Insane fencing costs?

farmerjan

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A couple of things about high tensile. First off, I hate it. It comes from many bad experiences with it and there are lots of people who love it and would do it every time.
For things like the flooding that greybeard had to deal with and survive, it worked just the way it was supposed to. It does work good in woods if trees etc fall on it.

Here, unless you KEEP IT hot the cows will put their heads through to get the grass that is always better on the other side and they can just push their way through. It stretches/gives. Calves regularly will go through it unless HOT.

We have to take deer out of it that will jump it and get it caught and twisted around their hind leg and hang until they are dead because they can't get out.

With the coyote problems we have had, we have also lost several calves that panicked and tried to run through it and got caught with a hind leg and hung upside down until it killed them. Even hot, the coyotes will sneak through and then the cattle can panic. Especially the calves. How the wire manages to get twisted around a hind leg or two I don't know but have seen it too many times. It's sickening to go find a calf hanging upside down and see where they dug into the dirt with their front legs trying to get out with no chance of it ever happening.

It won't keep out any predator animals; like good woven wire type fence will help to keep them out or at least discourage their getting in.

It's a pain to work with and will hurt you if it should come loose or get cut or broken and the whiplash of it is terrible, because it is stretched and will spring when the tension is gone. All fence gets stretched, but high tensile is like a rubber band in a sling shot and snaps back.

It is good for cross fencing as a 1 or 2 strand electric fence to divide fields if you want to graze it in sections, but you can't move it for rotational grazing.

It won't keep our White Texas Dall sheep in, hot or not, and wouldn't contain the babados black belly sheep we had in the past either.

Woven wire is the pits when there is a tree fallen on it, and it ruins it where it is squashed down. But we will take the negatives every time over the high tensile.
 

greybeard

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It stretches/gives. Calves regularly will go through it unless HOT
If your HT is getting loose, you didn't pull it tight enough when you installed it. It's the primary reason for using it..it doesn't get loose if pulled tight enough to begin with.
Calves will also go thru any 5 strand fence too..barbed included--space between wires is just to big. I've started going back along some of my fences and adding slick (non-barb) HT between the lower 3-4 strands, making them 8 strand. Lots cheaper than installing knotted field fence type wire, and I can't use a lot of field fence anyway..crap builds up on it during flood and the whole fence turns into a solid debris wall and the water just pushes the posts over.
 

farmerjan

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The HT was professionally installed and it is not loose. It has the give/stretch so that it will bounce back etc like when yours was in the flood. I have sat and watched the cows get their heads through it and just keep leaning and the calves will get through it too. When they pull back. it is tight and you can hear it "sing" if the wind blows right.

Here in Va a legal fence is 8 strands for a height of 44 inches or something close to that. All depends on where you are located. But, what I am saying is that these fences are 8 strands not 4 or 5.
Have barbed wire at 2 places we rent and the calves like to try to go through it too. It will stretch out a little more. Mostly it is along or through woods where there isn't anything to tempt them to want to go through for.

The white tailed deer are such a problem here that they take fences down if they aren't real tight. The woven wire they go over but mostly they prefer to go under if they can find a spot. If they are spooked then they will run and jump over. Almost every farmer here gets damage permits so that they can shoot them during the summer too. I have seen as many as 25 out grazing in an alfalfa field like they were cattle. I usually hit at least one a year on my way to test cows.
 

maritown

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I'm not a fan of barbed wire at all (for my purposes). The more I think of it the less I want to rely on electric.

I don't think I will do woven wire again though. I think it's perfect for small acreage but the maintence on a large tract would be too much for me. Ah well, long time before I get the back 15 fenced anyhow :)

I wonder if I should start a thread for everyone to show off their setups! Its so interesting
 

Jeanne Sheridan

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I have a smaller goat herd but I had 200 dairy goats fenced in with 4 tier electric 14 ga steel wire. Once trained they seldom got out. Now SOME counties have a fencing program. It is for converting hay fields to pasture. You can farm it again in two years BUT the fence has to stay up for 20 years . that is how it is here. It covers up to 90 percent of cost. It is done through the ASC office. The NRCS. soil conservation folks. It is to give incentive to stop corrosion. Each state and county has their own program usually. So contact your Agricultural services there and see what they do. Some have woven wire programs like they did here but expenses made them switch to 5 strand high tensile steel. Good luck
The fence we are replacing around our farm is 4 tier 14 gauge and we have watched our goats walk through it without touching a single wire. Our youngest doeling is particularly good at getting around anything but 2"x4" woven. Every time the local farm store has it on sales we buy more rolls.
 

Bruce

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Sounds like you know why people buy no climb fence for their goats!
 

Simpleterrier

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Any animal can get over or threw any fence if it wants to. I have seen deer in ht and barbed and woven. I've seen cows blow threw all three kinds also. If your animal wants out it will get out unless u have fort Knox.
 

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