Large Acreage Fencing

[dani0303]

Ok guys, speak to me of fencing for large acreage.

I have a contractor coming out next weekend to give me an estimate on fencing. I have 80 acres that I need to fence and cross fence but it will be done in stages (10-20 acre parcels) to save on my wallet.

Right now I have 3 well behaved horses who respect fences but we’re likely going to get cattle (~10 head) in the next year or 2 so the fence will have to do double duty. Barbed wire is very, very prevalent and cheap in this area of the country but I loathe it.

I’m thinking 3 strand smooth wire with electric run across the top. That would be the safest and most economical that I can think of for the size of the property. Do cows respect electric? Any other safe and economical options that I may be missing? If it helps our climate is very dry and very windy. Not quite a desert but definitely the high plains.

TIA!

[csaper58]

@dani0303

I’m thinking 3 strand smooth wire with electric run across the top. Do cows respect electric?
TIA!

The cattle I know would go under just one strand of electric wire, and thru the 3 smooth strands. YMMV

[goodhors]

I would advise more strands and make them hot, both for cattle and horses. Big spacing of wires tempts them reaching thru. Cattle can easily be very hard on fences. We had high tensile wire installed professionally. They told us 8 strands for horses. The fancy cattle farm who raises bulls and prize winning steers, had 14 strands on their fences. It held in fighting cows during weaning. Husband watched the angry cows hit the wire and bounce off, uninjured! He was impressed, so we had the same company put I our fences. It has been terrific fence for us over many years. Certainly never had any “cheesecutter” injuries like happen with only 2 or 3 strands. An actual cheese cutter only needs one wire to cut with, using more wires would make too much cheese resistance, not cut at all. Not using enough strands has given high tensile wire a bad name because of it being wrongly installed. But how many wires you use is your choice. I have seen our horses hit the wire in a panic, get thrown back, had no marks on them. Usually a stupid young or new horse. Visual barrier of multiple wires works well when the power is out, they leave it alone.

You will need to keep wire clean of plants so it stays hot, or aimals will be running thru the wire to get in or out. I mean REALLY hot so cattle won’t ignore the electric feeling. Cattle have very thick hides, even as calves. Don’t make any field or paddocks small, so a group or herd is crowded when they are locked in there. ONE bossy bully, horse or cow, can push another animal into the fence in tight spaces. No room to escape. Then frightened one gets hurt in the wire trying to escape by jumping or pushing thru wires.

Get wide gates to allow large equipment thru, several animals at once, without crowding. A bottleneck at a gate moving animals can have cattle breaking posts. All our gates are 14ft which has worked pretty well for us. Get driven posts if possible. They go in faster, stay solid over the years. Some kinds of land don’t allow the use of a post driver, but it does great work if you can use it.

[Guilherme]

With cattle and this acreage you’ll need barbed wire. That has been the standard for almost 150 years. There can be wisdom in history!!!

To keep horses off barbed wire run one or two strands of electric wire inside the fence using “standoff” insulators.

I have just over 100 acres of pasture/hay land and the perimeter is all barbed wire. In the almost 30 years I’ve lived here in East TN I’ve NEVER had a perimeter incident with barbed wire.

One way to reduce the risk of incidents is to “buzz cut” (mow very short) along the fence. And keep the vegetation under control on both sides of the fence. If there is nothing to eat there horse will generally not hang out there. And if there’s nothing to eat under the fence it’s unlikely they’ll stick their noses there. This is not a guarantee of perfect safety but a reasonable approach.

Good luck in your program.

G.

[wireweiners]

I agree with G. Use barbed wire and a hot wire at the top. Its standard around here too. Smooth wire can cause injuries as bad or worse than barb wire.

[sherian]

I suspect the type of cattle you have will make a big difference - I ran beef steers with 3 strand of plain electric with no problem - but all three very hot electric, low stocking density, big pasture with lots of grazing so they weren’t very motivated to test the fence.
had a neighbour’s dexter heifers pastured on my farm for a bit - they wiggled through the barb wire like limbo dancers as the fence was for full sized cattle - so whatever you use spacing is key!

[dani0303]

Ugh I hate barbed so much. It’s what we have now in the dry lot and while I haven’t had any major problems I’m tired of getting my clothes caught on it and have fly masks ripped off.

