We have a small farm on the cusp of a residential area - we are surrounded by other small farms, some with horses, other livestock etc.
We can see a lot from our house, and have cameras in place, but wondering about how other people in similar environments discourage people from entering a property when it’s quite possible to pop over a fence at night! We are re fencing the perimeter this summer - so extra ideas there are welcome 
Short of a night watchman, a correctly working strand of hotwire on the top of the fence line, lower places if needed, is about the best you can do.
What exactly are you are concerned about – that someone will jump a fence to play/mess with your animals, or to break into your house? Or maybe just cut through your property?
To be honest, I’ve never really given it much thought. I’m far more worried about the consequences of an animal getting out than a person getting in. My horses are not valuable enough that anyone might want to steal them…and I’m not sure anyone in my neighborhood would be interested in doing more than possibly feeding a handful of grass or a dropped apple from a roadside tree.
Good fences are always good; you could electrify them if you are really worried.
Perimeter fencing was a top priority when I moved here. I also have motion lights on my house, shop and the front of the barn. Plus ADT alarm signs front and back. I’m not paranoid, honest, but I think all of those are deterrents.
At least, it’s worked so far.
Driveway alarm, although that won’t stop/notify of people hopping the fence. But useful if somebody thinks they’re going to roll in and steal stuff at night.
Same here
In 17yrs on my small (5ac) farmette, I’ve never worried about Intruders.
I leave the back door from the garage unlocked & just lock the screen/storm door in front.
In case of emergency, my friends know about that back door.
While my nearest neighbors are also on small acreages, just a mile down the road are 5 different subdivisions.
Same for perimeter properties - more subdivisions.
I moved here from a Big City (pop. 2 million+) and feel safer here.
Though, to be honest, I did leave my doors unlocked there too, but had an alarm system.
In my metro area, most of the acreages now have electric gates with a passcode. I think security on the other sides depends on your neighbors. My impression is that folks here “harden” the road frontage which can include a ditch, a big hedge, and the electric gate. Much of our rural areas traditionally had huge road side ditches that meant you could only enter by the designated driveway, but those are disappearing.
My impression is that horse folks don’t worry too much about hardening the other perimeters if they back onto other similar rural properties. If all the farms have good front gate security, and the property owners are responsible, all you need are good stock fences.
Things would differ if you backed onto s park, a public walkway, a housing subdivision, a school, or an empty lot or bad neighbors. In that case you’d want to think about strategically hardening that particular fenceline.
Honestly here in the PNW your best bet might be to let the Himalayan blackberries take over your fenceline. They will quickly produce a 20 foot tall mound of the closest thing to razor wire thatvnature makes. Plus they are edible to horses.
I would do a driving tour and see how all your direct neighbors manage their front gate security. I would look at Google Earth to see how the properties interlock. I would observe my neighbors and get to know them by name, see their land use patterns.
If your neighbors are halfway responsible small farmers they will respect fence lines instinctively and never want to get into your pastures. And anyone that sneaks into their property is unlikely to then sneak over to yours.
If you do want to harden the backside stock fences, electric wire is a great idea because people don’t like to mess with it.
If you do have crazy neighbors on one side, you can think about selectively improving that fencing.
If you do put electric wire on top of your fence, make sure you have the adequate warning signs
attached to fence. Here, it’s every 50 ft. for a warning sign.
A locked front gate on the driveway is another great deterrent.
This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. My barn is immediately next to a popular vineyard (as in, essentially the same area since it used to be part of our farm) and much of the field fronts a dirt road that is popular with walkers. And, my horses are very people oriented. My concern is two fold: the horses being fed things they shouldn’t be fed (either poisonous or choke hazardous) and the liability of two massive draft horses getting up close and personal. The latter is a matter between me and my insurance company, but is made easier by hot fencing that is well maintained and well off the road, along with signage. By appropriate fencing, I mean it is high strength hot tape that runs at ‘bear strength’ and has a top strand that is almost five feet high. In some cases it is higher, because it runs above a five foot tall stone wall. And, that stone wall, is behind the road ditch. I’ve also taken the step of reducing my pasture space, the horses are no longer able to go around the south side of the barn, which made them visible to the winery parking lot. Nor can they get close to the road in a couple of sections where the stone wall and ditch is not a significant barrier.
With the house lot, my take is unobtrusive ‘hardening’. The house sits back behind a long frontage on a state road, it is heavily wooded and many people don’t even see the house in the summer. There is one entrance, monitored. The rest of the frontage has a lush, encouraged growth of poison ivy on the state right of way. We are talking 6 inch tall solid carpet. Along our property line I’ve built a brush fence of deadfall material over the years, with the pointy ends facing out. That is hidden and supported by roughly pollarded/coppiced ‘junk’ maple/locust/ash/whatever on the state right of way. Remarkably effective at keeping the random people out, which had been a problem previously because of the lot’s location.
