I am looking into sheep and have questions.

[Beekissed]

So Bee and all, I'm up to 201 fencing and I'm getting a sad feeling that I may not be able to "justify" fencing in 5 acres for sheep and a hefeir/calf pair plus one steer like I want to.

Can we have a honest to goodness discussion about fencing options? Mainly for sheep but also goats and cows. I'm familiar and comfortable with high tensile electric fencing but is it really a good option for "general purpose" containment and protection of sheep, goats and cows? I've heard but don't know for a fact that sheep have a high tolerance to pain and will risk being shocked for a sweet smelling rose. The last thing I want is my livestock out roaming around unsafe and doing damage to someone else's property.

I guess I just need some conversation here with experienced people who will give me honest opinions and answers. Is it ok to start that conversation?

Sheep 201: Fencing

www.sheep101.info

Thanks

If you have a static paddock and are not rotating to fresh graze, it's likely that high tensile will not serve your needs. Hungry sheep will seek food outside of the high tensile if they are hungry enough. Cattle will obey the fence better than goats and sheep. I do rotational grazing, so have used 3 strand high tensile on my perimeter and the sheep respond to it just fine...got to keep it hot, so sufficient joules and a low impedance charger is a must.

For just 5 acres, you could just do woven wire sheep fencing with an offset of electric at the top and bottom to deter predators and any animal wanting to lean over the fencing. Also can keep the goats from climbing on it. If you want to grow your own food, it's well worth the initial investment and it also can increase your property value. It would also keep in any livestock guardian dogs you may want to have in there.

 

[Baymule]

Our 8 acres is totally enclosed in 2"x4"x48" non climb horse wire. The front gate is deep set for truck and trailer room. No way I would depend on hot wire for an outside parameter fence. We have horses, sheep, 5 big dogs, chickens, right now, until March 3, we have a steer.

You could use the sheep and goat wire, it has 4" holes and would do a fine job of keeping your stock (and dogs) IN and everyone else's OUT.

@Crealcritter here is my fence thread. We made a lot of mistakes, it was open discussion, and mistakes were pointed out and the correct way was discussed. It is a pretty good tutorial on what to do right/wrong and I hope it helps you.

Non-Climb 2"x4" Horse Wire Fence

There have been a lot of fence discussions here on BYH. As many of you know, my husband and I bought a home on 8 acres and moved 160 miles to be close to our DD, DSIL and our precious 2 grand daughters. There was nothing here but the house. Nothing. We had a house in town and acreage outside of...

www.backyardherds.com

Gates. You can never have too many gates. I used more 12' gates than I did 16' gates......should have used more 16' gates. Allow swing room. I used the wire filled gates from Tractor Supply. My dogs stand on their hind legs and climb between the wire filled part and the top bar of the gate. We modified them with rebar wired to the gate and wire to raise the height of the gate and close up the stupid gap. Where we just closed the gap with wire and didn't raise the height of the gate, Trip just jumps it. LOL

 

[Baymule]

This is the sheep and goat wire. It does not say hi tensile.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/bekaert-sheep-goat-fence-330-ft-1348-4-125-ga-213412

Why fence 5 acres only to tear it down? You need to plan this out better. Yes on fencing the 10 acres, but why not make your first fence a pasture? Our 8 acres has 5 pastures. We fenced it in patches.

 

[secuono]

So Bee and all, I'm up to 201 fencing and I'm getting a sad feeling that I may not be able to "justify" fencing in 5 acres for sheep and a hefeir/calf pair plus one steer like I want to.

Can we have a honest to goodness discussion about fencing options? Mainly for sheep but also goats and cows. I'm familiar and comfortable with high tensile electric fencing but is it really a good option for "general purpose" containment and protection of sheep, goats and cows? I've heard but don't know for a fact that sheep have a high tolerance to pain and will risk being shocked for a sweet smelling rose. The last thing I want is my livestock out roaming around unsafe and doing damage to someone else's property.

I guess I just need some conversation here with experienced people who will give me honest opinions and answers. Is it ok to start that conversation?

Sheep 201: Fencing

www.sheep101.info

Thanks

My main property is slightly more than 4 useable acres. Perimeter woven fence & then cross fencing, also woven. I tried hot wire one year. I used 4 strands, up to 2ft high. It worked on freshly shorn ewes & their lambs. Once their wool grew in, ehh.
I keep several rams, so I didn't want to bother with risking them getting out, so I sucked it up & bought woven fencing.

I would, personally, never keep any animals without a 4ft, woven fence. To keep others out & to keep mine in.
You can do the work yourself & save a lot. Buy in bulk, wait for sales & save a little more.

 

[Mike CHS]

That has the same specs of the Gaucho that I posted earlier and has the same pluses. We still have hot wire both high and low.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks Everyone looking here at tractor supply. Which woven wire would I be looking at?

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/fence-wire-netting#facet:30744573456166767006610110797101114116,307445734561667670082101100326611497110100&facetLimit:&productBeginIndex:0&beginIndex:0&orderBy:0&pageView:&minPrice:undefined&maxPrice:undefined&pageSize:&

The bad thing is this 5 acres will be a temporary fence (2 years) until I can get 10 acre permanent fenced. That's why I was hoping for 5 rows of high tensile wire. My t posts will be spaced every 10' apart. The terrain is hilly also.

We do 20-25 ft spacing on our high tensile fence posts. Look into the Timeless fence posts if you do the high tensile...easiest and cheapest, plus has a 20 yr guarantee and you can even drive over them and they won't break.

 

[Baymule]

We fenced 16 acres in field fencing. The horses pawed it and tore it up. For whatever reason that blasted Longhorn bull walked the fence line, hooking it and he tore it up. A stallion in the neighborhood would get loose and he chose our place to make a fight-we had no stallions. But he would run up and down our fence and he tore it up. I have not had good experience with field fencing. But there is no reason that your experience will be the same as mine.

Be sure to put up electric wire on the posts to keep the animals off of it.

@Mike CHS can you please post pictures of your fence and hot wire?

In answer to the above question, we set the wire on the ground to deter varmits and to convince our dogs not to squeeze under the fence and take off.

 

[Beekissed]

I believe I've settled on Bekaert Solidlock Pro High Tensile Fixed Knot Fence, 12.5 ga. 949-12. Seems like a good all purpose fence and not too expensive.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/bekaert-solidlock-pro-high-tensile-fixed-knot-fence-125-ga-949-12-500-ft-657281?cm_vc=-10005

more info
View attachment 79462

View attachment 79463

View attachment 79464

I love the looks of that stuff! How does it do in the long term?

 

[Mike CHS]

@Mike CHS can you please post pictures of your fence and hot wire?

Here are a couple from a couple of years ago but it hasn't changed. The first picture is from the south end of our pastures. The second shows our middle 5 acres that we had divided into three paddocks using poly rope on the right side and netting on the left. We rotated a couple of steers with the sheep and they respected the 11,000 volts going through there. We run one hot wire low to keep the sheep from rubbing the fence and a hot and ground wire above the fence.

 

[Beekissed]

In a way....means you have plenty of grass. But you don't want to have too few mouths and feet on the grass that it gets away from you and gets past the boot stage, which means they will then pick around it and eat the more tender grasses below it. It will take a bit of time for you to find out the right number of stock you need to keep the grass down but not over graze it at any given time of the year.

What you have growing tall there is broom sedge and only in its youngest stage will anything eat it..it's invasive and many people fight it like crazy. You'll want to keep that grazed right off, trampled and anything else you can do to get it gone.