Cows coming soon, fence plans shot, ideas?

[Dirtslinger]

Yup the cows are coming and electric fencing obviously isn't going to work- I NEED a perimeter fence up.

I just don't know where to start now. I have one day to run to the closest farm store (4 hour drive each way), and 1 day to set it all up.
What on earth should I do?? I don't have access to more than the most basic skinny post pounder (3" max)....

Any suggestions for a quick and dirty but solid way to fence an acre- or even half acre? Would LOVE to hear it!!!

[topside1]

I'd go electric even though you say it isn't going to work? Very simple to pull and plug.

[bigmudder77]

4 hour drive to the farm store wow that sucks right there is like 9 hours down

well you can get a 100ft roll of fencing for $60-70 at tsc then get the stakes and pound them in first about 6ft from each other and then just unroll the fence around the stakes and get some wire or zip ties to hold it to the stakes and your good to go should take about 2 hours average and depending on how big you go

[Ronney]

The trouble with that bigmudder, is that it will be done in a hurry, won't be tight and new, spooky cattle are likely to walk right over it.

Dirtslinger, I must have missed something earlier on but why are you getting cattle before you've got your fencing organised and why won't electric do in the short term? We're running cattle on a 10 acre block with a car battery powered mobile fence unit powering one wire (and it is wire, not tape) and there is no way those cattle are going to push that fence.

So caught between a rock and a hard place as you would seem to be, and not knowing what electric you already have, I would be rushing to the store and buying a couple of coils of fence wire (that can be reused to build a fence), a spinning jenny to run the wire out from, a 100 or so pig-tail electric fence standards, a few insulators because your bound to need them, and a mobile electric fence unit. Oh, and a roll of electric tape. While your doing that dig out those old car batteries from under the work bench and put them on the charger. If you don't have a charger, buy one - they're cheap and handy. If you don't have old car batteries, you'll have to flog one out of your vehicle. Then "build" your fence. Make it as big as possible and once the cattle have got used to being zapped, use the electric tape to cut you area into temporary paddocks. Even doing that isn't going to be a 5 minute job but will give you some breathing space until you get permanent fencing in place.

Forgot to add too that once you have the standards and fence unit, you will find that they are invaluable later on. We have 3 mobile fence units, untold standards and reels of tape and they are in use most of the time despite the fact that our farm is fenced into 26 permanent paddocks.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Dirtslinger]

Yes I assumed the electric would be good enough- with the old barbed wire fence/ditches around the field. But I now realize the ditch/barb wire is too old and easily slipped through- 10 acres not quickly replaced. A project in itself and worth doing it right, not quick.

I do have a couple really good and hot fencers.
Ronney- what are pig-tail standards? I looked them up and didn't find them. I do have a number of 48" step in plastic posts and quite a bit of the electric wire to feed through them.
But I thought cattle would walk through electric fencing- once out of the trailer?
Thanks so much for your help here.

[bigmudder77]

put the posts on the out side of the fence they wont get through it we use to just use electric fence one wire and stakes stuck in the ground with the plastic thing that the wire goes on for our calves some got out some didnt but when we did what i said to do none got out you can even put the stakes closer together they wont get out

[Sabrina67]

We also just have electric. And they must smell it because if it goes off...they go out. LOL We used the step in posts for temporary, but they are not good for anything permanent. They break from the sun/ weather.

[Maria]

We were in the same fix earlier this year, but had a bunch of cattle panels on hand that we'd used in the garden previously. We bought some more and within a couple of hours had about half an acre enclosed in a quite sturdy fence. Cable ties work great fastening the panels to the t posts.

[bigmudder77]

ya that what we did i was building fender since i was like 10 lol my first couple were crap and my dad needed to redo them but i learned and now can make them pretty good just alot of hard work and alot of different stuff to pick from

if there big enough just use electric fence and tie stuff to it so they can see it most dont go through it

but if there small use the like goat fence stuff at tsc cause then they cant craw under it or just push there way through it

[cowkeeper]

Dirtslinger, do you have ANY kind of pen, building or shed there? For three Dexters you could get three or four gates, and attach them to a shed to form a small secure pen. Keep them happy with some hay and a bit of sweet feed, while you figure out a field fence. **Once they have settled in to the new situation**, you could make the small electric training area. When they discover that electric wire stings, then a couple of strands electric in front of old barbed wire and ditches could work.

[agmantoo]

Find someone nearby that will rent you some pasture until you can get properly setup. Otherwise, you are going to be an unhappy individual that cannot sleep at night and one that will hate to see someone coming down the drive because you will quickly learn they are bearers of bad news.

[Dirtslinger]

Thanks everyone!
I'll run out for cattle panels tomorrow. That is perfect. They will come in handy, even after the fencing is completed.
I can settle them down in the panels, then get them into the electric, all the while meshing the back 4 acres which will be their main pasture.
What a relief.
I'm not new to livestock, but I am new to cattle. I really thought I had fencing in the bag here with 100% electricity. With the wildlife I keep out here I never expected keeping cattle 'in' would be difficult, but don't know cattle yet, but will soon enough.

[nathan104]

Yup, you get a new spooky calf or cow in there and electric fencing wont matter. Really, if you get a bad spooky calf in there, about nothing will stop it. I had a 3 month old braford go stright through 3 strand of electric, then run full bore through a 5 wire barbwire fence. If you can get them in a small very secure pen for a week or so then they wont be so crazy to bust through fencing. But, one of my calves could still go through my barbwire if she wanted to. If she is standing by it when I walk towards her, she will stick her head through it and pick a leg up and start to step through, but then she will just stand like that in mid step and then look back at me. Kind of like she's saying "go ahead buddy, come closer, and Ill bolt right through this fence". If I back away, she will pull her foot back out and her head out.

[furholler]

Originally Posted by Ronney

The trouble with that bigmudder, is that it will be done in a hurry, won't be tight and new, spooky cattle are likely to walk right over it.

Dirtslinger, I must have missed something earlier on but why are you getting cattle before you've got your fencing organised and why won't electric do in the short term? We're running cattle on a 10 acre block with a car battery powered mobile fence unit powering one wire (and it is wire, not tape) and there is no way those cattle are going to push that fence.

So caught between a rock and a hard place as you would seem to be, and not knowing what electric you already have, I would be rushing to the store and buying a couple of coils of fence wire (that can be reused to build a fence), a spinning jenny to run the wire out from, a 100 or so pig-tail electric fence standards, a few insulators because your bound to need them, and a mobile electric fence unit. Oh, and a roll of electric tape. While your doing that dig out those old car batteries from under the work bench and put them on the charger. If you don't have a charger, buy one - they're cheap and handy. If you don't have old car batteries, you'll have to flog one out of your vehicle. Then "build" your fence. Make it as big as possible and once the cattle have got used to being zapped, use the electric tape to cut you area into temporary paddocks. Even doing that isn't going to be a 5 minute job but will give you some breathing space until you get permanent fencing in place.

Forgot to add too that once you have the standards and fence unit, you will find that they are invaluable later on. We have 3 mobile fence units, untold standards and reels of tape and they are in use most of the time despite the fact that our farm is fenced into 26 permanent paddocks.

Cheers,
Ronnie

What he said! There is no easier way to fence, as far as I'm concerned. And when you get to doing permanent, I'd still use electric.