Does anyone use a living fence for livestock?

[amandak]

I'm interested in planting one but am wondering which one's are the best, and how long it takes to establish them?

[Our Little Farm]

Not now, but have in the past.
http://www.canada-wine.com/wovenfence.html may interest you.

[amandak]

Thanks for the link, that sounds beautiful!

[Our Little Farm]

It is.

[Vickie44]

I am not sure what it is but I think my cows would eat it and knock it down

[amandak]

Is it big enough for cows? I wouldn't care if they ate the foliage, that would be part of the benefit as long as they couldn't knock it over or kill it.

[Txrider]

Originally Posted by amandak

I'm interested in planting one but am wondering which one's are the best, and how long it takes to establish them?

Ahh I thought you meant a good dog...

"Tending is the act of keeping large groups of sheep or goats gathered on a spot and/or keeping the herd in orderly movement with the stockman by wearing -- or patrolling -- alongside the flock. The German Shepherd Dog is almost the only remaining practitioner of this style, a holdover from the traditional German open field system of intensive agriculture."

YouTube

YouTube

[Our Little Farm]

You can make a living hedge out of a lot of different trees/shrubs. There is an art to cutting it at an angle and weaving it in and out and letting it grow back up. I think they have also been called Laid hedging.

Did a bit more digging and found this for you.
http://www.bilsdaletreeservices.co.uk/hedging.html

[Our Little Farm]

It takes tme to establish but yes, you can achieve a hedge that will keep in livestock.

[Horseyrider]

Years ago, wild roses (rosa rugosa) was planted around here to keep livestock in. You could get it free from your county agent; the government was really pushing it. It sounded like a great idea-- fencing that maintains itself, stops your stock and becomes a haven to critters that could be hunted for food.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well in practice. The canes were extremely aggressive and popped up everywhere. Even though this type of 'fence' a popular choice 70-80 years ago, many pastures around here today are still plagued with it. It pops up well off the fenceline, either from canes or from birds eating the seeds, and it's darn near impossible to kill. It crowds out good grasses and will totally take over. Even aggressive spraying is often barely enough to keep it in check, let alone eradicate it.

Gotta say though, as someone who rides the woodland paths around here, the old hedges smell mighty fine in June.

[fishhead]

Here's a good link.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/moder...-z10m0sto.aspx

I think a living fence would make the homestead more cozy looking and provide lots of benefits like nesting sites for birds. This summer I got a glimpse of some property that had been subdivided by living fences. It immediately made me remember the Shire in Lord of the Rings.

[airotciv]

A living fence? All Berries that have thorns. Unless you have goats.

[amandak]

Just planning on having a dairy cow/calf and some sheep so I don't need something that would have to battle with a goat

[dragonjaze]

The first thing I thought of was the wild blackberry canes that grow all over western WA. Dear god...try and get through those things with any skin left!

[fishhead]

I was looking at the locusts that are growing on my property. I think they would make a good living fence and would produce some slow rotting fence posts too.

When they are young the whips they are very flexible for weaving and are covered with thorns. If the tops were allowed to grow straight they could be harvested for fence posts. That would spur regeneration that would make a pretty solid mass of fence.

My goats love the leaves and pods.

[Jenn]

Lot of this in England. Include UK adn smallholding and hedgerow in google searches

[DW]

Just got it in the mail & there's an article about it.

[TedH71]

Wonder if german shepherds are capable of herding ducks/geese like border collies? Saw a business website saying there were people hiring out their herding dogs to chase off ducks/geese from various places where they're unwanted for a living. I like border collies but not sure if they would be ok with living in a semi-suburban setting.

[texican]

We had living fences growing up. Good solid four strand barbed wire with wooden posts. Could only bush hog 'so close', and inevitably got a nice stand of red cedars. Then vines growing on the cedars. Then mom decided climbing roses were 'purty', so I put cuttings every five feet. The next year the roses were ten feet high, reaching the top of the cedars... Ten years later, the original posts were rotting (with all the shade and moisture), so we thought about nailing the existing wire to the cedars, but it was a booger to get into all the briars and roses thorns to get to the cedars... realized it was impossible to get through it all. So, we let er grow. Wild cows couldn't get through it. It held goats for several years. We lost one of my little sisters in there, and didn't find her for several weeks. She lost a little weight. {sorry, I got a little 'stretchy'}

Combo of red cedar, vining plants, and climbing or wild roses, is a good start...

[ronbre]

a really good article in this months mother earth news..on living fences..woo hoo..great ideas..gotta read it..just got mine today and read it..woo hoo..some other good articles too this mo