We are on acreage in the middle of a few million people. At least we are in the center of some fifteen tracks of acreage with five in front, five behind and two on either side
Before you electrify a perimeter fence you better check city/county building codes as an electric here and most if not all areas are restricted to controlling livestock.
On all public sides we are double fence. Primary reason is the animals we have are considered an attractive nuance (as well as their water tanks). Secondary reason is to give our Always present Large German Shepherd Dog an a place to roam and be seen. Also there are three public schools nearby (one middle and two elementary) the kids use the sidewalks to walk to school.
The mentioned driveway alarm… yes those are good to give you notice of some one coming in the drive (these can be arranged to read directional traffic alarming just only incoming traffic), as a suggestion you can also use that device to command a light to turn on (also switch video recording from time sequenced frames to real time) just to provide a visual notice to the intruder that you know they are there.
Automatic gates systems… was my industry for over four decades. Most residential gate systems are mainly used to deflect an intruder to an easier target. (but also can be used to identity a Target as one of wealth, less so in smaller communities as the average Joe there think they know who has wealth that needs to taken ).
Hot fence and a Malinois
the estates I worked on in Mexico either had Very high walls (with glass embedded into the top…they would stick bottles in by the neck then come back breaking the bottles) the walls make the place a compound …or cactus with razor sharp leaves was used as a fence
Well that would work but i’d have to quit my day job to keep the malinois going! you’re a good dog person. We do have a new mid-size dog in training but so far she’s leaning towards too prey-driven / horse chasey to leave too loose. Might be the new house dog…
That’s really interesting about the gates! We have a low crummy noisy one now, which i think is great…but easy to pop over. No one would ever sneak a trailer or car in…so that’s good! I like your double fence idea - likely what we’ll land on here.
it was suggested but not required by our insurance carrier… and I did do work for the government on prisons and sensitive buildings for the Department of Treasury (triple fenced with two dead zones on that project… rake smooth sand in between to show signs of intrusion) so the concept was not new to me.
But seeing the kids walking to school on the sidewalk out front every day often they will look at the horses and animals as they pass by
By the way, if you are planning on a driveway entrance that will use swing gates… please do not hang the gates in the center of a pretty column as that looks pretty but makes installation of an automate operator not impossible but nearly impracticable. It is better to mount the gates at the back edge of a column
But for ultimate security use a sliding gate as these can be built and installed in a manor that is not only crash resistant but impossible to crash. Just be aware the speed of slide gate for a residential application is restricted to no more than one foot per second. A twenty foot opening if traveling the full distance will require forty seconds to run a open close cycle (that are approved methods of provide a quick close option, but rarely if ever is it used for homes)
A standard swing gate system will require between 15 to 25 second to open then 15/20 seconds to close and there is not much that can be done to improve that speed.
And one last note, there is still the Federal Tax Credit for alternative energy such as solar. This is a bottom line tax credit that puts money back into your pocket. Just be sure to use equipment designed to use solar as its primary power. These system will allow devices that are not required to basically go to sleep until needed then awaken when the system is operational. Even afterwards if installed as a solar system the system can be changed to using grid power. However there is one advantage in the solar designed system which is battery backup is incorporated.
The Malinois is “extra” lol. She does a jam up job at barking. Currently barking at the squirrels that dare approach 
.
I think any dog that will bark and has presence is a good deterrent.
That’s such great info - thank you @Clanter! This weekend I’m going to go for a drive to see if there are examples around i want to copy - thinking a double fence is going to be best. Definitely a fan of solar if / when it works.
After catching a whole family of people having a picnic on the property (right next to the pasture!) on the game cam last year, we’re following new england tradition and building a stone wall on the property line. There’s just too much liability to have people wandering around the property.
The issue, IMO, is that fences and signage and such really just keep the rules-followers out. It’s the people who don’t care about your property lines that are more worrisome, and they just don’t care about boundaries. They’ll go over a fence plastered with “no trespassing” signs and get pissed when they get hurt doing it
solar is just one aspect of the tax credit program, Renewable energy tax credits are also for fuel cells, small wind turbines, and geothermal heat pumps
OMG @Simke i hope my husband doesn’t see this one - he’s obsessed with building a stone wall around his market garden. He has 1/5th done so far…it’s hard work!
You’re right that rule followers follow…i want to make sure of no bad guys
Growing my thorny hedgerow…but of course that takes time!
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