Augmented reality goggles let farmers see facilities through a cow’s eyes

The University of Wisconsin – River Falls Humane Handling Institute is using augmented reality goggles that simulate bovine vision, showing users the cow’s 300-degree panoramic view, dichromatic color perception limited to blue and yellow shades, lack of depth perception and slow adjustment to light changes. The German-developed Animal Eye Simulator has already helped the university identify improvements at the research center.

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Australian climate tech company Rumin8 has secured US$3 million from New Zealand public-private partnership AgriZeroNZ to accelerate commercialization of its methane-reducing feed additives for cattle. A recent 120-day trial with Minerva Foods and the University of São Paulo demonstrated a 50.4% reduction in methane emissions and a 5% improvement in feed conversion efficiency in Nelore cattle under commercial feedlot conditions. The product achieved provisional registration in New Zealand in 2024 and will shortly commence pivotal trials, with its technology reproducing the compound found in red seaweed through a low-cost, scalable manufacturing process.

—From Rumin8 press release

Fourth-generation Idaho rancher Alan Williams switched to virtual fencing after elk destroyed $27,000 in new fence just two weeks after installation. GPS-enabled collars from companies like Halter, Nofence, Vence and Gallagher allow ranchers like Williams to draw pasture boundaries on a phone app, moving cattle without building physical barriers. The Property and Environment Research Center calls it a rare “win-win” where ranching and conservation both thrive – with 620,000 miles of fence across the West, removing barriers could benefit wildlife migrations while giving ranchers what one vendor calls “an unlimited fencing budget.”

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The Sheridan Community Land Trust is launching a three-year pilot project to make virtual fencing accessible to ranchers running 10-50 head of cattle – operations typically too small for systems built around larger herds. The Wyoming-based land trust will hold the master agreement, provide collars, cover internet fees and pay half the annual subscription cost, reducing per-collar costs from $90 to $45 annually. The pilot will work with five to 10 producers managing up to 250 total head, building on its experience implementing virtual fencing on nearly 1,000 cattle locally while testing how the technology performs on smaller, often fragmented ground.

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News reports were summarized from original sources with artificial intelligence (AI) and edited by the author.

Projected profitability for the next 12 months for two dairy herd sizes INCREASED in recent profit projections from ZISK.

ZISK is a profit projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.

12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of April 24, 2026):

1,000-cow dairy = $277,200 (UP about $131,200 in the last month)

2,500-cow dairy = $1.94 million (UP about $508,000 in the last month)