Crossing creek with fence...

[sstterry]

Woven wire is not going to be good on any creek crossing. It will catch every piece of debris that comes along. A smooth panel that can swing out with the flow when the water gets up can be a good water gap.

 

[A.J.]

We've had good look with running a cable across the gap and attaching 2x4s to it to make a makeshift fence across it. It's heavy enough so the cattle don't push through it, but when the water gets up it just pushes it up to allow water and debris through. Another one we've used before is to run a hot wire across and hang individual stands down from it across the gap.

 

[Kingfisher]

You know....we just got 16 acres with a hitch like that. We made two pastures and I couldn't be happier. You know what I mean?

 

[MtnCows93]

i hang old tin roofing off retired tree climber rope, i figure if it blocks their view they are less likely to try and get out

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

^^^^^This or conveyor belting. It needs to be solid, so brush goes past without hanging up.

 

[sassafras manor]

Around here they string solar electric across creeks via an energized cable with chains spaced every 6" hanging down to within 1 foot of the normal creek flow. The first zap when a cow is stands in water and touches those energized chains will remind her to keep her distance. The chains won't catch debris and once water levels resume to normal they are instantly back in position.

 

[SALTBRANCH2]

I set telephone posts 6' deep each side. I welded eye nuts to U posts and strung 3/4" cable through the eye nuts and pulled tight against the telephone pole posts. I bolted tin to the u posts. I will be changing and using shackles to hang from cable instead of the eye nuts to make replacement easier. I will be upgrading the support posts at the edge of the creek bank. I need to do some cleaning/maintenance but you can get an Idea of what is working for me. This setup is about 2 years old and water was about 10' deep a week prior to these pics
https://pix.sfly.com/-aPyY-

 

[callmefence]

I guess I don't know what the he// I'm doing..lol.
We build a lot of gaps. Several a month and service many more. I've learned not to try to stop ma nature. I build a brace on each side double braced. Pull a cable across with a turnbuckle and hang cattle panels. They usually just get pushed up and don't really catch the brush that bad. In fact if you actually have done it multiple ways. They catch less than running Barbwire across. When they do blow out .. very easy and cheap to fix.

 

[SALTBRANCH2]

CMF, how do you attach the panel to the cable? Or do you lace the cable through the panel at top? less labor than mine by far.

 

[callmefence]

CMF, how do you attach the panel to the cable? Or do you lace the cable through the panel at top? less labor than mine by far.

Don't lace it.
Panels are to be sacrifical in worst case.
Tie with 14 gauge low tensile wire. You can double it and make dropper s below the cable if needed. Keep your braces and your cable above high water mark.

 

[greybeard]

What's on the upstream side of your pasture?
If it's pasture for a long ways upland, CMF's and other suggestions above will work. If it's woods (or very recently cleared land) you can expect the 'sacrifical' part to come into play every time water runs thru and across it.
Me, I just build a strong axx fence with plenty of support and use HT barbed wire. (it would be easier if it was just cattle, but goats and their fence needs will likely throw a wrench in the problem.)

 

[callmefence]

What's on the upstream side of your pasture?
If it's pasture for a long ways upland, CMF's and other suggestions above will work. If it's woods (or very recently cleared land) you can expect the 'sacrifical' part to come into play every time water runs thru and across it.
Me, I just build a strong axx fence with plenty of support and use HT barbed wire. (it would be easier if it was just cattle, but goats and their fence needs will likely throw a wrench in the problem.)

I disagree
Build a proper gap and quit crying about crap in your fence Everytime the creek gets up lol. You haven't tried cattle panels or you'd know they shed debris pretty good actually. As long as you make where they can kick up they clean out very well. I took a bunch of pics checking gaps yesterday." We sale service contracts with our gaps" here's just two. you can see in the one the debris that came through the gap and piled against the road. While there's some minor repairs to do everything will still hold cattle and that's what counts.

