7 Essential Steps
Getting started with Skygraze Virtual Fencing is quick and easy, but to ensure everything runs smoothly, there are a few essential steps you need to follow.
For the best possible results, it is important to first understand how the technology works, both for you and your animals. This helps reduce the risk of stressful situations and ensures that the system works as intended. You need to understand how the system works, how the app is structured, how to fit the collars correctly, how to train your animals, and how to design grazing areas and position virtual boundaries so that they are easy for the animals to understand.
By taking the time to prepare, you help create a safe and positive experience for your animals and a smooth start for yourself. Explore the information available here on our website and in the app, including written guides, illustrations and short video tutorials.
Step 1: Download the app
Download the Skygraze app to your mobile phone and log in to your account. This is where you set up your farm and get started with the system.
👉 Find out how to download and install the app here.
Step 2: Get to know the app and our guides
Before you start training your animals, you need to understand how the system works yourself. Explore Skygraze’s information materials and watch our short instructional videos.
Learn how the system works for animals, including audio cues and electric pulses.
Familiarise yourself with the app’s different features, such as adding animals, creating grazing areas and moving animals between them.
👉 Find all Skygraze information materials and guides here.
Step 3: Try it out yourself with the collar in your hand
Test the technology yourself before putting the collars on your animals.
Create a test paddock in the app and try crossing the virtual boundary with a collar in your hand. As long as you do not touch the chain, you will not receive an electric pulse.
Listen to the audio cue and observe in the app how the system responds when you turn back or go too far.
Step 4: Fit the collars on your animals
Once you understand how the system works, it is time to fit the collars.
All adult animals in the herd must wear a collar.
Secure the animals appropriately (especially cattle) to ensure safe and accurate fitting.
Adjust the collar size so that it is neither too loose nor too tight.
👉 Find out how to fit and adjust the collars correctly here.
Step 5: Train your animals in a physically fenced paddock
Set up a training paddock in a safe environment close to the farm.
Training must always take place in a physically fenced paddock.
Allow approximately one week for training.
Give the animals time to get used to the collars and the training paddock before activating the first virtual boundary.
Start with one virtual boundary in a flat, open area and continue training until all animals consistently turn back in response to the audio cue.
Gradually introduce additional boundaries and move them step by step.
👉 Find out how to prepare for training and set up your training paddock here.
👉 Follow our step-by-step guide to training your animals here.
Step 6: Go live in your intended grazing area
Once all animals consistently turn back in response to the audio cue, regardless of where you place the boundary, they are ready to be moved to their intended grazing area.
Start with simple boundary layouts and gradually introduce more complex ones.
When positioning your boundaries, remember to consider the location of water sources, the terrain and any existing physical fences.
👉 Find out what to consider when designing your grazing areas here.
Step 7: Inform the local community
If your grazing areas are frequently used by, or accessible to, members of the public, it may be a good idea to let people know that you are using virtual fencing. This helps reduce the risk of unwanted encounters or misunderstandings with passers-by.
Ahead of the 2027 grazing season, Skygraze will launch features and materials to help you do this, including:
Signs and ready-to-use information texts explaining that the animals are managed using virtual fencing.
The option to share information about animal locations via QR codes.
👉 Find information and materials to share with the public here.