Is my fence adequate for Dexters

[valleyview]

My wife and I recently purchased a Dexter Bull Calf. He is quite the looker, but that is another story. We currently have fencing for our Boer goats...goat wire with t-posts and a wood post evert 5th post. The fence seems strong, but will it be enough for my Dexter. I heard that this breed is very easy to work with and fencing is usually not an issue. In our back pasture, we have about 8 acres fenced with all t-posts and 4 strands of taught barbed wire. Is this OK? Thanks for any advice or thoughts! We want to build a small herd and are a little nervous about fencing.

 

[goodhors]

Can you run electric inside your fence? You will want the electric
on "stand-offs" which will make the electric wires the first ones the
cattle touch, and back away from.

Cattle are HARD on fences, mostly from just rubbing on it, pushing
to get the leaf of grass on the other side. If you can prevent the
cattle touching the good woven wire, posts, with the electric, then
your fences should stay in good condition.

Do you plan to castrate and dehorn your calf? Usually the younger they get
done, the easier it is on them and YOU. Work with your calf daily
if possible, putting halter on and leading, comes when called for a
treat in a bucket, tied for a while daily, so he has good manners
when led or handled.

You may want to ask more questions on the cattle forum about fencing.
Cows WILL test a hot wire, they KNOW when the fencer is off or not working.
So you need to be checking your entire fence often, keep those wires HOT
enough to curl his whiskers! Good hot wires help a lot in keeping cattle
home.

We had a Dexter, very smart heifer, nice to train and handle. Still a "real"
cow in her thinking and reactions, even though small. Ours was about
42", 600#. So MUCH easier to deal with when trained to lead, load in
the trailer, stuck her nose out for haltering, came when called, go into
her stall in the barn. She sure LOVED a daily routine in her life.

 

[MDres]

We had a small herd of Dexters when we lived in Oklahoma. We've also had other various "regular sized" breeds of cattle over the years. The Dexters never once challenged the fences. Our perimeter fence was completely field fence, but the breeder we purchased from, and who mentored us, has her property fully fenced with 5 strands of barbwire. She never had a problem. Even her small confinement areas were barbwire and withstood the cattle.

My husband's family and my family have both run herds of >100 cattle for 4 generations on pastures that are ONLY barb wire. And some of that wire is almost a century old (or maybe older...) and on hedge posts spaced 20 ft apart. BUT!!! We are also talking about pastures that are a minimum of 80 acres, some are a half section or more, and the average load is 1:4 acres in an area that can carry more, and we have endless supplies of round bales, so we aren't stingy when it comes to putting them out. I can count on one hand the number of times the cattle have gotten loose in my lifetime, and many of those occasions were due to someone leaving a gate open vs. cattle breaking through fence.

You have to keep in mind the amount of forage on the INSIDE of the fence. If you overgraze and deplete the forage so the cattle are hungry, and you do not supplement with hay, then ANY cattle will test a fence to appease their hunger, no matter what their breed. We've always had plenty to graze, and free-choice round bales when needed. If you have limited forage, or *might* get into a situation where you ran out of hay/forage, then electric fence will definitely be your friend.

 

[greybeard]

MDres, I agree. It's more about the type cattle ya have and what the pasture is like than it is the fence (bulls and in heat heifers excepted)

Every once in a while, you'll have one that just wants to wander tho. Ain't no keeping them in. They get a set of wheels under 'em.
There's an old saying:
Neither man nor God has ever built a fence that can keep a determined cow in or a determined lawyer out"