A little fencing

I’ve been promising to write about fencing for some time, so I thought I would start out with our sheep fence.   At this point in our farming operations, we now are only using sheep for mowing and weeding purposes.  Even with electric fencing our predator problems were too great to expand in this area too much.  Lamb is a popular meat though, and if you can fit sheep into your existing farm endeavors, I think this type of portable electric fence works very well.

I have found that most fencing companies and salesmen and then the farmers try to make electric fencing more difficult and expensive than it needs to be.  This fence is a little spendy, I think we paid $100 per 100 foot section, but that was ten years ago, and breaking that down, that only works out to $10 a year per section.  That is pretty cheap for something that is so darn handy.

Basic needs for fencing:
♣  An energizer or charger of some type – electric, battery, solar, and 1 or 2 ground rods.

♣  Fencing – wire, netting, or rope, most dependent on what species of animal you have.

♣  Misc tools and supplies – insulators, posts, hammer, recycled welding wire spools, etc

♣  A good attitude – an electric fence is a psychogical tool, not a torture device.  If you’re of the mindset of forcing your livestock everywhere, then build strong permanent fence and get yourself some dogs, and ATV’s and have at ‘er.

This is Premier1 Electronet.  We have used Premier’s poultry netting, and this sheep fence for over 10 years.  I have to say it is a great product, holding up to much abuse. 

If you’re not familiar with this type of fencing the horizontal wires are electric and the vertical struts are not.  When I am using it during the grazing season I usually just leave it lying like this, near the next grazing area.  For long term storage it should be rolled and bundled to avoid tangling.

This day I was going to start the sheep on the main garden headland.  They need to eat, and I want to keep the grass short to keep  the voles from getting too comfy, since fall is rapidly approaching, and my root crops are developing.  Clean tillage and short grass is the bane of a vole’s life.  I would rather spend 10 minutes setting up fence than I would 1/2 hour or more changing implements on the tractor and getting ready to mow. 

Pick up the fence and drag it to where you want to start, making sure you keep the wire from tangling in the post ends.  When that happens you wish you would have just went and beat your brains out on the three point hitch, *&#!!&  and mowed with the tractor. 

 To start put your beginning post in the ground (not shown) and then walking backwards, feed out the next post, laying the fencing where you want to have your fence line.  I am not a fan of step- in posts, but this is a good place to use them.  You can tie the first post to a step-in post or to anything fixed where you start.  Or if you’re like me you just stab it in the bushes and call it good.  A lot depends on the animal and what you are trying to keep them out of, like the garden for instance. 

 This shows the fence starting somewhere in that hedge…and I am walking backwards feeding out the fence. 

After the fence is laid out, go back to the beginning and put in all the posts, keeping the fence taut, but not overly so.  In soft dirt this is pretty easy.  

 Make sure that the bottom wire (non-conductive) is all that is touching the metal part of the post. 

In sod, or very dry conditions, wiggle the plastic post a little as you are pushing down.  I have found in some of our poorer pastures, that locating this near a dandelion works better.  The dandelion root is making your soil better, and the earthworms will be concentrated there too, making the soil softer and more friable. 

If you want to make a corner, or irregular shaped paddock, use a step-in post.  This is a Power Post from Premier.  They work pretty good and we bought them when we purchased the fencing.  They are a little brittle though, so I always store them in the shade when not in use. 

 If you need to get in or out of your fence you can just step it down.  It makes the sheep think you have magical powers  

 Insert sheep.  

With three sheep, and the conditions of the grass, I will probably leave them 3 days, and then build another fence section to move them into.

 Run power to the fence.  

I just run a spool of wire from the charger, or nearby electric fence, to the wire in any place that is convenient for me, it doesn’t have to be wired to the end of the netting.  The wire is wrapped on the spool, and and looped to the top wire of the netting, then the spool is just resting on top of the rebar post.

Not your fancy clips and reels that you see for sale.  But works for us!

It’s easy to spend a lot of money on all the supplies in the catalogs, but it’s not necessary.  I move fence everyday.  Simple rules I learned about thread when I learned to sew as a child can be applied to wire.  I can make my fencing harder to do physically, or I can work smart and make it go easy.  A geared reel is not the end all of a fence.  But, appearances can be more important, than frugality and functionality.  I’ve been happy with our hick style fencing supplies.  Hick style is a good way to start, and if you want to work up to buying all the reels and other add-ons you can.  But this has and does serve us well.

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