Farmer-stockman Greg Thoren believes if you take care of the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves. His recent adoption of GPS-enabled virtual fencing to graze his cattle takes care of many pennies.

In 2019 Thoren and his wife, Janis, switched their diversified farming operation, with its 160-head commercial Angus herd and its custom feeding and freezer beef business to a 100% no-till enterprise that depends upon year-round cover cropping and intensive adaptive grazing. 

Thoren Farm is located near Stockton, Ill., in the far northwestern corner of the state.

“The adoption of total regenerative management was a drastic move that wasn’t silky smooth,” says Thoren, adding it allowed him to quit insecticides and fungicides “cold turkey” — along with the expense of tech-stacked hybrids and costly seed treatments. 

Aside from limited use of liquid fertilizer, the move to soil-health-conscious farming also eliminated the farm’s traditional commercial fertilizer purchases.

Similarly, in 2024 with the same economic mindset, Thoren made a significant investment in virtual fencing for his cow herd, but he believes the expenditure will pay for itself in 18 months. He figures the electronic collars add about 4 hours a day to his clock so he can tend to other farm chores rather than rolling and stringing poly wire.

Bottomline Economics

Although Thoren had been no-tilling and seeding…