Rotational Grazing keeps my mind right
Nothing new in the Della department…
I uploaded all the photos for this grazing post several weeks ago, before I got side-tracked with the “dairy division”, and thought I may as well finish it, since I can’t keep my mind off of Della for too long. Some people like crossword puzzles to keep their minds sharp, I like the pulsing effect of rotational grazing myself. It gets me outside every day, clears my head, and gives me something to ponder. Besides that I like the nature of cattle. Rotational grazing allows me to build a relationship with our cattle that I like. Growing up with cattle, chasing, cussing and cajoling them to get them to bend to our will was the norm, I like this method much better. I rarely have to chase them, only cuss at them once in awhile, and spend lots of time cajoling or actually just being their humble servant. I wonder who is working who, often.
Waiting for the fence builder.
I move the cattle every day to a fresh paddock. They calmly wait for me to string up a new fence, and call them. Pretty low stress for all involved. And that is important, because they will be food at some point. I want them to have good thoughts when they see me coming. Who needs more stress in their life? Chasing them with dogs doesn’t work for me, since the cows follow me, I don’t have to push them or force them. I am not saying dogs aren’t necessary in large operations, Bud and Eunice Williams come to mind, but on a small farm, I think chasing livestock with dogs is an unnecessary stressor. JMHO…
My tools and supplies are simple. A pair of gloves, hammer that fits in my back pocket, rebar posts with plastic insulators and re-purposed welding wire spools for the steel fence wire. The post weigh about 1 ½ pounds each and a typical fence this time of year (larger paddocks) is handful of about 8 to 12 posts. And that handful gets lighter with each post that I pound in the soil. So yeah it is some work, but I have to do something to keep me out of trouble. 
Energizer clip un-clipped from the negative terminal. This turns the fence off.
For the most of the electric fence, we use a Pel energizer that utilizes a 12 volt RV battery. The indicator light and the whine of the pulse let you know if your battery is getting weak. I keep an extra battery charged at the ready, in case I need one in a hurry, but the charge usually last 4 – 5 weeks, and the batteries about 4 -5 years. We don’t have power to most of the fields. I “work ” the cattle, (and by that I mean I build their new fence) with the fence off. They know the drill, and wait patiently, while I take down the their back fence and use it for their new front fence, to leapfrog my way across the pasture.
Here is the start of a fence run. We have permanent fencing for the perimeter, which makes a perfect place to start a fencing run. On the backside of the T-post I have used a back- side insulator to run a semi-permanent hot wire to get juice to a remote corner of the pasture. And on the other side I have made a gate loop with a regular T-post insulator and a short length of fence wire. This one happens to have two loops for a different application, but it floated to the top of the bucket so I used it, even though I only needed one loop for my fence. These gate loop insulators are easily moved to a different location.
To build my fence, I pace off about 22 steps and put in a post all the way down the line. Then I walk back and string the wire, I have started to take a small wrap on each post, just to make sure the fence doesn’t come out of the insulator in the next 24 hours in my absence. It takes a few extra seconds per run but it is worth it to me to make sure the fence stays put. As with a permanent fence, position the wire so the stock is pushing it on the post, not off. Meaning have the insulator opening on the stock side. Picture a corral or permanent fence with the boards or wire on the outside of the post, it doesn’t take much pushing to push the board or wire off the posts. The back fence which was the front fence isn’t as critical since the cattle don’t want to go back to the grazed and soiled paddock.
These black insulators last forever, even when a coyote pup uses one for a teething toy.
At the end of the fence line, I use two posts to hold the spool secure. If it intersects another hot wire I just wrap the wire to make a connection and slide the spool over the fence posts. The spool rests on the insulators.
Crossing the hot fence by stepping on it.
For the cattle, I use a single strand of 17g steel wire. If you want to spend more money, get Tipper Tie aluminum. I know for me it was hard to get past the permanent, physical barrier fence mindset. You want to think psychological barrier, inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to put up and take down. For the record I don’t like poly tape, or poly rope fencing, it weakens with repeated spooling and unspooling, and you never know where the weak point in those tiny wires is, you just know that whole piece of fencing is not doing the job. With a smooth wire, I can see it, and if it breaks, I can patch it in seconds. I don’t have to throw all of it away, or find some place that will recycle it. And trust me, the cattle know where that wire is even when it is off – remember it is a psychological barrier. I think the poly tape is so popular because the human can see it, and just the thought of a single wire to keep in cattle is pretty hard to comprehend. If we think temporary we won’t be so inclined to overbuild, and then the fence is temporary. But once we start overbuilding, it becomes too much work to take down everyday and pretty soon the animals don’t get moved often enough and bingo, we are back to semi-permanent fencing with temporary materials and we find other things to do, and the stock gets out. Often times the stock gets blamed, but I have to admit if my stock gets out, it is my fault one way or another. I check my fence every day – if I don’t, I suffer the consequences. To keep the task from becoming onerous, I isolate my paddocks so I am not checking the entire fencing system, just what I need for a few days.
