Fencing?

When some one asks me what my favorite sport is I sometimes like to tell them fencing. For me that has a double meaning because I enjoy both fencing and fencing.

But on the farm we spend a great deal more time building fences then playing with swords. Every spring we have the rather large project of getting the entire farm’s fences up and ready to contain frisky animals. Now if you are thinking of the cedar fence that may surround your yard, you are mistaken.

And, we are not talking about a few feet of fence but a few miles of it. On the farm we have three types of fence— permanent fence, semi-permanent fence, and temporary fence.

Permanent fence: We have a mesh wire fence called a “hog wire” fence surrounding our entire property and dividing our two main fields. Because our sixty acres stretches a half a mile in length, that makes approximately two miles of perimeter fence. This is held up by sturdy wooden posts and makes a strong and mostly impenetrable border.

Semi-permanent fence: Our sixty acres are divided into two main fields—the east field and the west field. Each of these fields is about 30 acres. In the west field, we have three fences dividing it into four long runs.(much like a bowling alley) We move the cows down these runs so that each day they have a new cuisine of fresh greens. This fence is made up of “pound in” iron posts (called T-posts) and smooth electric fence wire.

Temporary fence: When moving the cows daily, we need some type of temporary fence to move in front and behind them. This is why we have our handy reels of polywire (this is an electrifiable woven plastic/wire string) and step in posts.

During this busy season of getting the fences up to par, my little Ford Ranger gets dubbed the fencing mobile. And it is driven and manned by this happy, hardy crew. So that fills you in on one of the big spring projects that keeps us busy.