[Guilherme]

I don’t have any particular love for it, either, but I understand its utility in certain circumstances.

Every fencing material has two jobs: keep something in and keep something out. Every fencing material carries risks both to what’s inside and what’s outside.

Fence to the needs of the operation.

G.

[Onetrickpuppy]

@goodhors

You will need to keep wire clean of plants so it stays hot, or aimals will be running thru the wire to get in or out. I mean REALLY hot so cattle won’t ignore the electric feeling. Cattle have very thick hides, even as calves…

I know one local rancher who got so tired of his bull getting through the electric fence that he had an electrician increase the voltage on the top strand to 220v. The bull never got out again.

[Bluey]

@dani0303

Ugh I hate barbed so much. It’s what we have now in the dry lot and while I haven’t had any major problems I’m tired of getting my clothes caught on it and have fly masks ripped off.

Barbed wire is not for smaller spaces, where a horse may be more apt to be run into/thru the fence by another.

We have cattle so the larger pastures have barbed wire, had that for over 100 years here and very, very few times a horse was injured on it and it would have been injured on any fence, like when a mountain lion ran them thru the fence, or a foal was knocked into a fence in a bad storm.
Then, we don’t use barbed wire in small spaces and keep it very tight and in the smaller horse pastures, we have the past decades put T-post caps and electric wire on it, just in case a new horse may not respect barbed wire fences enough.

Barbed wire can cause terrible injuries, but some of the worst I saw was on a wood fence.
A horse can get injured any place and barbed wire is not good on principle for horses, but for very long fences, some times, that is the best all around, knowing we take that risk, where it is not practical to do any other.

Our vet told us any smooth wire was worse than barbed wire because horses didn’t respect it like they do barbed wire, so were more apt to hit it and get hurt on it more often.

What to use is a hard decision, if you really have a long fence and not the money to use the much more expensive fencing there like V-mesh, portable panels or such, that is more horse friendly and still will keep cattle in there.

[hosspuller]

For large acreage, I like smooth high tensile on fiberglass posts. Every strand can be electrified and must be. The electric is the barb. Smooth wire, so I can turn the power off and handle the wire easily. Barbed wire cuts and hurts power on or off.

The key to high tensile and horses is power and training. Teach the horse that the wires “bite” and he’ll respect it. The first lesson is getting the horse to touch it with his nose. The nose is sensitive and the first reaction is to pull back away from the fence… which is the desired reaction. Getting a shock on the rear quarter might cause the horse to jump into the fence. It’s a dirty trick but grain held near the wire works well to get that nose to touch the wire.

[HungarianHippo]

yeah, I’d never ever fence a drylot with barb. But a perimeter fence where there would be no over-the-fence interaction, and where there is plenty of forage? I would not have an issue with barb in that scenario. Cattle will lean on and push down fences that don’t give them incentive to not touch the fence. But if there will ever be horses on the other side, or if it’s a containment paddock likd a drylot, where the horses will be looking over at the green grass elsewhere, then I’d do wood or no-climb.

[Palm_Beach]

@HungarianHippo

yeah, I’d never ever fence a drylot with barb. But a perimeter fence where there would be no over-the-fence interaction, and where there is plenty of forage? I would not have an issue with barb in that scenario. Cattle will lean on and push down fences that don’t give them incentive to not touch the fence. But if there will ever be horses on the other side, or if it’s a containment paddock likd a drylot, where the horses will be looking over at the green grass elsewhere, then I’d do wood or no-climb.

Wood and no climb does not stand up to a horse that KNOWS the grass is greener on the other side. You need to put some electric up to keep the horse off the fence.

[dani0303]

@HungarianHippo

yeah, I’d never ever fence a drylot with barb. But a perimeter fence where there would be no over-the-fence interaction, and where there is plenty of forage? I would not have an issue with barb in that scenario. Cattle will lean on and push down fences that don’t give them incentive to not touch the fence. But if there will ever be horses on the other side, or if it’s a containment paddock likd a drylot, where the horses will be looking over at the green grass elsewhere, then I’d do wood or no-climb.

I didn’t put the dry lot fence up. It was there when we bought the house. I’m working to replace it.