The journey into the abyss of no return

[farmerjan]

You have more "farmer unfriendly" laws in the wide open spaces out there than we do here in much more populated areas... I am not sure Montana is somewhere I would want to live .... I used to think it was the ideal place for farmers to settle and "do their own thing" unencumbered by ridiculous rules and laws... and I can see some restricting of COMMERCIAL large scale hog farming... but to just say no hog farms... and to discriminate against someone with a dozen sows ..... OUCH....
She needs to fall down drunk in a deep mud hole somewhere....

 

[fuzzi]

HOA, Montana style...

 

[Baymule]

That ain't living very free. Keeping out the undesirables........

 

[murphysranch]

Those burned out trees are way too familiar. In the fires where I've been impacted, they call them dozer lines.

 

[SageHill]

Wow. Very cool to see. Love the drone footage - guessing it's on a 'follow me' setting. Nice to see things from that angle.

 

[farmerjan]

Little secret about crappy fencing... When it was originally put up it was obviously good. The cattle learned to respect it because they couldn't get through it. Then, over the years the same cows, and their offspring would get put back out there... the cows respected it so the calves did. The fence got worse, a few "fixes" here and there, but the cows accepted it as the boundary. Not saying that it doesn't need to be replaced... but what I am saying is that it keeps the cows/bulls in because they think they need to stay in there... and each generation will pretty much stay in it even though a 10 year old could knock some of it over. We laughingly call them "Wish fences"... they are wished up there... and we wish the cows to stay in them.
If you put a totally unfamiliar group... say a bunch or 6-8 wt steers in there... they would be out as soon as one decided there was better stuff to eat on the other side...

They get conditioned to stay in them.... and unless they are high strung, high headed, half wild stuff... they stay where they are conditioned to stay. Plus it helps that there is not a nice lush green pasture or hayfield or crop of corn on the other side to tempt them either...

 

[farmerjan]

Okay, I can be wrong... but are you sure it is all "new" cattle when they come back in??? None that have been there before ???? We have one place with "wish fences".... older owners, never did much upkeep, fences are really abominable.... they run there for summer pasture... so nothing in there for 6 months or so, then put some back... but we try to always put back some that were there the year before... and they kinda keep the rest "there".... Have had some calves get out... kept some heifers and the next year put some back that were familiar... could NOT keep them in even with plenty of grass....so it does not work all the time...
Many times a fence is more of a "suggestion" of boundaries, and animals will respect it until they get hungry, or until there are outside forces that push them against it.... like predators.

Not saying that is your case... just making suggestions that there might be a reason that those cows aren't getting out.

 

[farmerjan]

Hi-tensile barbed wire should be good for 25-35 ft on pipe.... some even farther... usually 2 to 3 x what you would do on T-posts... no more than 16 ft on T-posts, max... the thing is, it's more the spacing... no matter how tight you get, the longer the stretch, between posts, the more likely an animal will try to go through the wire... and yes, they will reach through barbed wire... and hi-tensile has some flex to it, the whole idea is so that it can "spring and stretch" if say a limb falls on it... so will have a little give in longer stretches, for animals to try to reach through.... here, the d@#n deer go through it often...

 

[farmerjan]

I’m jealous View attachment 120802View attachment 120804

You're looking at pigs at the wrong time of the year for your temps unless you have them inside... they will NOT survive being born in ZERO weather... no matter how well they are bedded...

 

[farmerjan]

OH-NO... not good...