Cross fencing bad?

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denoginnizer

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Had a old cattlmen tell me , today, that cross fencing wasnt a good practice. His reasons were that when you concentrate animals into a smaller area you cause and or spread illness.

The farm in question is about 400 acres . The cross fencing would break it up into about 4 100 acre paddocks.

He also said that even if you left the gate open on a cross fence you stressed the calf/cow because they often found themselves on opposite sides of the fence.

Like to hear yalls thoughts.
 
thats a bunch of bull.400acs not split up in pasures is pure crazy.the cattle dont stress going in an out of pastures.
 
denoginnizer":3bu4wiw2 said:
His reasons were that when you concentrate animals into a smaller area you cause and or spread illness.

Well sure, if you try and stuff 1000 animals into a 30 acre paddock. Its pure craziness not to cross fence 400 acres. I'm not sure how big your lots of animals are, but I run my animals 50-55 pairs to a lot, and want to see each paddock about a minimum of 40 acres (enough for a month of grazing).

Rod
 
Quite the oposite. I have read in sevral publications and talked to several that purposly cross fence for calving. Specifically to cut down on diseases. It also allows you to seperate heifers to calve from cows since their imune system tends to be weeker than older cows.


Scotty
 
That old cattleman speaks a little truth in that statement but not much. Crossfencing is a proven practice, there is absolutely no way to better utilize all your grass than with a fenceline. The only thing I can imagine he is thinking is overcrowding cattle during calving, troubles can be had during this time of year with limited space. Other than that I think 4, 100 acre parcels sounds like a good rotation.
 
Crowderfarms":3mhe0coc said:
Guess I better get right on tearing down my new Cross Fences. Dang It!
Heck Crowder. Didn't you just get them put up in the heat of the past summer. Now you gonna take em down in the cold of the winter. Don't make sense to me.
 
denoginnizer":2fmhr8mk said:
Had a old cattlmen tell me , today, that cross fencing wasnt a good practice. His reasons were that when you concentrate animals into a smaller area you cause and or spread illness.
if increasing your grazing capacity and selling healthier calves isnt worth having a decent vaccination program, he might be right.
 
la4angus":3uoklqbv said:
Crowderfarms":3uoklqbv said:
Guess I better get right on tearing down my new Cross Fences. Dang It!
Heck Crowder. Didn't you just get them put up in the heat of the past summer. Now you gonna take em down in the cold of the winter. Don't make sense to me.
LA4, I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. ;-)
 
Complete and total nonsense! The cows are not going to spread themselves out and each live solitary lives so they don't come into contact with the other cows. Most of them are going to be bunched up in close contact with the other cows most of the time, whether they are on a 100 acre field or a 400 acre field. The opposite is actually true. Cows get infested with worm eggs by eating grass urinated on or defecated on. IF you rotate your pastures the rest period between grazings will decrease the worm load on those pastures. Cattle prefer young growing grass, if you let the cows do what they want to do on a 400 acre parcel they will graze the grazed down parts first for the young growing grass first and thus will be ingesting more worms (grazing on spots where they were recently) than if they were rotated to a new field. The benefits of resting your pastures, being able to stockpile grass, possibly hold back a hay field, being able to find your cattle quicker thus watching them more closely, limit cow's exposure to highly erodible areas, etc FAR outweigh any mythical herd health drawbacks.
 
The placement/availability of water becomes a problem in large fields/pastures/paddocks depending to a degree on the breed composition of the cattle. Typically the forage closest to the water gets over used and the further stuff gets under utilized.

dun
 
We have 450 Ac. This ranch is divided into 20 pastures and about 5 traps. The traps all have water in them. Some of the pastures have tanks. In 1994 i built an alley way from one end of the ranch to the other . This way i can move cattle to any pasture at any time . Sure makes it easy to move cattle with no trouble. I would not run cattle on a 100ac. pasture when for a little bit more make it 5 20 ac. pastures. JMO
 
denoginnizer":1mprr3ju said:
He also said that even if you left the gate open on a cross fence you stressed the calf/cow because they often found themselves on opposite sides of the fence.

Had just this very thing happen (sorta) just the other day -
Cow went thru the gate but the calf turned before going through the gate - Momma quickly turned around and came back for her baby - 8)

The only drawback we have is - the cows figure out you are opening up a new pasture with tasty new grass - they race to get there first so you'd better get out of the way or you will be run over :cboy:

Happy New Year
 

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