But keeping cattle in a single strand fence means I have to do my part. I move them every day to a fresh paddock, if I don’t they will get hungry and push the fence. Routine is everything to cattle, they appreciate it, and expect it. Rotational grazing can be enjoyable, especially when your cows trust you. My herd is small, made up of all ages, the older ones teach the younger ones how to act. But this would be just as easy with hundreds as it is with 20 head. The first video will show that they are watching me as soon as I go to the gate, they are starting to come towards me, but I always call them anyway, just so they learn to listen to me.
The second video will show how calm they are as they file past me and the wire.
Repugnance zone.
Rotational grazing comes with it’s own vocabulary. When cattle have enough pasture they will avoid their previous manure areas until the manure is broken down, otherwise in a continuous grazing situtation they will eventually be forced out of hunger to graze this grass, which is an invitation to parasite infestation. Increasing the rest period not only lets the grass recover properly, it breaks the parasite cycle.
Tansy Ragwort.
After the cows go through a paddock, weeds I want to eradicate are visible and easy for me to dig out.
Portable electric fencing gives me another tool in land management. I can spot graze the road from one pasture to another and utilize that area around the hayfield without firing up the tractor to mow it, or just driving on it and wasting it. I would much rather spend ten minutes building fence than I would firing up the tractor for a ten minute mowing job. And that doesn’t even count the fuel savings.
Same thing here, the cows can graze in any shape of paddock, add fertilizer and move on. The west end of this hayfield never dries because the Douglas fir trees shade it after 1:00pm, it’s easier to feed the cows on it during the summer than it is to feed them the moldy bales from this spot in the winter.
And in a few days time, what looked pretty rough is now greening up quite nicely.
I don’t have it all figured out, but it is sure a more enjoyable way to use the land and work the cattle, compared to all the chasing and whooping I grew up with.
Food Renegade
Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op
Not that I know any of this, but it makes sense to me!
Paula, thanks!
Thanks for this – an educational post, as always. It’s this level of detail that really helps us wanna’ be’s figure out if this is realistic for us. Takes it out of the theoretical clouds and down to the basics of what it takes.
Della! Maybe next year she’ll make it up to you by being just a little bit early. Not too much.
Hayden, thanks for that, rotational grazing is art and science and everyone’s view of it is different. When I think back to the cows just being free-range and getting their own water, and feed, until we had to corral them and harvest, this seems much easier and less frustrating. It is work, but an efficient mindset can make it easy. A lot of it is like cooking from scratch, you just show up and do the work, it is very simple. I would no more consider not moving the cows than I would not cooking breakfast for my family. And like any job, the right tools make all the difference. As you saw with tractors, it’s not a pretty sight in the wrong hands. Animals and equipment can all have a huge impact on the land, it’s our handling that controls if the impact is good or bad.
Della!! At this point in her life I am just hoping there is a next year!! Not to be morbid but trying to be realistic.
MOH – how do you manage water for the cows, with the creeping pasture pattern?
My dad raised hogs. We used everything from the stockman stick, verbal entreaty and vituperative, to a section of a sheet of plywood to move animals around.
In later life I got interested in horses, and picked up a 45″ “wand” as Linda Tellington-Jones calls it (“Getting In TTouch” was my first TTEAM book). This simple chunk of fiber glass rod is used as a visual tool, to indicate to the horse what you are looking for when working on the ground for training.
It works pretty well for cows, too. I help a neighbor sometimes to move and sort cows. I find that using the stick as a walking stick, it emphasizes my movements or when I stop. Swinging wide from side to side and tapping the ground is an emphatic “move on” signal. Unlike my neighbor’s nephew, I will hold the rod in front of the cow’s face, without touching. I have seen many cows run straight through a horrible whack to the face or elsewhere, and a lot of them turn from the rod being held in front of them. I know which I prefer to do. Often, if a cow is looking like she wants to mosey on past me, opposite to the direction we are trying to herd the bessies, I can hold the stick by the handle, let it dangle from my hand, and wiggle the end in a circle – and the direction of the circle often convinces the cow to turn that way.
