Cattle/Feedlot Panels vs Field Fence

[MargaretClare]

The panel that I got as damaged at TSC I do remember was a fair amount more than the regular cattle panel, and I am thinking maybe it was only 4 ft high as I did bring them home on the trailer. It had openings that were either 2x4 or 4x4 I think. Not much would be going through it and I remember it was very heavy too.

I do know which panels you are talking about. There's the 4"x4" hole sheep and goat panels and there's the 2"x4" no climb panels (del mar I think). I don't know about the sheep and goat but the 2"x4" panels are somewhere around $64 each. I would probably rather do electric. I was also considering reinforcing field fence with wood fence rails.

I'm just kicking around ideas right now but I may end up going with the no climb panels. That's what the big one's stud corral is fenced with in addition to the corral panel and he managed to shoot his head through trying to get to another buck and it took forever to get him unstuck from the fence hole though.

This buck seems stupidly accident prone. He stepped in a foothold trap once.

 

[Latestarter]

Ouch... can't imagine trying to get a foot hold trap off the hoof of a 200#+ buck goat with horns... That had to be worthy of a video. As for the hay feeder, That is on my journal as well. It's not all that and a cup of coffee... My buck RJ has scurs and he loves to push against it and repeatedly knocked it over. I ended up having to pound in a T-post and wire the center of the top horizontal to it to keep that from happening. He also (as does the wethers) likes to climb up the sides and press against the poly corrugated roofing and has pushed the roofing screw heads through the material on both sides at the ends. I go by and push the roofing back down so the screw heads go back through to where they belong.

Since I only had the one hay feeder built when it came time to separate the boys, I gave it to them. I started pulling apart flakes of hay into the girl's pellet bowls after they finish their pellets and giving them their hay twice a day that way. I have to stand there at the bowls to keep the biggest strongest girls from "merry go-rounding" the bowls and preventing the others from eating. It works out to ~3 adults to each bowl and 4-5 yearlings at theirs. I give them enough hay to "fill them up" for that meal and they have pasture during the day. I have a LOT less waste and they basically finish everything I put in the bowls rather than pulling out and eating all the "choice bits" and dropping the rest on the ground to pee and poop on. They still push the less favorable stems and such out of the bowl to get to what they want, but since that's all they get, they then go back and clean up the less appetizing pieces they've pushed out. I also move the bowls and don't always put them in the same spot, so waste doesn't pile up around the bowls or kill the grass underneath them.

ETA, the boys are once again wasting a LOT of hay

 

[MargaretClare]

Ouch... can't imagine trying to get a foot hold trap off the hoof of a 200#+ buck goat with horns... That had to be worthy of a video. As for the hay feeder, That is on my journal as well. It's not all that and a cup of coffee... My buck RJ has scurs and he loves to push against it and repeatedly knocked it over. I ended up having to pound in a T-post and wire the center of the top horizontal to it to keep that from happening. He also (as does the wethers) likes to climb up the sides and press against the poly corrugated roofing and has pushed the roofing screw heads through the material on both sides at the ends. I go by and push the roofing back down so the screw heads go back through to where they belong.

Since I only had the one hay feeder built when it came time to separate the boys, I gave it to them. I started pulling apart flakes of hay into the girl's pellet bowls after they finish their pellets and giving them their hay twice a day that way. I have to stand there at the bowls to keep the biggest strongest girls from "merry go-rounding" the bowls and preventing the others from eating. It works out to ~3 adults to each bowl and 4-5 yearlings at theirs. I give them enough hay to "fill them up" for that meal and they have pasture during the day. I have a LOT less waste and they basically finish everything I put in the bowls rather than pulling out and eating all the "choice bits" and dropping the rest on the ground to pee and poop on. They still push the less favorable stems and such out of the bowl to get to what they want, but since that's all they get, they then go back and clean up the less appetizing pieces they've pushed out. I also move the bowls and don't always put them in the same spot, so waste doesn't pile up around the bowls or kill the grass underneath them.

ETA, the boys are once again wasting a LOT of hay

It actually wasn't that big of a deal. He was a big baby about it. He ran over to me on three legs and hid his face against my chest with his eyes closed and holding his front leg up with the trap on it while my uncle got it off his foot. It was a smooth coyote trap so no damage at all. If you've ever seen a dog or cat in a sweater just stop moving that's basically what he did. He was shaking the whole time though.

I wish I had pasture out here. We get grass in February and March but only if we have a wet winter. Otherwise we'd have to haul in water and self irrigate it. I feed free choice Bermuda in raised feeders that make it hard to throw hay out. But when I move the bucks I'm gonna need to build a new one.

 

[kdogg331]

Following this cause I had a similar question