Coyotes and Fencing opinions

[houstonscott]

Do you spray the fence line with roundup? I'm thinking that's going to have to happen a couple times a year, but wonder if it will cause more rust to the fence, or speed up the growth of rust on the fence.

No the goats keep the weeds off the fence lines, only grasses survive, so I don't spray. HS

 

[kennedyfarmer]

I think you need to call these two!

 

[jlgurr]

I think you need to call these two! YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jlRoI-b9fY

Very impressive. They sure have some wide open space there.

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

 

[arpt209]

Eddie,

A fellow I knew many years ago who worked for the Fish & Game was doing a project for Ducks Unlimited. The fence he constructed was just like the one shown in your original post on this subject. My brother is a predator control agent for Delta Waterfowl & I know he has constructed identical fences for keeping predators out. I'd try talking to people in the know from either or both of those outfits & get their input. They do this kind of thing for a living & a passion.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Dingo Fence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[OldMcDonald]

Eddie, I agree with those who say to use a horizontal mesh outside the fence. I have farmed in England, Australia, Scotland and Portugal. Different predators in different countries, or diggers that do not predate, but leave holes for others that do - foxes, badgers, kangaroos (several species), dingoes (inside the dingo fence), wombats, wild pigs, stray/feral, dogs and more, including a mountain lion in Scotland!! A barb along the bottom (outside the fence posts) will stop most of them, and "foot netting" i.e. one foot high chicken mesh will stop most of the others, but I am inclined to think that wider, maybe 2 feet is needed to stop all dogs. Foot netting was enough for rabbits and kangaroos, but your idea of something heavier would be my preference too. The pigs just burst through line fences and will follow mesh until they can get around it. Not a problem for you since you are doing the whole boundary, but I had 13 miles of boundary on my Australian place, so a non-starter.

In Australia we just laid the foot netting on the ground and tied it to the bottom wire of the fence. It was soon permanently fixed by whatever grew up through it. You could put the horizontal wire inside your fence so that your vertical fence is on your boundary line, but you would have to be prepared to have coyotes still digging along the line. I doubt that the predators I have had experience of would continue digging until they were clear of the 2 feet or so of horizontal mesh, but I have no experience of coyotes. An outside barb at ground level would deter some of the digging. It stops pigs, although I have never seen a wild one the size of some of those you have in the U.S.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thank you. The link to the Dingo Fence led me to these images. This seems to be the most common and proven method of keeping predators out of a fenced in area.

dingo fence construction - Google Search

I'm thinking this is my Plan B. I'm still leaning towards running my trencher the entire fenceline and then burying a 3 foot tall fence two feet in the ground. The 2 disadvantages to this idea is rust, and needing longer posts. I just don't know if a galvanized fence buried in the ground will rust completely through in my lifetime, or if galvanized fence laid on the ground will last longer?

I can get 30 foot lengths of drill pipe for under a buck a foot. That's cheaper then T posts. I'm thinking pipe will also be stronger.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Thank you. The link to the Dingo Fence led me to these images. This seems to be the most common and proven method of keeping predators out of a fenced in area.

dingo fence construction - Google Search

I'm thinking this is my Plan B. I'm still leaning towards running my trencher the entire fenceline and then burying a 3 foot tall fence two feet in the ground. The 2 disadvantages to this idea is rust, and needing longer posts. I just don't know if a galvanized fence buried in the ground will rust completely through in my lifetime, or if galvanized fence laid on the ground will last longer?

I can get 30 foot lengths of drill pipe for under a buck a foot. That's cheaper then T posts. I'm thinking pipe will also be stronger.

Eddie
In some ways you just have to train the yotes that they can't dig under the fence. Once they know that it don't matter if it rusts out or not. Ed

 

[gsganzer]

Can you run a hot wire down low? Our rancher runs a hot wire around the perimeter of his goat ranch. The wire is about 9" off the ground and sticks out from the fence about a foot with stand-offs. Seems to work for the most part.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have three strands of hot wire right now going around ten acres that my horses and goats use. It was simple enough to install, but it's a never ending maintenance job. Weeds, branches and bugs have a way of shorting it out. Grasshoppers are constantly dying getting between the wire and a something that grounds them out like a damp tree, or a metal T post. We have to constantly walk the fence to remove what's causing the fence to "pop" from what's there. Then the wild hogs will hit it and tear it apart. My guess is that they hit it, and then run straight through it. I have a box full of spare parts because they get broken so often.

While a hot wire around the perimeter of the 8 foot fence would be different, it would still have it's list of issues. It will probably keep coyotes away most of the time, but I do not believe it will work consistently. And there lies the problem. It has to keep them out all of the time.