Fence Question

[Carrie]

Hi all,
Just a quickie fence question. Does anyone have any experience with vinyl fence and cattle? Our big barn sits directly across the road from our house and needs new fence. The white vinyl stuff sure looks nice and seems like it's relatively easy to maintain, but how practical is it? I figure we'd still need to run a hot wire on it and would not use it on the road side of the pasture. We have a small herd of very tame Angus. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks.

 

[dun]

I know 2 people that have tried it. They needed hotwire to make it practical.

dun

 

[eric]

Back when I was shopping for a fence, I found I could get pipe and cable for less than the price of the vinyl. Everyone I know of who has horses or cows has gotten away from the vinyl because it just isnt meant to hold an animal in. The hot wire might help, but if it ever goes down or you get an ornery bull, you can probably kiss the fence goodbye! If you look closely at a vinyl fence, you can push the horizontal planks out fairly easily, as they are only in there a couple of inches into the verticle posts. I know painting fences is a pain in the rear, but at least go check out the vinyl before you commit to it.

 

[Hawk]

One of my neighbors found out that his vinyl fence didn't perform too well in a grass fire. Small grass fire started along the highway and the fence literally laid right over, flat on the ground. That was enough to convince me that I didn't want any, at least not for containing livestock.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Vinyl fence will work fine for most horses (not stallions or yearling colts), and almost dead cattle (and dead bulls)...lol. It's "pretty"; however, livestock don't care about pretty. Security and containing livestock is the bottomline: if one wants "pretty" for livestock, go with pipe and rod (or cable) and paint with good oil based paint. Costs more to go "secure" and permanent; however you sleep at night and avoid lawsuits from estrays.

Even a 200 lb calf can crash through vinyl fence slats (4-wheel drive, super-charged, V-12 engine)...lol

 

[Anonymous]

Had a bad ice storm this past winter and falling pine limbs wrecked my vinyl fence. Shattered like glass. Cold weather must make it brittle.
Gabby

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Had a bad ice storm this past winter and falling pine limbs wrecked my vinyl fence. Shattered like glass. Cold weather must make it brittle.
Gabby

Cold weather, often below 35 deg F., does make any vinyl, PVC, or related "plastic" products brittle.

The advertisements for home siding say "Vinyl is Final"; however, for fencing, Vinyl is an expensive temporary and insecure solution.