Homesteading Multipart Series Part IV – Fencing Types

 

Water is an essential on the homestead. It is actually one of the first considerations you have to tackle. Remember before you have anything else Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs says that first and foremost living beings need some basic components to be successful. He proposed a pyramid for humans and the basic of needs filled the bottom of the pyramid.

We need to work on the basics at the bottom pyramid for our homestead: Air, Water, Food, Shelter, Sleep, Clothing, and Reproduction. Well, for the most part, as we consider homesteading I really can’t help you with Air, Clothing, Sleep or Reproduction. But, so far we have discussed Water. So what is left: Food and Shelter. So we are going to start on Food. I would like to start off talking about Animal food sources first. Then later we will discuss Gardening – One of my main passions.

Animal Production requires fences. It is a basic infrastructure on your homestead. Without fences there will be few animals and definitely not enough animals to approach sustainability. So we will start off talking about the types of fences and eventually move into pastures and pasture setups.

What is the purpose of a fence? Basically the purpose of a fence is to keep the animals you have inside the fenced in area and keep predators and other humans out. No fence is 100% predator proof but some are better than others. There are pros and cons to the different fencing types so let’s take a look at the different type of fences and the ways they are used on the homestead.

 

Welded Wire Fence

Welded wire fencing is just as the name implies the fence is put together in vertical and horizontal strands and each overlapping strand is welded together. This is a light duty wire on a homestead. I have found it as a great deterrent to lay on the ground to keep raccoons from digging into the chicken run. It is okay to contain chickens but will not deter larger predators like dogs. I remember when the boys were little we put up a welded wire fence to contain beagles, a very small dog compared to a coyote. They chewed right through it in just a few minutes. There was no containing them with welded wire. It is an OK option for miniature animals and chickens but if there is considerable predator pressure don’t rely on welded wire fencing. Welded wire can be put on T-posts or Wooden Post but the cost of wooden posts and the strength of welded wire just don’t make the cost worth it. The ease and cost of T-posts makes them the choice for welded wire.

 

Woven Wire Fencing

Woven wire fencing is as the name implies. It is made by crossing squares of horizontal and vertical wire but the crosses are wrapped around each other rather than being spot welded. This creates a much stronger fencing product. It comes in plenty of gauges – the larger the gauge number the smaller the wire. Thus a 12 gauge fence wire is not as heavy duty as a 10 gauge fence. Also, the size of the squares can vary. Some woven wire fences have small squares at the bottom to keep in immature livestock and larger squares at the top to just keep in adult animals. Many have only large or only small squares. It is all based on which animals you wish to contain.  The height of the fence is also a consideration. For example pigs don’t jump much so a 36” fence is appropriate. However, a grown goat would easily jump such a fence.

 

Barbed Wire Fencing

Barbed wire was one of the first fencing materials. It started many a war in the old west between ranches and farms. There is a lot of apprehension about using barbed wire and for good reason. Just as easily will it hurt your animals as well as yourself. Barbed wire is still in use to keep animals off of fences and from going over fences. Some old cattle farms still have barbed wire as the only wire in their pastures. Three strands is all they use. It is relatively cheap in comparison to other fences but the price on your livestock could outweigh the cheapness of the fence. But where electric is not practical barbed wire still has a special place in farming as a barrier for both livestock and predators.

 

High Tensile Fencing

High Tensile Strength Wire can make a very effective fencing. It is generally a livestock only option and will not keep out predators. It is made with many strands of heavy duty wire strung about 6” apart and as high as you would like them to go. This type of fencing requires a pretty substantial post if it is not to be electrified. There are special PVC posts made for this type of wire if it is going to be electrified.

 

Electric Fencing

Electric fencing comes in many different types. It can be a complete fence meant to be moved around temporarily. It can be individual strands of wire like high tensile fencing. I have a friend that just uses T-posts and 3 strands of 17 gauge galvanized wire to keep his goats in – we will discuss this when we get to Goat Fencing in following posts of the blog. Electric fence placed inside and on top of regular fencing will take animal and predator pressure off of fences and make them last longer.  The cons are that some animals will know when the fence is off and make a break for it and inevitably you will come in contact with the fence. This will occur from your own mistake or one of you more sarcastic beasts will push you into it. They know what they are doing, and it is almost like they laugh when you get the zap! Electric fencing can be used with wood, t-posts, step in posts and any number of specific ways. It is probably the most versatile of the fencing materials and has really nearly taken the place of barbed wire. While the fencing is relatively cheap the fence chargers can be finicky and expensive and your fence lines have to be checked daily and sometimes twice or more per day on those windy days, especially if you have trees around the fence.

Whew this one is a little long in the tooth. Fencing is going to be one of your investments that you will be glad if you made the right decision and sorry if you made the wrong one. We will continue our discussion on homestead fencing as we discuss individual critters and the best ways to keep them inside their respective pastures in future blog posts.

I hope this finds you well. I hope you will send up a little prayer for us and I will send one up for you. I have worked with fences since childhood. I look forward to installing our new fences here on the homestead. The old fences here are down and would be a nightmare to remove. So I will leave wide property margins for the wildlife and make my pastures inside my property lines. It has taken me forever seems like to get to this point. But that is the way of it. Homesteading, like Life, is a Marathon Not a Sprint – Slow Down and Enjoy the Ride!

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