Unlike my neighbor’s grandson, I understand that using the rod for a visual signal means that it is always on “loud”. I try to never fidget with the stick, never use it to tap stuff, poke at things, or tap cows already going where I wanted (it teaches them to flinch, kick, and bolt off). I have my “Pretty girl” and “Hey, girl” to encourage continuing in the same direction. I found that using low-toned words helps calm; high-pitched shouts carry better and more clearly to human ears; I am not so sure about cows. And I found that the “Aunt Jemima” jingle and “San Antonio Rose” work nicely, too, to ease working with cows that don’t get a lot of handling, maybe every other month or so.
One of the surprising resources for getting the cows to “work better” for me, was the teachers book “Tools for Teaching”. Somehow learning more about classroom discipline (I was a substitute teacher for a short while) translated to working cows more easily, too. Part of what worked was taking responsibility for my own body language and reducing the “noise” that random movements cause.
In the words of a past President of the US, I walk softly and carry a big stick. The stick makes a nice visual cue.
Brad K., good question – the post was getting too long, so I didn’t mention the water since I had written about it before. I forget that blogging is a fleeting relationship and that most readers are new or one-timers so I need to keep repeating myself…
And to answer that, I move the water trough each day, or sometimes I can get two days out of one move of the trough by splitting the trough with the fence. I pretty much know what they will drink in a day, which depends on temperature, grass condition and rainfall. They have drank 15 gallons in 2 days with our recent winter weather. Third coldest May in 60 years, Brrr.
Their mineral box gets moved too each day.
Good tips on the handling with Tellington-Jones. A friend of mine newish to cows is using Pat Parelli techniques on her cows and it is working quite well. She had a friend come over the other day to help her with a new dairy heifer, and he was quite “noisy.” The heifer took off at a trot when she saw him. Everyone else, including noisy young kids had not fazed this cow, just his stride and demeanor sent her off in the opposite direction.
I just love how it is YOU that is the farmer. I just help Terry, he is the farmer the study(er) of the land, the planter of the crops and the fence builder. Although, I two am a watcher of the soil and I understand the weather and the weather processes in our arid high desert mesa, and I understand the growing of seeds.
You are the real deal, you know.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
Linda, thanks – but I think Terry would agree that what you do is just as important – always complimenting each other with your different skills
Although we never worked in an area quite as small as this (though then again, we had a lot more feeders at the time than you do in your operation), we employed rotational grazing when Dad was working his farms, from the time I was a small child. We moved cattle weekly from pasture to pasture, always leaving a pasture to grow in the absence of livestock. We kept our herds in rank – the fresh-weaned calves got the small lot close to the barn, and as they matured, were moved to bigger and bigger lots. The ‘oldest’ groups were always the best-behaved, naturally, and knew when they saw horses, it was time to move. People always had trouble figuring out how a middle-aged man and his barely-teenage daughter could work, sort, doctor and move 1100 head in less than a day. All it takes is training your stock. A little bit of work in the beginning will save you a ton in the end.
Echoing MOH and Brad, both, I grew up spending a lot of time in the local stockyards, where the majority of moving was barely accomplished by a lot of whacking, poking, prodding and hollering. It usually resulted in several extra minutes of turning back, retrieving and mix-ups. In a stockyards, where screwing up should be at a minimum! Co-op (or Hallway Feeds, one) put out a pamphlet a couple of years back that resonated with me – as ‘Hey, we’ve been doing that for years! Why is it just now in print?’ – on using a prey animal’s personal space as the primary tool to encourage them to move as you like. Any animal will move away from pressure; it’s how we train our horses, our dogs. Why not our stock? It doesn’t require a thump or a thwack from a sorting stick or a rattle paddle, just a small movement or word from the off-side, whether you’re on a horse or a-foot. Saves you and the stock a lot of undue mental stress.
Kate, great comment – how I wish I knew all this when we had more cattle and rented a larger place for summer pasture…but I agree heartily once you learn the pressure points and the nature of the animal it makes the handling so much easier.
Sometimes with a complicated move, just leaving my gloves or my shirt on the ground will stop or turn the cows depending on placement of the clothing. Works like a charm every time, and lets me work by myself.
I used to have a dairy farm. 50 milkers and as many young stock. Never had to chase cows. If one didn’t show up when I called it meant she either had calved or there was something seriously wrong. My cows knew who had the grain. Also, they were treated well. Lots of talking to them, brushing and back scratches. Cows know when pe0ple like them.