 

[T & B farms]

Wire some tin to those panels and they work even better. Takes very little water pressure for them to swing up. I have close to a dozen of these

 

[callmefence]

Wire some tin to those panels and they work even better. Takes very little water pressure for them to swing up. I have close to a dozen of these

I understand the theory. Although it has more to do with deflecting debris than water pressure..lol.. But I've found it doesn't work in the real world. Once the creek gets high enough the tin will cause catastrophic failure.....try to hold a piece of cattle panel in a running creek, then do the same with a piece of tin. :idea:

 

[T & B farms]

Wire some tin to those panels and they work even better. Takes very little water pressure for them to swing up. I have close to a dozen of these

I understand the theory. Although it has more to do with deflecting debris than water pressure..lol.. But I've found it doesn't work in the real world. Once the creek gets high enough the tin will cause catastrophic failure.....try to hold a piece of cattle panel in a running creek, then do the same with a piece of tin. :idea:

Creeks must just be bigger in Texas

It works very well here, lots of brush and grass floating down the creeks. The ones with tin almost never have anything hung up in them.
I use the old style galvanized barn tin. It is much heavier than the new junk. Wire the tin to the panel in plenty of spots, more than just 4 corners like some do.
We get some crazy rains here, I've seen the water 6-7 feet above my cables, and yet to see the tin cause a problem.

 

[callmefence]

Wire some tin to those panels and they work even better. Takes very little water pressure for them to swing up. I have close to a dozen of these

I understand the theory. Although it has more to do with deflecting debris than water pressure..lol.. But I've found it doesn't work in the real world. Once the creek gets high enough the tin will cause catastrophic failure.....try to hold a piece of cattle panel in a running creek, then do the same with a piece of tin. :idea:

Creeks must just be bigger in Texas

It works very well here, lots of brush and grass floating down the creeks. The ones with tin almost never have anything hung up in them.
I use the old style galvanized barn tin. It is much heavier than the new junk. Wire the tin to the panel in plenty of spots, more than just 4 corners like some do.
We get some crazy rains here, I've seen the water 6-7 feet above my cables, and yet to see the tin cause a problem.

Dam straight.... bigger , stronger, deeper, faster....that's Simms creek right there .
Had three named storms on it last year.
:cowboy:

 

[bird dog]

I had one kind of like fence describes on my old place except no cable. It was expendable more or less. Tied the outside of the panels real good to braces but where they met, just tied them loosely to where they would break and swing open completely. I had a few tpost's on the upstream side to hold them in place that were also wired with thin wire. The wire hung about 18" off the creek bed so small runoffs would not effect it.

On a big runoff the panel would swing open like saloon doors. When the water receded to about a foot deep, shut the doors back, pull the posts back up straight and retie. A 10 minute job. The current was very strong on this wash and fighting it with a permanent fence was futile. I drove by it the other day and the current owner is still using the same set up.

 

[countryboy780]

Here in Az we have had over 40 sheep at a time and a few cows, alpacas, llamas, donkeys and dogs.
What has worked for us very well is kattle keeper. We have had to mow down some brush around our place over the years and when it rains it gets washed downstream into our watergaps. Water troughs , debris and a whole lot of other stuff has ended up on top of the kattle keepers. Much easier to clean, and our watergaps have not become dams or torn out fences. The smaller versions work great to keep our dogs in, especially the ones who love to dig under in. We also have a culvert where we have installed one over. Cleaning out plugged up culverts is the worst, it sucks, and this is the best way we have found to keep it clean. When it is all said and done. It comes down to how much time you don't have to spend cleaning your water gap.

 

[sstterry]

A lot of this depends on where you are located. A kattle keeper would not last past the first big rain in my area, too many trees and debris. But, I can see it's benefits in your area. But one thing I have learned from this thread is that different situations require different solutions.

 

[greybeard]

We also have a culvert where we have installed one over. Cleaning out plugged up culverts is the worst, it sucks, and this is the best way we have found to keep it clean.

I have several 24" culverts. Best way I have found is with a can of diesel and a match if it's dry, a pitchfork if it still has water backed up on it...Ain't no good way.