Does woven wire horse fence exist anymore?

[riptides]

Don't take this wrong Eddie, but you have two different animals that have drastically different fencing requirements. Are you planning on doing woven for all? Or will you separate your fencing and pastures per livestock?

 

[ponytug]

I can recommend Premier1 electric fencing; we use it to reduce pressure on the perimeter barb wire fences and to subdivide pastures, though not so far as daily pastures. They offer goat specific netting. I have a pair of reels with wire rope on them that make quick work out of a new fence line for subdividing a pasture.

I have watched the horses check that the wires are live with their muzzle hairs or herd the cows toward it to check. (Naughty horses!)

All the best,

Peter

 

[EddieWalker]

Don't take this wrong Eddie, but you have two different animals that have drastically different fencing requirements. Are you planning on doing woven for all? Or will you separate your fencing and pastures per livestock?

2x4 woven wire all over. I'm not only wanting to keep my goats and horses in my pastures, I also want to do everything possible to keep hogs and coyotes out of my pastures.

 

[DieselBound]

I started out with white vinyl 3 rail fencing. I really like the look of it, but it's proven to not be very good for livestock. I have horses and goats, and plan to get a few steers when I have more of my place fenced in. The vinyl fence is about 5 acres with a small pond and my barn. In the last 15 years, it's started to all apart. Pieces of the rail and posts, where they come together, are breakign off. I've shot rocks through my lawn mower the went right through the rails. The side that doesn't get sun has become dark with algae.

Then I fenced in 7 acres with three rows of electric white ribbon. It's not very attractive, but the horse respect it. The goats walk right through it, so I have to keep the goats in the 3 rail fence pasture and lock the gate when the horses are in the electric pasture.

Both of those fences are nearing the end of their useful life. The white ribbon came from Kencove and it's pretty good, but it's also growing algae, and I'm constantly pulling branches off of it.

My new fence will not have any trees over it, or even close to it. I'm going to eventually remove the vinyl fence and use it along the front road for a nice look, but not to keep animals in.

My plan is to have 5 pastures. One for feeding the animals, where the small pond is and my barn. Four pastures will be for rotating them for grazing. Each of the four pastures will be connected to the feeding pasture. I have 68 acres and each grazing pasture will be around 14 acres. I'm hoping to have one grazing pasture done next year, and then add another one every year.

Best description of a goat fence: "Needs to be able to hold water." I'd really like to have goats but they scare me: fencing has to keep out predators AND keep the goats IN.

 

[ponytug]

@EddieWalker FWIW: No question that woven wire is less maintenance and stronger, but a strand of electric at snout height has been very effective at keeping the feral pigs out of our pastures. I've watched coyotes climb 6' chain link fence effortlessly, so I am not kidding myself on that one.

All the best,

Peter

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a single strand of hot wire around my food plot. It's been very effective and keeping the hogs out, but nowhere near 100%. Problem is that every now and then, one will hit it and then run right through it instead of running away from it. Last year a friend of mine shot almost 120 hogs on my place, and so far this year, he's pretty close to half that. We haven't seen a hog on any of the game cameras in over a month. It's just a matter of time until they come back.

I like electric fencing, but I do not want it to by my ultimate, permanent, fence. I think that 2x4 no climb horse fence is the best choice out there with barbed wire below and above it.

 

[DieselBound]

@EddieWalker FWIW: No question that woven wire is less maintenance and stronger, but a strand of electric at snout height has been very effective at keeping the feral pigs out of our pastures. I've watched coyotes climb 6' chain link fence effortlessly, so I am not kidding myself on that one.

All the best,

Peter

Fixed-knot woven wire is stronger than regular fixed knot: biggest selling point is that you can get by with half the number of line posts.

My fence is topped with a hot wire. Nothing that crawls is going to climb over the fence: jumping, yes, but not crawling. Fence/woven wire is the ground. Racoons had been ravaging our chickens and as soon as that hot wire was strung and turned on the carnage stopped instantly: never a problem now in four years- no traces of coyotes, which we have, ever inside of the fencing.

 

[ning]

Fixed-knot woven wire is stronger than regular fixed knot: biggest selling point is that you can get by with half the number of line posts.

My fence is topped with a hot wire. Nothing that crawls is going to climb over the fence: jumping, yes, but not crawling. Fence/woven wire is the ground. Racoons had been ravaging our chickens and as soon as that hot wire was strung and turned on the carnage stopped instantly: never a problem now in four years- no traces of coyotes, which we have, ever inside of the fencing.

I built something similar; 6' woven w/ 3 lines of barbless on top with 8" spacing (7.5' top height), with two lines of hot, the first 4" above the woven, and then next 8" above that.

The fence is connected a grounding rod just in case all of the t-posts doesn't do the job (hey, there's paint on the tposts that could interfere with ground, and half of the year I wouldn't trust the surface of the ground which touches the bottom of the woven wire to provide a ground path).

No coyotes seen at all any more.

So far, the local bobcat has been taking the long way around to get at my chickens - it found where I haven't redone my fence, and it's obviously not willing to make that trip as often.

 

[DieselBound]

I was concerned about grounding, but after testing I found out that I didn't have to worry. Enough of the fence hits ground and the ground here is amply conductive (over 100" of rain last year).

I over-dug a ditch next to a fence line and didn't notice that I'd done so. I discovered after having several fowl drug off. The grass was tall and I didn't noticed that I'd extended beyond the normal bounds of the ditch, which was fortified (material going down and into the ditch). I was NOT happy with myself! Not the fence's fault. Patched and that was that.

I really am amazed that coyotes haven't left any traces inside the fence. Maybe they aren't able to jump 4 1/2' all that well and tend to look more to climb. We've had dogs (one that was as good a livestock guardian dog that you could ever imagine; current dog is pretty good and getting better); coyotes don't really want to engage with domestic dogs (not ones that are twice as big and well-fed!). I think, however, that most of the discouragement is the fencing. Animals hitting a hot wire never want to experience that again. Even our previous LGD as fearless as she was gave up after thrusting herself against an electronet fence that was used for containing our fowl before we went full free-range (with the construction of our permanent fencing; it was an aerial predator (usually eagles) that landed inside the electronet fencing.