House Agriculture Committee hears update on virtual-fencing pilot for grazing, knotweed control

The House Agriculture Committee on March 19 heard an update on a pilot program using virtual-fencing collars and managed grazing to control invasive vegetation and support farm productivity, and discussed seeking additional funding to expand the project.

The program, run by the AgriTech Institute for Small Farms, tested collar-based virtual fences on several farms in 2024 and produced demonstrations the committee called convincing enough to consider a second-year, smaller-cost expansion. Dan Smith, executive director of the AgriTech Institute for Small Farms, briefed the committee and summarized the pilot and a proposed follow-on budget.

"I'm Dan Smith for the record. I'm the executive director of the AgriTech Institute for Small Farms," Smith said, describing last year's pilots and the institute's plan to continue and extend the work. He told the committee the pilot involved roughly 11 initial sites with eight continuing into follow-up work and that the institute now seeks to add utility sites and a small dairy barn to test use of collars in milking parlors.

Why it matters: committee members framed the technology as a possible tool to reduce labor and chemical use, to manage vegetation under power lines and around solar arrays, and to attack invasive knotweed along riparian corridors. Committee members and presenters discussed public–private funding options and possible partners including utilities, ski areas, the state broadband effort and private foundations.

Smith described practical lessons from the pilot. He said collars can be damaged when animals move through stanchions or parlors and that mechanical protections are needed in barn settings. "The collars hang around the neck and going through the a stanchion or a a parlor that get fanged around and damaged," Smith said, noting modifications and padding can reduce damage. He also described grazing schedules and that multiple timed rotations are required to suppress knotweed regrowth rather than a single pass.

Budget and funding: presenters said the pilot received roughly $200,000 in prior support and that the legislature previously contributed $150,000. Smith said the current request to the legislature is $100,000; he also described private donations and possible in-kind support from utilities as gap funding. He told the committee the institute's current proposal would cost about two-thirds of the prior year's budget because less equipment must be purchased this round.

Applications and partners: committee members and presenters discussed several target uses: small dairy operations (where Smith said collar-driven increases in milk production on a test goat farm made collars pay for themselves within a year), solar-array rotational grazing, utility right-of-way vegetation management, and knotweed removal along riverbanks. Smith said two utilities, Stowe Electric and Washington Electric, participated in the pilot and that others may join with partial cost-sharing. He also described outreach to ski areas and said larger or more innovative ski areas may be easier early partners.

Operational details: Smith described how grazing specialists and herders are used to implement virtual fencing at scale and said the program aims to identify the commercial "sweet spot" where costs and labor savings align. He estimated that about 100 goats can graze 2–3 acres per day as a rule of thumb based on demonstration deployments, and emphasized the need for repeat, scheduled grazing to suppress knotweed rather than a single treatment.

Committee response and next steps: Representative John O'Brien said he supported the proposal in House Agriculture. Committee members asked staff to circulate an executive summary and the full report; Smith said the report and a two-page executive summary are available and he would send electronic copies to committee members. No formal vote or appropriation occurred at the March 19 meeting; members discussed follow-up outreach to appropriations committee members and potential private funders.

Ending: Presenters and committee members agreed the technology merits further testing with careful design of pilot sites and public–private cost-sharing. Staff will circulate the summary report and committee members said they would continue conversations with appropriations and interested partners.