“Virtual fencing won’t replace barbed wire anytime soon; it doesn’t always work, and it’s hard to bet one’s livelihood on new technology.”
The pitch is a West without barbed wire. Shock collars, an app, done. The reality is collars that broke off by the hundreds and dropped quarter-pound lithium batteries across a Montana ranch. Nobody has torn down a meaningful amount of fence. Ranchers rent the collars every year and keep the wire anyway.