Mobile Fence idea

[rain dance]

Shoot down my dreams and tell me why it won't work. :dunce: advice comments. Or recommend that I check myself into the nearest psyche ward.

I rent land that I put cover crops on every year after the grain comes off. I would love to graze this with my cattle. Only problem is I don't want to build fence on land I don't own. Why would making a mobile fence not work? Something that you could pull ahead everyday with a tractor to evenly distribute grazing and manure. Maybe with wheels in sections built out of pipes and railroad ties so you could pull it down the rode or put it on a trailer and assemble it in the field. a acre to half a acre in size when put together. If in interchangeable sections you could it make so you could adjust the size and add or remove sections whenever you wanted. I feel like this would work if built right and be much cheaper then building a fence on every field which would cost way to much to even consider. With this I could move it field to field depending on the time off year and could graze year around and not feed a bale of hay unless the snow gets to deep for the cattle to push through. Most of my fields are completely flat so I don't have to worry about hills. To me this seems like a great idea but if it was so great surely someone else would have tried it by now?

 

[M-5]

2 strand of HT and a good hot box is easy and simple can be put up in a day or less. . how many acres is this field . this type of thing is done all the time around here.

 

[Ebenezer]

Look up the tumble wheels used with poliwire.

 

[Lucky_P]

I'm with M-5.
90% of my entire farm - including perimeter fencelines - is 2 strands of electrified HT. Been that and only that for 22 years. Only the bull paddock is 4 strands.
For a few years, I just had one strand around the creekbottom field when it was in corn/bean rotation...kept the cows in.
There was a fellow who had cows IN TOWN here - pasture adjoining the municipal ball parks, public housing, school bus garage, and the lab where I work... one strand of electrified barbed wire. Rarely ever saw a cow or calf get out.

 

[rain dance]

Fields range in size from 10 acres to +400. I have thought a lot about just a 2 hot wire fence like you guys are talking about.

There are a few thousands acres that I could run cows on none of it that I own most of it I dont even rent myself. But could run cattle on it for nothing or close to nothing. I don't like the idea of a 1 or 2 wire fence holding in cattle around here. Maybe it works for you guys but we have heavy deer pressure and multiple major truck routes that many of the fields Im talking about border and there is not government woven wire running next to many places that border it. (I 80 being one of the roads) I'm not going to put cattle out in a 200 acre field next to a major truck route with one hot wire keeping them in. I like sleeping at night. If I was out in the sand hills of Nebraska in the middle of winter it wouldn't be a big problem. Those cows get out in August after the wheat comes off then I probably wouldn't find them till the corn gets harvested and they have already done big time crop damage. Fencing 400 acres isnt a small thing 2 wires or 6.

 

[callmefence]

Fields range in size from 10 acres to +400. I have thought a lot about just a 2 hot wire fence like you guys are talking about.

There are a few thousands acres that I could run cows on none of it that I own most of it I dont even rent myself. But could run cattle on it for nothing or close to nothing. I don't like the idea of a 1 or 2 wire fence holding in cattle around here. Maybe it works for you guys but we have heavy deer pressure and multiple major truck routes that many of the fields Im talking about border and there is not government woven wire running next to many places that border it. (I 80 being one of the roads) I'm not going to put cattle out in a 200 acre field next to a major truck route with one hot wire keeping them in. I like sleeping at night. If I was out in the sand hills of Nebraska in the middle of winter it wouldn't be a big problem. Those cows get out in August after the wheat comes off then I probably wouldn't find them till the corn gets harvested and they have already done big time crop damage. Fencing 400 acres isnt a small thing 2 wires or 6.

And moving 400 acres of pipe and railroad ties is.

Portable fence panels can be had for about 5 a foot. But for your situation a good movable electric fence setup sounds right. You can run three wires as easy as one if you get setup right..

 

[1wlimo]

HT will stand a lot of deer pressure, just avoid kinks when handling it as they provide a week spot that will break.

Run hundreds of miles of poly wire and had some issues with deer, but many fewer than you would think. This year in heavy brush going across known paths only had the fence down once. The HT wire has the staples out on occasion but the fence is still cattle proof.

I would not use barbed wire, or the light gauge metal wire.