Only once did I raise an Angus/Holstein steer for beef. He was a bigger baby than the milk cows. Such a baby that it was hard to kill him so I never raised a dedicated beef animal again. From then on we just ate the cull dairy animals. Lots of hamburg and stew.
Sheila, I am just the opposite, I have no trouble eating beefers, but I can’t bring myself to eat one of my milk cows. I guess it has to do with the number of them I suppose. It’s funny what you say about the steer, our steers get sweet at about 2 just when it is time to process, I can see why oxen were popular, slow and steady once they reach a certain size and age. The boys are always sweeter than the heifers, less hormones …
I didn’t feel bad about eating an animal that wouldn’t breed back. With 50 cows there was usually at least one a year that had some issue that made it uneconomical to keep on a commercial dairy. If I had a milk cow now I’m sure it would be much more difficult to eat it. Instead I’m trying Saanen goats. Will have my first kids next spring hopefully. I’m going to have to do something with cull kids. My plan is to eat them. We will see how that goes. Makes me appreciate the meat more though when I know the animal that dinner came from.
Definitely! And I did butcher my mean Guernsey heifer, and we eat old cows too, I figure it is easier on them to go the mobile slaughter route than it is to send them off to the yards. Those old cows know the jig is up when they are loaded in the trailer.
We got Saanens three years ago and have eaten a few bucklings. We’ve butchered 4 month olds and 9 month olds. Neither one had a lot of meat on it, but I agree we appreciate it more. We have a two year old wether, but so far he has escaped the butcher’s knife. First born and all. He does look meatier than the younger animals though. When I think about trying to keep them longer to fully mature for more meat, it just doesn’t make sense to me. Dairy is the primary for us and we reserve the energy for milking does over a 1+ Year old meat animal. I think next year we will be in a position to have to decide about which does to keep though as we are pretty much at our carrying capacity with this spring’s kids.
-mmp
They do just as good as a lawn mower
We rotate but in a whole different manner….our fences are permanent, bigger fields but the same sort of principal. Yours looks like a lot more work.
I got keep out of trouble right??
Truly a picture of contented cows. Ours our out to pasture for the summer, so they look like that too. Best time of year for the cows.
Suzanne
WONTP, yes they truly like this time of year – cool and damp. Although it’s a little too cool for me, (45F for a high) and wet for any gardening
When I was a young girl we had electric fencing at the stable where I kept my horse. The guys loved to tease us by grabbing our hand and then grabbing the electric wire. It was enough of a jolt to get our attention. Also, sometimes when cleaning the stall I would accidentally back into it. I can see how one wire would encourage the cattle to stay in place. – Margy
Margy, that is funny, we find we respect the fence too – I can’t walk up to a fence even if I know it is off without thinking about it first. Sure wakes you up when you forget and grab it
This is a great explanation. I do try to rotate where my animals are, but every day isn’t realistic for me. I really wish I had the time to work with my animals every day in this type of manner.
Teresa, everyday is definitely something to work into, any rotation period is better than none though
We would like the electric fencing, just have not gotten there yet.
Do you have to keep the grass cut under it. Do the grass and weeds that grow up around it short it out?
Sheryl, the cows graze the grass, and we don’t leave it in place so it can’t really short out, from grass anyway. It’s only when you use electric fence as a permanent type fence that you would have a problem with the vegetation growth. Even when we used the electrified netting for our laying flock we didn’t have any problems with shorting out, and we didn’t mow either.
I used this post as part of our science lesson yesterday. Hope Della is resting comfortably. Will be rooting for dry weather for delivery day!
PS: Meant to also say that we enjoyed the videos.
Paula, LOL maybe it should be part of an art curriculum too! Della is driving her “mother” crazy!
We’re making the push to rotate daily this year. I knew you did daily rotation, but I was wondering how you work that into your cycle for parasites? Do you have enough pasture to not return to that day’s ground for a parasite interval? My cycle is one lunar month on and at least three months fallow. That means that during peek growing season, I might return to a days ground two or three times in a month then rotate off it for three months.
What do you use for a parasite rotation?
-mmp
MMP, I use a 30 day interval minimum except in the very beginning of the grazing season when the grass is just beginning to grow and is tender. I work through the pastures at first in about a 7 -10 days with large paddocks, and then move to smaller paddocks to match the grass growth. Cattle are more resistant to parasites than goats I believe, except young calves, so by the time the new calves are testing grass, they are on almost a 45 day rotation and it increases as the season progresses. I have a few campsites under trees at the ends of pastures, and I only let them visit those twice in a year. Too much manure concentration and the trees don’t need it the pasture does, It also helps too, to, to move my water and minerals to each new site. It’s a slow soil building process, but I can see improvements from just having them range and go to water and shade in the forest, we were translocating a lot of nutrients for many years.
