A Montana Rancher's Vence Story
Tyrel Obrecht is a fifth-generation rancher in north central Montana who has turned to Vence to create more grazing opportunities, retain more replacement females and save time.
“I've always been interested in holistic management,” shares Obrecht. “We're definitely in a drier climate where I wouldn't say we grow a ton of grass.”
Knowing his climate, Obrecht understands there is a balance with being conservative with forage utilization and optimizing carrying capacity to improve profits. After returning to the ranch, he first looked toward cross fencing and water development as solutions.
He said, “From a labor and material standpoint, that's a pretty daunting task.”
Fortunately, a family friend who was already using Vence and a friend with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) were able to introduce him to the technology and available cost-share opportunities.
“We had some cost-share with WWF and we decided one winter to scratch what we had originally intended and try these collars instead,” said Obrecht. “World Wildlife put up the money to help us get a couple towers and paid a significant portion of the first year and then we agreed to try them for two more years after.”
This cost-share opportunity not only reduced the financial risk of trying virtual fence but also made senior generations more receptive to trying it as well. He said, “I had a lot of support and free reign to go forward and try it.”
Obrecht has used Vence for three years on his replacement heifers. The decision to collar yearlings versus mature cows was based on cost-savings and available grazing opportunities.
He said, “We're doing this on our deeded property where we have a little bit better water developed.”
Overall, Obrecht has been pleased with the functionality of this technology and the ease of implementation.
“I've trained cattle three times. Within 10 to 11 days, I'm very close to 100% compliance,” says Obrecht.
It doesn’t take long after the training period to start seeing the short-term benefits from Vence. Moving groups can be scheduled on the computer dashboard and the new phone app allows him to make sure all the cows are where they are supposed to be from anywhere.
“In my opinion, the dashboard on the computer is super easy,” explained Obrecht. “You can create landmarks, add water tanks and have a lot of different options to kind of manage your herd.”
Obrecht is also satisfied with the pregnancy rates on their heifers who are being bred in a prairie pothole region.
He said, “I think we're managing that plane of nutrition better in May, June, and July by keeping them in in front of fresh grass.”
He is also running more yearlings on the same number of acres than the generation before him, because the collars and heat maps give him more insight on how much rest different areas of the pasture received over the course of the summer.
“Even though I was in a pasture in June, eighty percent of that pasture got rest for the entirety of the month,” says Obrecht. “There's a lot of there's a lot of benefit there.”
Obrecht encourages producers recognize opportunities within the cattle markets and cost-share programs before investing in this technology.
He said, “You're spending fifty dollars a head on your existing herd. If you can run another fifty yearlings right now, I mean what does that do for your cash flow?”
Vence is proving to provide a number of primary and secondary benefits to ranchers. Consider how the combination of them impact your profit as a rancher when you weigh the ROI for your own ranch.
Listen to the full conversation on the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast.
