Karly Liffen

I have practical farming experience in large free stall dairy farms and cattle feedlot operations. My previous research has focused on the welfare and behaviour of Australian working horses using the Five Domains Model framework. 

My current project is focused on virtual fencing for dairy and beef cattle in the North of Sweden. The project is funded by the Kempe Foundations as is my current scholarship. My supervisor for the project is Juana Chagas (SLU). My project focuses on Northern Sweden as currently virtual fencing is not allowed to be used in Sweden, so we are assessing its impacts on animal behaviour and welfare, as well as studying virtual fencing in the unique Northern Swedish environment. Northern Sweden has short but intense summer grazing and experiences large temperature variations as well as having a variety of grazing areas (including forests and semi-natural pastures). We are running several trials over 2025 to 2027 including collar validation trials and animal grazing trials for dairy heifers, beef cattle and milking dairy cows.

Virtual fencing for cattle is part of precision livestock farming using technology to help manage livestock. Virtual fencing encompasses the use of collars for cattle and the application of virtual borders, instead of having a physical electric fence. The borders are drawn virtually using the accompanying app, where the collars then use GPS or GNSS networks to assess animal position relative to the drawn boundary. The collars our research is working with are from a Norwegian company Monil, which have not been used in trials before. The cattle are alerted to the boundary by the use of audio cues and if they ignore these cues, they are subject to a mild electrical pulse (less than that of a traditional electric fence). The cattle are subject to the mild electrical pulse a maximum of three times in the same session before they are marked as escaped. The farmer (or researcher) will then be alerted by the system that the cattle have escaped. However, escaped cattle can return to the boundary zone and the collar will reactivate and function as normal if this occurs. Virtual fencing may be a useful tool in strip or rotational grazing systems and where it is not practical to build fences. 

In my spare time I am enjoying travelling Europe and keeping in touch with my family and friends back home!