I was wondering if you revisit the same paddock several times in a month aren’t they going to re-infest themselves in that short of time?
I set up a paddock for a month and then move to the next. I try not to back to a given paddock in less than three months. Within a paddock, it is subdivided into daily strips. Right now, I can get away with returning to a strip in 7 – 10 days of grass growth. This is the first year I have tried such intensive managment. I think later in the season is going to be a struggle for us as the growth slows down. Another thing I struggle with is managing more than one group of goats, like keeping bucks seperate in the fall or kids at weaning time. I really only have just enough land for parasite rotation. Seperating into two groups means I am using it twice as fast and reaks havoc with my parasite rotation.
It sounds like we are using similar principles, letting an area lie fallow to break parasite cycles and within that rotating intensively for peak grass regeneration.
MMP,
I was told years ago, for horse pasture you turn the horses in when the grass is 6 inches high, take them off when grazed down to 3 inches.
More recently, I read that the definition of overgrazing is that a particular blade of grass gets bitten off a second time, before it regrows to it’s initial size. The illustration the book gave said that if a cow bit off a grass plant that was pretty well grown, it would take 10 days to regrow to the initial size. But if it were again bit in half, it would take 20 days – to 24 days – to regrow. They recommended 10 day rotation, for more than a treble livestock load on the same total amount of pasture, divided into three parts and rotated at 10 days.
In any case, the rotation has to take into account how well the next pasture has re-grown, and how far down the current pasture has been grazed. The grass and the grazing have to determine the rotation.
My guess is that your extended rotation schedule sacrifices a lot of good grazing that your pasture could be providing, and a lot of nutrition.
Excellent post, as always. I love this topic as it is exactly what I’ll be doing in a couple of years; just one 50-something woman farmer, 15 – 20 heifers and their progeny, electric wire and moveable water troughs, and that amazing Kentucky pasture just waiting to be grazed, stomped on and fertilized.
Compared to more conventional ways of raising livestock to harvesteable size, rotational grazing using low-stress handling methods is extremely labor-efficient, which is important for those of us not springing around on youthful legs. Your example keeps me motivated and excited and makes me confident I’ve chosen an enterprise that will not beat me into the dirt.
Women farmers rock.
TD, you will love it – the cows are so calm, and actually the nicest group of co-workers I have ever worked with. And there are so many ways to vary the particulars to suit each farm and farmer. I like working by myself, and frankly my husband is glad not to have to do the cows or worry about them each day. But to his credit, he designed the fencing system to fit all our odd-shaped fields, and thought out carefully all the cut-outs to make it easier for any of us to do the fencing if need be. Yeah it is some labor but anything requires labor (or should.) And the daily interaction with the animals lets you know if something is wrong. Very enjoyable as work goes, even during the rough times. Sure beats punching the ol’ time clock.
A sticking point for some who visit the farm is that I am hauling water, which of course uses fuel, but so does putting in a huge amount of pipe. I have tried the hose and float system for awhile but was never really comfortable with the the thought of the water sitting in that hose cooking all the chemicals out of it and siphoning it directly to my cows. Most times I have to drive to the cows anyway – so I may as well take the water. And one of my pet peeves is after vocally complaining and bi&$*ng for years about the neighbors and their dirt bikes and ATV’s I will not be caught dead on one. Just my personal quirk, I guess. So I can have a clear conscience about not creating one more manufactured fuel consuming personal vehicle. And on rainy days like these, if I think about it I can get a 4 day use out of one trough placement, still minimize pugging, and when that happens I usually walk to the fields instead of driving. So yeah, it isn’t totally clean and green, but I like to save water and I like to save money, and the green living just follows that.
Your turn will be here before you know it
I also really liked the video clip of just your cows’ legs walking past you, calmly. That speaks volumes.
I will haul water, too, along with minerals and shade. I think keeping infrastructure flexible is important, like being able to put a water trough or shade structure in a different place each time to cut down on pugging or manure build-up. And I’m also not keen on piping water through sun-warmed plastic, either. Nor of the cost or materials it would take to do that.
