Shared Cattle & Horse Fence Suggestions?

[Huthy77]

Guys,

My new 10 acre block needs to be fenced, and I've got a dilemna in terms of fencing it... I'll have cattle, but my neighbour will have horses... I've got the ball rolling in terms of proposing a fence style which I think would suit as it's what I've found best in the past... 4 barb's, with the lower barb set at 19", and a hot-wire on 300mm standoff in the horse paddock...

Being stubborn horse townfolk they don't want barbed because "safety to horses and children"... They want to put in 3 strands of plain, 1 sight on top, and an hot-wire on standoff...

I understand their concerns in terms of horses and entanglement in barbed wire, but thats why you use 1.8mm HT and not Iowa 2.5mm, and also lifting the lower wire to 19" should proove to be out of the striking arc of a horse if the standoff is installed..
And yes I'm not sure what they think the safety concern is with barbed wire and children... I'd prefer to have a kid catch a jumper and learn the fence is sharp, then enter into a livestock paddock, or worse the creek that traverses the property...

The last thing I want to be doing is spending my weekends straightening the posts, and tensioning the fence after horse have leant over it, and the cattle have pushed through it...

What have other people found to be the best "shared" fence style that suits both?

[Vernonv]

You could go a five wire plain fence with 2 or 3 of them hot (3's better and top wire should be hot). Will stop the horses, cattle and kids.

[Huthy77]

You could go a five wire plain fence with 2 or 3 of them hot (3's better and top wire should be hot). Will stop the horses, cattle and kids.

Thanks Vernonv...

The neighbours are concerned about maintenance, so they don't wont anything too low... They want to be able to slash under/along the fenceline... Don't ask me why, but they do... So having low wires is ruled out...

Problem with electric fences and cattle are they get smart about it... They head it, up over the horns, along the back and they are through... Seen it done before even with the high output fences... For the most part it's fine for cattle, but once they get the know-how, they love testing it out! You can have the best pasture in the district, and cattle will always think the pasture is tastier on the other side!

Somehow I think the neighbours will be against it too... They want the kids to be "playing in the vicinity of the fenceline"... hence the safety concern with barb...

Some people you just can't please!

[Mr Brush]

We did all our paddocks with 5 strand plain - lowest wire is an earth, then hot, earth, etc. That way the top wire is also an earth, and since lightning tends to hit the top of a fence there's less chance of blowing your energiser to bits. Still worth putting a lightning diverter in though - $20 is cheaper than replacing the energiser. Since the bottom wire is only an earth, and 6" off the deck, grass is less of a problem. Poison a narrow strip along the fencelines a couple of times a year, or give a quick going over with the brushcutter.

We have NEVER had cattle go through this fence. Once they are trained to electric, we can keep them in part of a paddock with just one hot string on tread-ins. With the five wire fence you are not relying on current flowing from hot wire through the animal to earth - if they stick their head between any two wires they are going to be across a live and earth wire, and will get a nice belt from it :oo:. Good thing about electric is the fences don't need to be tensioned so tight, and spacing the steels wider apart saves a lot too. Very important to have a good earth for your energiser too - I have three connected gal steels driven fully in on the south side of the shed where the soil is always moist.

You'll need to add one hot wire on a standoff on the horse side of the fence though - only way to keep them off. Some people around here also put those white caps on the star steels to improve visibility of the fence for horses. I'd rather not see the fence myself, and the current gal steels are a lot less noticeable than the old black ones. Once you've had plain wire electric internal fences, you''ll never use barb again.....we can switch off each paddock individually when not in use, and its really convenient to be able to climb through fences without having to walk around to the gate.:D

[ian]

My new 10 acre block needs to be fenced, and I've got a dilemna in terms of fencing it... I'll have cattle, but my neighbour will have horses... I've got the ball rolling in terms of proposing a fence style which I think would suit as it's what I've found best in the past... 4 barb's, with the lower barb set at 19", and a hot-wire on 300mm standoff in the horse paddock...

Being stubborn horse townfolk they don't want barbed because "safety to horses and children"... They want to put in 3 strands of plain, 1 sight on top, and an hot-wire on standoff...

I understand their concerns in terms of horses and entanglement in barbed wire, but thats why you use 1.8mm HT and not Iowa 2.5mm, and also lifting the lower wire to 19" should proove to be out of the striking arc of a horse if the standoff is installed.
I thought the "real" issue was that a horse can't see a standard plain wire, which is why the wire companies make a white sight wire.

given the neighbour is payin half the cost could you compromise by adding the sight wire on top?

[Vernonv]

Once you've had plain wire electric internal fences, you''ll never use barb again.....Absolutely agree with that statement. :2tsup::2tsup:
I only differ from your setup in that I like to top wire hot as it will stop both horses and cattle from leaning over the fence. Lighting striking anywhere on the fence will cause you issues regardless of whether the top wire is hot or not.

[Huthy77]

I thought the "real" issue was that a horse can't see a standard plain wire, which is why the wire companies make a white sight wire.

given the neighbour is payin half the cost could you compromise by adding the sight wire on top?

I've already suggested keeping the 4 barb, running the offset electric, and running a 5th wire, the sight wire, 2 inches under the top barb...

Personally, I don't like full electric fences... When you are out in the paddock and want to get through the fence, for whatever reason, it's a pain.. Literally... Unless of course you have spend the money on a remote gadget, and you actually have that with you...

[Calm]

In my experience with over 30 years of cattle farming barb wire does nothing more than tear the pants of duck shooters.

Cattle will just push straight through when they are short on feed so it is a waste of time & money. I think the sighter wire on top and at least 2 hot wires is the best - you dont want a hot wire within 600 of the ground because of shorts with grass.

i reckon sighter - hot - earth - hot - earth should be ok for both cattle & horses.

A hot wire off to the side is more prone to be "hooked" up on the rest of the fence by roos etc also.

It is a boundary fence why would you want to be climbing through anyway - you have no business the other side do you?

cheers

[Huthy77]

See that's the thing, we've never had a problem with cattle pushing through barb... I guess we keep our paddocks well grassed, but if you do get a rogue, we've found electric's not that flash... When they get to know to just push their skull/horns against the electric, they keep pushing, and away they go, especially when the hot it at 2ft... Enough for a crawler to go under!

We're only on 10 acres... Not 100, so kids throwing things through a fence, pulling a weed out for the neighbour etc, is why it's good to be able to get through the fence when you want to and not be zapped! A standoff at least is at 9" from top of post, so easy enough for a human to crawl between or under the fence and not have to worry about the boot that will lay you flat!

[artme]

If you are worried by the odd rogue animal the simple thing to do is get rid of that anima. I did that whn I ran cattle and never had any trouble with electric fencing until some stupid goose ran through itwith a car.

[Mr Brush]

We have quite a high turnover of cattle on our place, and over 6 years we've never had anything go through an electric fence.

The only animal that ever went through was when we first bought the place and put some steers on to eat the grass down. The original fences were all barb, and the first week we had stock on one of the steers got bounced through a barb fence. Sometimes happens when you first put cattle on a property and the whole mob runs up against a fence for the first time. Nothing like that has ever happened since the electric went in, not even with a mob of loopy limos.....:D

Electric does the job. You don't need to tension them up anything like as tight as barb, and the steels can be spaced 6m or more apart to save $$$.