Suggestions?

[widfam]

I want to put a post (railroad tie) in the middle of my pasture to attach a Purple Martin pole to. My question is what can I do to keep the cows from rubbing on it? I thought maybe wrap it with barb wire but I don't think that will really work. It will be out in the middle so I can't run a strand of the electric fence to it. Any suggestions?

[Haggis]

There are solar powered fence chargers. It wouldn't be much of a problem to drive 4 T-posts in a square around your railroad tie, and then mount your charger/solar collector on the tie.

Then too, if your cattle are used to, and leary of, an electric fence, you might not have to charge it at all, just put up the little fence. My girls won't touch the wire of my electric fences, charged or not. Of course, you could connect a charger to a battery for a few days just after you put up your bird house. The cattle will likely be more curious the first few days.

Worst case senario, just build a barbed wire fenced in area something like 4'X4' just around the the bird house.

[agmantoo]

I put up housing for purple martins but an 8 ft long RR crosstie is too short IMO for martins. I typically have 2 or 3 cross arms and the bottom house is at least 8 ft off the ground. You can protect the post by place 3 T posts in a triangle and wrapping the T posts with barb wire.

[widfam]

I'll try the T-posts and I actually have an extra solar charger so I'll give it a try and then probably just use the barb wire. By the way the crosstie is to hold the 16' martin pole. Thanks for the ideas