On expansive rangelands, a major alteration to the historic grazing patterns is the lack of herd instinct that increased animal density and supported nomadic behavior. It is thought that re-instilling herd instinct into domestic livestock may mitigate the overuse of specific areas on rangelands and improve profit per acre, while supporting more diverse plant communities and wildlife habitat. A new technology is the Herd Instinct Tag (HIT) tha t utilizes audio and electrical stimuli to maintain animals at a defined herd density. HIT does not define borders, but rather tags communicate with each other to maintain herd density based on animal proximity. To test the HIT, 41 Hereford-cross animals were divided into two groups, HIT and control (CON), and evaluated for 5 weeks on the Mimms Division of the Dixon Water Foundation in Marfa, TX. Animals were maintained in separate pastures and recorded weekly to evaluate behavioral changes over time. There were no significant differences between treatments for any animal behaviors. Spatial distribution differed between treatments with the average distance between HIT individuals being 18.3 m, whereas the CON averaged 258.4 m between individuals. Ultimately, there were no indications that HIT affected animal stress levels following the use of HIT for 5 weeks. Animals with HIT successfully maintained a higher herd density but the long-term impacts on animal and rangeland health and production still need to be evaluated.
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