Posted by Texasmark1 on February 12, 2012 at 08:01:14 from (67.142.164.21):
In Reply to: OT: barb wire spacing? posted by Casey in Ky on February 10, 2012 at 15:46:32:
Well I'm coming in late. Read all the replies and have a couple of comments from running cows for 30 years:
Gaucho 15 1/2 high tensile, made in Arkansas is my wire of choice. 2 barb works for me as they are extremely sharp (get punched every time I get near it) and spaced about 6" apart. You have to get used to working it but you can pull it tight and it stays, the galvanized coating outlasts conventional coated wire (for me anyway), the roll weighs less, being that gauge rather than 12 1/2 and it costs less.
Cows don't need the lower strands, but as mentioned a calf that plops down adjacent to a fence and goes to sleep, sometimes comes up on the wrong side of the fence. I realize that if you have a sloppy fence and the calf gets out it can get back when it gets hungry enough. But one that gets up on the wrong side of a tight fence may not make it back.
Perception has been the thing for me. If your animals have the perception that they can't outdo the fence you win. Otherwise you get to chase your cows down the road.
If you live on a highly traveled roadway, 6 strands are the norm around here and the spacing is 8" on all giving you a 48" top strand which works for me.
Seems every time I do fence I do it differently so I have done the different spacings mentioned here.
We have Houston Black Clay here and it has a tremendous expansion/contraction rate. Tee posts will not support themselves as in the summer huge cracks develop and the posts fall down in the cracks. After several years, your 48" top strand is at 40" or less. This requires periodic support poles which I usually use treated wooden posts. I put the Tees either 8 or 10' apart and every 10 I put a support post.
Currently I use steel only on the corners and the mid line supports. 2 7/8 on long run fences and 2 3/8 on short. The latter can bow slightly if you put too much of a load on it stretching your wire....not a lot, but you can tell it. Over the years I have changed from wood to steel as the wood just will not last.....well seems Bois D'Arc survives, but the posts are ugly and too hard to drive a staple into so you have to tie your wire to them. I let the steel develop it's own natural oxide coating and that's that.
I have run what's called a swinging fence where I put a sturdy post every 30' and strung my wire coming back with stays every 6' and it works very well if you have rocky terrain. The whole fence works together as a unit and sorta like a basket. It wraps (somewhat) around whatever hits it and prevents the animal form getting through it.
Last, if I have a place, like a maternity pen, then that is 48" field fencing with the bottom either on the ground or just off it. That way I do not have to be bothered with the baby getting out. I also like the idea of a maternity pen as you can put the cow in there when she starts springing and you know where she is and there aren't any perils, like dogs, coyotes, dumping the calf off a pool bank and into the water, and things like that. Buttttt the Buzzards do have to be watched, especially the Black Buzzard which is said to have come up from Mexico, hence referred to as the Mexican Buzzard. They are attack critters and attack en mass. We lost a lot of them last summer when I had the algae fungus fish kill. Seems the poison was contained in the organs of the fish, the buzzards ate such and never came back....counted 50 one afternoon on their first day of feasting. They have since revived somewhat and will kill a calf if they can and really make a mess out of a calving cow and her calf if allowed to do it. So gotta watch for them. Being federally protected, you can't shoot them and that's too bad because they cause a lot of losses for the ag folks around here.
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