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Hick
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# Posted: 1 Apr 2012 00:10
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We have free range cattle in the area where our cabin is. What fencing works the best to keep them out, but we still let the wild life in? I can get lodge poles 17 feet long and cedar post for a good price. Would a 2 rail work? How high or low should the rails be? I was even thinking about running a solar powered electric fence with it. What are every ones thoughts on this? Please help.
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Hick
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# Posted: 1 Apr 2012 00:11
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One more thing. We get allot of snow too.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 1 Apr 2012 00:26 - Edited by: MtnDon
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Cattle roam the National Forest that abuts our mountain property. We use 4 strands of barbed wire with a couple of spreaders between each T-post as a minimum. Three strand doesn't work at all as the calves get through that easy and then Momma gets worried and pushes her way through. Five strands, 10" apart is best. We have one run of a quarter mile like that and the cattle have never breached it. We have to walk it every spring and check for fallen trees. Then repair any breaks and get it all tight again. Sagging wire is useless wire.
I've never used rail fences but the same issue of keeping the calves out will be of primary importance too.
The deer and the elk go over it with ease. Coyotes, turkeys and small wildlife go through with no problems either.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2012 16:19
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Quoting: Hick We have free range cattle in the area where our cabin is. What fencing works the best to keep them out, but we still let the wild life in? I can get lodge poles 17 feet long and cedar post for a good price. Would a 2 rail work? How high or low should the rails be? I was even thinking about running a solar powered electric fence with it. What are every ones thoughts on this? Please help.
Hick, I have the same deal, ie free ranging cattle. I just had my place completely barbwire fenced. Its typical "legal"
fence, ie 4 feet high, 4 wire runs, all 12" apart. Deer and bear canmove through it or over it along with moose etc. Mine was $1.25 per foot installed, plus materials. It basically cost me about $2600 for 1/4 mile, total to fence off my 20 acres was just a smidge over $7000. Spendy. If you did it yourslef (and its not rocket sceince, I just didnt have time) the materials, ie metal post, barbed wire about $300 per 1,320 feet.
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Rifraf
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2012 16:24 - Edited by: Rifraf
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grew up on a farm with cattle, we used similar setup.. our wire was once electric but we turned the voltage off shortly after install, cattle are easily kept out so long their is a visible barrier..
we used 4 strands at 4 ft tall, they never crossed a border once in the 15 years I lived there, and the wire was smooth, not even a since barb on it 
The worst they ever did was put their face down by the lowest wire and try to chew some of that greener grass on the other side.
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Martian
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# Posted: 2 Apr 2012 17:57
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I'd run the electric fence and tie strips of marking tape to it. Once the cows hit it, they don't hit it again. As Rifraf said, it doesn't take much to keep them out, or in, as long as they aren't being chased. But nothing will keep them out if they really want in. Even if you use a five wire barbed fence, keep the grass close to the fence cut short or they'll stick their heads through, and the next thing you know, they're on your place.
The corners are the key to a good barbed wire fence. If you build good corners, you can stretch the wire nice and tight without pulling over the corner post. Any bends require good bracing, too. If you cut on your corners and bends, you'll be rebuilding it in a few years. A well-built fence will last 30 years or more. There's fences on our pastures back home that I built as a teenager........damned near fifty years ago!
Tom
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Icebear
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# Posted: 3 Apr 2012 03:27
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Post and rail is nicest to look at, but best to run a wire down low to stop calves, and a hot wire up top because the cattle will rub on the fence and warp the timbers.
Make sure you get good quality rails if you go that way as poor quality will look terrible when they warp and twist.
Wire is almost always cheaper but might have more maintenance. We run a typical (for NZ anyway) seven wire fence with the fifth wire being hot. The extra wires are to stop sheep who can easily push through a four or five wire fence.
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AYP1909
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# Posted: 3 Apr 2012 11:01
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An electric wire will not keep cattle out; trust me. Where toyota_mdt_tech and I live in Washington State you need to install a "lawful" fence being four stranded barbed, horizontal, well-stretched wire, spaced so that the top wire is forty-eight inches, plus or minus four inches, above the ground and the other wires at intervals below the top wire, twelve, twenty-two, and thirty-two inches. These wires must be fastened to substantial posts set firmly in the ground as nearly equidistant as possible, but not more than twenty-four feet apart. If the posts are set more than sixteen feet apart, the wires must be supported by stays placed no more than eight feet from each other or from the posts. Electric wires will work to keep horses from getting too close and injuring themselves on the barbed wire. Deer just hop right over.
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