A casual interest in all things GPS-related led me to stumble across a great story on CNN about “Old West cattle herding with a 21st century twist”. Boffins from the USDA and MIT have combined to create the Ear-A-Round:
The wireless headset… has stereo earphones that transmit sounds directly into the cow’s ears to guide its movement. Powered by a small solar energy panel, the unit contains a GPS device to monitor a cow’s location and movement… Researchers hope the device will give ranchers and farmers the ability to herd cattle from afar
Now, while this may sound comical - lazy ranchers directing their cows from the comfort of air conditioned offices like air traffic controllers watching dots dancing on green screens - and a possible threat to the future of old-fashioned cowboys, the story has one real nugget: “Another potential benefit would be eye-friendly vistas that have no fences.”
My knowledge of the end of the Old West era centres on the fencing in of the prairies, the widespread adoption of barbed wire - ‘The Devil’s Rope’ - and the bloody period known as ‘The Fence Cutter Wars‘. Inventors like Joseph Glidden made a fortune, the invention changed cattle country beyond recognition and radically reduced the need for armies of line-riders.
Barbed wire fences are such a part of Western history there’s even a museum dedicated to the preservation of antique barbs in McLean, Texas.
Imagine then if technology conquers the need for fences and the west returns to a wide open space, unhindered by man-made barriers? ‘Virtual paddocks’ replace ranch fencing and the Open Range is open again.
