Testing on goats, done by Bioforsk Organic, is now completed. The results will officially be released during October/November. But so far our experiences shows that goats can learn the system, after having tried the limits sometimes. To determine the animals' welfare by the use of NoFence, we have to wait for the official report.

The first experience was that the herd instinct seemed to be very prominent. Especially in the learning process. When they experienced the unpleasant electrical shock, the first reaction was to seek the herd. This is a preliminary answer to the question many are asking, whether it is possible that only some animals in a herd may be using NoFence. It therefore looks like at least all the dams in the herd needs NoFence.

Another important experience, was that the GPS conditions are decisive for whether NoFence can be used. If conditions do not reach the built-in requirement, the system does not work, and the animals are left without fencing. This requirement, we experienced was not met for half an hour period at midday, every day during this experiment. In this period the goats went free out of the NoFence border. But after the conditions were ok again, the goats were re-fenced. Through this experiencing, that this technical protection against "unfair treatment" worked, it seemed that the animals do not pair NoFence border for some physical location, but rather that the audio signal is probably the animals only indication of where the fence is.

However, we have to achieve higher reliability. There also remains much work in connection with the development of physical design. Therefore, it seems that the first part of the next grazing season we have to focus on further controlled testing of the next prototype. Depending on the conclusions of the goat experiment, we want to focus on four simultaneous trials next year. One of sheep, one on goats and one on cattle, in addition to attempts on tame reindeer. These attempts, we want to implement in order to be confident on technical function and long term reliability.

The goal for this project has been to throughout testing, decide whether NoFence is an effective and secure method to restrict animal movement, with particular emphasis on animal behavior and welfare. Final conclusions of the trial remauns, but it looks promising. The system's reliability, however, must be improved. The experiment on sheep gave negative answers, but we're working to get funding so that new testing on sheep can be done.

We will also try to get to testing on cattle. We will inform about this later.

It was made a short and simple movie that shows how the animals react by using NoFence.

Media coverage has almost become a habit. Here is some links to some of the recent coverage. Unfortunately all of this coverage is in norwegian.

Television channel NRK1. Here.

The newspaper Nationen 22. September. Here.

Web article at norsklandbruk.no

Best regards, NoFence by Oscar Hovde Berntsen