Next time your dispatcher dictates a route to you, thank heaven you’re talking to a human who can, theoretically at least, be reasoned with. Some of the nation’s cattle ranchers are experimenting with a device similar to an electrified dog collar to eliminate the expense of building long fences to keep their herds within the ranch’s borders. These “GPS-enhanced cows,” as CNN money called them, wear a harness over their ears that tracks their locations and, depending on how close they are to the ranch’s borders, can play various sounds to lure them back to the corral.
Experimenting with the technology, New Mexico rancher Dean Anderson put his pre-recorded voice into the system, saying “>Come on, girls” at 30-second intervals, as CNN reported. “Result: The herd began moving toward the corral in a stop-and-go pattern that corresponded precisely to the auditory cues.”
