Roaming Rail Fence
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 2:33PM 
It is important to move livestock because of lack of crops to eat, sheltering them, and seasonal weather changes. The idea of something that would move the livestock on its own with no help from a human hand would further advance the idea of self sustainability.
Here we see the concept of a Roaming Rail Fence; a moving fence which can sense when the livestock are supposed to move. The railing would be set all around the farm so that a square fence with four posts can move in sections. Each post would go into the railing that would be embedded in the ground, creating a grid-like railing system, dividing the field into sections. The fence-posts would be moved by using a magnetic driven system.
For the fence to be able to move however, a sensor will need to be installed. This sensor will either need to be able to detect the level of grass so that the livestock have something to eat at all times and weather, time of day, and seasonal changes so that they can seek shelter when needed.
The advantage to this would be no cattle or livestock would have to be moved by farmers, it would all be automatic and give it the “smart” aspect.
The disadvantage to this would be not monitoring the cattle in case they got sick or went crazy. Human eyes are the best judgment in this scenario.
Derek Welsh
Reader Comments (9)
I like the roaming fence idea, and I believe it is necessary for humans or human inventions to move the livestock around the farm. If the livestock pen was part of a structure, then the livestock would simply eat the weeds that are closest to them, and never reach the outer portions of the farm. The argument could be made that once they eat the close ones, then they will search farther and farther out - what happens when new weeds start growing back closer to the structure? They will obviously go for the closer weeds. However, I think this idea could easily be combined with the goats that are trained to eat weeds, and could be an effective measure for weed control.
I also like the incorporation of a sensor to detect the level of grass or weeds. This might be hard for a sensor to detect when there are so many crops and other green matter around, so then the question might need to be asked how can the sensors detect weeds and differentiate them from crops? Maybe the sensors look from above and sense the total amount of "green" below?
How much electrical energy is required to create a large enough magnetic field to move a rail?
I like this idea in that there would be less manpower needed to rotate the herds throughout the system. The division of the sections does not necessarily need to be square either. You could make your subsurface magnetic matrix contour whatever shape you needed, determined by the geologic features and crop needs. Then the fencing itself could be of such a material that could manuever the unique layout and be light weight enough so that it would not require a huge amount of energy to move the fencing. The cattle knows a barrier when they see one, especially if there is a history of electric fences or barbwire in their grazing liftime. One of the problems I see is cost of the system and maintenance.
So the idea of the the property being on a grid of fences sounds great but instead of a whole fence structure moving what if there is the same grid but of stationary fences and the only thing that need electricity will be an automated gate. there still will be the sensors to monitor the grass height to open in to new pasture. The cows will probably naturally migrate to the better field, then there will have to be a sensor that will close the gate once all the cows make it over. This should drastically reduce the energy consumption will still maintaining low maintenance hours.
The idea of simplifying the moving around of fences for livestock provides advantages for the farm workers. The idea of having sensors to determine where the cows should be moved to, seems unnecessary as the farm already has workers maintaining the fields daily, and they would know where they want the animals to be. It would be neat to have a system that would allow the fencing to contract/expand to allow for various shapes and sizes. Similar to a boat trailer where the front of the trailer has a wheel that can be placed down for movement of the fence in this case, then once the fence reaches its destination it can be lowered down and anchored.
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