I have to admit, we made a long-term investment and got a deisel JD gator for getting up the hill (1/4 mile and steep) and around the pastures (20 acres all spread out); I intend to keep it for a lifetime and the wear and tear it will save on me over the years will be worth the cost, it will pull a little water mule, a mobile shade structure, and carry all my fencing materials and tools, with minimal compaction of the pasture soil. Someday, who knows, maybe I’ll be brewing my own biodiesel for the tractor and gator.
The workhorses will balance things out, I’m sure.
TD, no worries about the gator, my husband loves the one they use at work. If I was starting out with a clean slate, I might find a use for a gator, but I like the pickup for all it can do.
We toyed with the idea of permanent piping as a refinement as opposed to hauling the water, but the price on a mile of pipe alone was enough to convince me we could do without it, it also meant that we would have to either totally change our water ram system, or the easy way would be to rely more on the municipal treated water. Too many check marks in the con column. I don’t like the wasted land of a fixed water trough and lanes either – so for now this works and is easily manageable, and we don’t use a shademobile so I’ve got it pretty easy. After seeing the one at Polyface, (huge) and hurky enough to withstand cattle rubbing, I would need my pickup anyway.
Probably between the horses and the biodiesel you will be very efficient.
I enjoyed reading this post on rotational grazing. Your ability to explain the process is so easy to understand. While I don’t have any live stock, I enjoy learning. There are a lot of cattle around this area and I like seeing how they are managed.
It is sad to see my neighbor’s horses in such a small area. They have all but eaten the grass and have too much dirt. They feed them grain. Their hooves look like they get infections and they limp around. It makes me sad.
We got about an inch of rain for our pond. I don’t know how long it will take to fill up. I watch it like a pot of water and you know what they say about a watched pot…it never boils. I guess I will stop watching and hopefully it will fill up.
Have a great weekend.
Finding Pam, thanks for the nice comment, I worry it is too boring since I talk to animals most days at length, and wonder how to convey it in writing
Poor horses!
I am definitely sending you some rain! And snow if you want – it has been in the high 30′s at night and the snow is just up the hill a ways. Kinda hard to get in any gardening done when it rains every day!
Just found your blog. We’re beginning rotational grazing and I (the woman) will do most of the work also. I love it though. I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one hauling water. It’s just too expensive to run water lines. Your blog and pics/videos are really helpful. I’m anxious to see what grasses/weeds other than Johnson grass will appear in our row cropped fields. My life style isn’t where I’ll be able to move them daily, but it will be a change from the continuous grazing that was the norm. So far I’ve not seen anyone in the area where I live doing any rotational grazing. So I guess we’ll be kind of “oddballs”. Never the less I look forward to it along with your blog. Oh – one other thing. Probably a dumb question- I guess you have to move your ground every time you move your fence? I think that’s probably the only part I really find to be difficult. We have really dry clay soil.
Sherrie, Hi! Yeah, we just can’t justify the expense of running the water lines, maybe if we had a larger number of cattle it would pencil out, but at this size this works just fine, I am usually driving to the pasture anyway. Any herd movement is better than continuous grazing, daily is nice but if it isn’t doable, it isn’t doable and that is OK too.
Our ground set-up is “permanent”, 2 or 3 ground rods where the charger is hooked up. Sort of a fencing hub, centrally located, where I can hook the fence up to 3 different pastures, mostly of the time just utilizing one hook-up at a time. I like to only have the fence I really need energized to save my battery. But I do leave lots of “permanent” electric fence up, just not electrified. And we have a fair amount of permanent barbwire fence that has an offset hotwire to get power from one place to another. That being said we have 3 different hubs, which really makes the whole fencing thing much easier than moving everything from pasture to pasture.
Best of luck to another oddball
I have a question. What size rerod do you use? We have been using the fibreglass posts, and when the deer and coyotes run thru, they break the clips off. We would like to use the rerod, your insulators will fit 3/8 and 1/2, and i was wondering if you use the 3/8 or the 1/2. I am concerned the 1/2 inch rod with the nubbies that rerod has might be too big for the insulators. I don’t own any rod yet or that type of insulator, so i was hoping you could shed a little light before i make a purchase.
Stephanie, we use 3/8. It’s light enough I can carry 15 -20 posts if I need to and heavy enough to withstand some abuse. If they get bent a little from deer or ?? they can easily be bent back into shape.
Super! The 3/8 is really inexpensive. I can get it for .14 a foot! I have been poking around your website. I love it!. Thank you for the speedy reply, keep up the good work, I have to go move my cows, running a bit late today, heavy fog this morning and my belties are ticked!