The problem is, sheep haven't seen Star Wars
LAST week I came across another case of farming being set to benefit from an idea which could be straight out of the pages of science fiction book or a spin-off from the latest big-budget space movie.
For a research farm in Scotland has received a big grant to investigate how lasers might be used instead of fences on some of Scotland’s hills and fields.
Now, in my mind at least, the idea immediately conjured up visions of a small puff of smoke appearing as the creature unlucky enough to meet the barrier passed through it – only to fall into two pieces on the other side.
But apparently I’ve an over-active imagination – and I’m told it’s not going to work anything like that.
The scientist I was speaking to admitted that the research was in its very early stages – and that he hadn’t even seen the sort of equipment they’d be using yet, but he assured me that the lasers would only deter the animals rather than hurt or punish them.
These focused pulses of light are already used at some airports to keep birds off the runways – and all they do is scare them rather than frying them like something out of Star Wars. Farmers can even buy laser bird scarers to keep birds off their crops now – although my own excitement was quelled when I saw how much they cost.
However price might well be on the laser’s side when it comes to fencing – as the normal wire variety is one of the biggest costs on hill farms.
In fact it’s way too expensive to put up much in the way of new fencing these days – and even costly to repair old ones once you tot up the price of wire, posts and especially the labour needed to make a decent job.
But as lasers can easily be effective at distances of up to 3km, one of them could certainly replace a lot of fencing.
One big problem though is the fact that lasers pretty much move in straight lines and getting a straight run of any distance on Scotland’s hills could be difficult.
The other issue would be that while humans have active imaginations – and most of us have seen Star Wars – sheep suffer from neither of these drawbacks.
And while a high-tech laser fence might discourage poor walkers and ramblers from tramping the hills – our woolly friends who don’t know they should be worried by lasers might just ignore them altogether and roam freely across the countryside.
To put the sheep straight we should maybe screen one of the films at clipping time – The Empire Strikes Baa-ck perhaps?