What Kind of Fence is This?

[Argonne]

A few miles from my place in NE Texas, a guy has this fence surrounding a few hundred acres. Pics are attached, but it consists of ~ 24" high steel posts with a single strand of barbed wire along the top. About 6" off the ground is a single strand of hot wire.

I can think of no use for this fence, especially considering the variety of dangers it poses. This is cattle country, and we are not overrun with feral hogs around here. Anybody ever seen anything like this?

 

[sixdogs]

Whatever it is they can't be too savvy since the hot wire will immediately short out in the grass and be ineffective. How about city person tying to keep people out?

 

[JerryK]

It might be one of them thar ' Keep your GD'm ATV off my property type fences......

 

[dickfoster]

It might be one of them thar ' Keep your GD'm ATV off my property type fences......

Or maybe it's some sort of a guide wire for automated equipment. How hot is hot? He should pee on it to see how hot it is.

 

[hosspuller]

Texas is a fence out state ... That is livestock are free range and everybody look out for the cattle. I'll wager the fence is for cows.

 

[Locoweed]

Not quite right. There are free range area's in Texas where the cattle have the right of way, but not the whole state.

 

[AGRIMAN]

There may have been a second stran on the fence at some point or may be they raised the one stran to mow under it and never lowered it. There are guys around here that run temporary fence around graze in a simalar way.

They will have 200 head in a field beside a major highway and never have a problem. I couldn't do it. I alway seem to have one or two that you couldn't keep locked up in the county jail for very long.

 

[hosspuller]

Cattle aren't Olympic jumpers like horses or goats. A 24 inch high barbed wire will keep them in. The lower wire is to keep their heads from under the wire. While grazing, a cow will get their head under the wire reaching for a morsel, then raise up tearing the barbed wire out of the posts. Then every body is free.

 

[Argonne]

Cattle aren't Olympic jumpers like horses or goats. A 24 inch high barbed wire will keep them in. The lower wire is to keep their heads from under the wire. While grazing, a cow will get their head under the wire reaching for a morsel, then raise up tearing the barbed wire out of the posts. Then every body is free.

That explanation makes the most sense to me. I don't like the fence, but it's probably the final iteration of the argument "do you want a fence you can afford, or no fence at all?". It's an argument that has most of us settling for barbed wire and t-posts rather than wood 3-rail, or, at the extreme end of the spectrum, something with the word "nerf" in the name.

This fence is on the other side of "no fence at all, find another profession" for me. It conjures visions of ripped out bellies, broken limbs, torn tendons, and lawsuits.

 

[aczlan]

Cattle aren't Olympic jumpers like horses or goats. A 24 inch high barbed wire will keep them in. The lower wire is to keep their heads from under the wire. While grazing, a cow will get their head under the wire reaching for a morsel, then raise up tearing the barbed wire out of the posts. Then every body is free.

Unless they get spooked, then they can get their front end over a 5' gate and knock/bend it down so everyone can walk/run through.

Aaron Z