-Chain link ??

[james dilley]

O K I hae 6' chain link on 3 sides of the property, Soon to be 4 sides. posts are 15' apart.That should work for goats and A few sheep. And A heifer or 2 ?? Or Am I wrong??? Theres one drive ingate and one walk in. Also plenty of Shade trees.Any ideas?????

[fordy]

.....................Six foot CL is great for dogs and will work for goats as well as they won't get their horns inter locked most likely . But , too tall for cows . Best fence for cows is a 5 to 7 wire , barbed wire fence maybe 5 feet tall . I'd enclose the cows and goats together and keep the dog(s) separate unless you have a Pyr , which would stand guard duty with the goats .
......................Now , you'll need to run a hot wire around the inside perimeter of the fence too keep the goats off the fence . They , will literally rub their sides against the fence just like a scratching post and eventually push the fence , Over . I use too tell folks this after I had built them a very expensive fence cause they wanted a few goats to cleanup the under brush. Horses , are just as bad , but they will stick their big a-- against the fence , and scratch like a Hobo with the Seven year itch , LOL .
.......................Set all your posts 3 feet deep in a 9 inch diameter hole which will take 2-80 pound sacks of sackcrete . Fill the hole 1/3 full of water , make sure your post is level and then just pour in concrete until full and let it set up for 7 days. No need too mix as it will get hard all by itself . , fordy

[rambler]

Cattle & chain link fence with 15' post spacing?

Be sure to buy that electric fencer & put up the insulated wire..........

--->Paul

[CGUARDSMAN]

i agree with rambler and fordy the cattle will likely push it over. the elec. strand would be good prevention.

[BaronsMom]

Our 90 lb yellow lab went through our chain link. The top post is only held by a few wires and it was weak in one area. She was excited and went right through it.

Would be easy for a calf...

[COSunflower]

I have 4 ft chain link around my place - 3/4 acre in a small community. I had 3 goats and 2 large potbelly pigs for years that never bothered it and my chickens never leave over it. I guess it's just too comfy here to want to leave I do have small outbuildings, a rock garden (my goats liked to rub their rumps on the rocks) and some big elec. spools that the goats liked to jump on. Their favorite thing (favorite of ALL the animals) is an old truck canopy that I have near their "official" houses...I have thrown hay and stray in it yearly for years so it has all composted down and probably makes quite a bit of warmth in the winter. I stack straw bales around it in the Fall for winter insulation. Everybody would pack in there and sleep at night and the goats liked to lay and play on top of it. If you have enough distractions INSIDE the fence - I doubt if the goats would bother it at all. Cows might be a different story though, although if you have trees for shade, they will probably spend most of their time laying underneath My fence posts are cemented in and posts are about 8 ft. apart.

[Shinsan]

James,

Due to flood damage, and as we are getting a couple of Dexter cows, we are having to replace and upgrade some of our fences, so I'm copying this idea from an alpaca stud farm.

Basically, we are building two parallel fences, 4'6" high and 2' apart. Each fence supports a mesh of heavy duty chicken wire. Because the chicken wire is 4' high, there is a 6" clearance between its lower edge and the ground. (This is to prevent the mesh from rusting, as it would do if in contact with the ground.)

Between the two fences, tagasate will be planted, close enough together to form a dense hedge. As the plant grows, and protudes through the mesh, it is grazed by the critters. (Alpacas can also graze the tops between the two fences, which encourages a denser growth.) When the plant is growing a bit above the top of the fence, it is trimmed flat, and a 2' wide strip of mesh is wired across the top, effectively boxing it in. Thereafter you can leave it to the animals to keep your hedge/fence looking like those of a well manicured English estate. (....with alpacas?)

This type of fence does not encourage animals to force their way through, and also forms a good wind-break, with some shade. Mind you, it wouldn't be easy to move it in a hurry, so you'd have to plan carefully where you want to build one.

Shin

[Shinsan]

Trying to find out if I can post a couple of photos to give you an idea...
(These were scanned from the magazine that I copied the idea from.)



Edited to add: Hey! It worked!

[ericjeeper]

How much pasture is within the fence?
we have one strand of hot wire around 8 acres and two cows and their calves.. The fence is not even hot.. They just have no reason to leave.. Plenty of food within the fence.

[Shinsan]

Don't know how much acreage James has, but I have a 1 acre paddock on my block, plus the use of an extra acre from each of the neighbours on both sides. There's an easement running accross the back of our properties, totalling about a half acre, that the local council fenced off and we can't build on, so I'm planting it out to lucerne, (alfalfa).
I'm hoping that I'll have enough pasture/feed for a Dexter with a calf at foot. Or do you think I'm being a bit optimistic?