS work in the woods into the system,” he says. “It’s a really slick system.”

His team also pulls a lot of grass samples that are used to optimize stocking rates. “I load all my samples into Vence’s system. My team can log in and find out where they need to sample and get the longitude and latitude off my sample points.” That delivers efficiency for Ruth and his team.

These are just a few of Vence’s operational advantages. Learn more about how producers are using it to improve everything from their peace of mind to stocking density .

Working smarter, not harder

Now, more than ever, good help is critical to a ranch’s success. That’s something Berquist doesn’t take for granted. “We have a great crew that keeps our ranch going. We love them all,” he says.

“Of course, we want to do all we can to retain them,” Berquist continues. “Time-saving tools like Vence help us make better use of their time. That’s great for the people we employ and the business itself.”

Intrigued? You can read about ranchers’ experiences getting started with Vence. 

Vence tracking takes range riders directly to cattle, saving them countless hours looking for animals in Idaho’s rugged terrain.

Thanks to Vence, what had been a 60+ day gathering period of 300+ cow/calf pairs now takes Union Cattle Company about a week.