Fencing and Sheep

In our four years on our little block, we've learned a lot about containing animals and that nothing is as simple as it seems.  We used to think fencing was easy - where there was a barrier, animals were contained.

We've since learned that cattle will go over the top of fences when they really want to.  Either straight over and you're left scratching your head wondering if you have magic teleporting paddocks or they'll lean over the top to get feed on the other side and slowly destroy the fence.

Pigs will go under most things - the amount of strength they have in their noses is astounding.  The only thing I've found to contain determined pigs is corrugated iron and electric fencing.

Sheep, however, have been the most destructive force to our fences.  They go under, they go through and they mark their successes for next time with all the wool wrapped around two strands of fence pushed together.

We got Nibbles and her lambs knowing they were escape artists.  They were escaping through five strand cattle fencing so, we were assured, our sheep netting and deer fencing would be fine for keeping them in.

It was for a while.  Then there were the paddocks where some of the fences had already had some stress from two dexter calves being weaned.  Then the sheep would get into the shelter belts and from there they had their run of four different paddocks.  Trying to convince them to clean up one paddock before moving them to the next was a joke.  They were keeping four paddocks down.  Nibbles was rather fat when time came for her to have her lambs.

Bottom strand of fence twisted up to leave a gap for cunning sheep.

I know the big sheep station down the road culls the serial escapers.  As they pointed out, there might be one in a paddock, but it doesn't take long for that one to teach ten others and they'll teach a hundred.  Suddenly, you've got stock you can't keep under control.

At the time when I heard that, I had two sheep.  Both escape artists and one heavily pregnant.  Culling them was really not an option for us.  We had to make our fences sheep tight so they couldn't escape and when their lambs were born, they weren't taught the secrets because there would be no escaping.

A wool wrapped escape point into the shelter belt.

I've heard theories and tips from a number of people.  Some more practical than others.  One told me to wind a strand of wire through the bottom strand of the netting, run it all along the fence and strain it up tight.  Threading it through and around each netting block was challenging but straining it tight enough to stop them didn't happen.  The wire broke - high tensile fencing wire by the way.

Our next idea was to stake the bottom of the fence down.  Rods like tent pegs don't really work.  They pulled up again just with us testing them.  In the end, Hubby cut down several of the flat bar warratah stakes that we had lying around.  He drilled a hole near the top end.  We hammered them in, tied them to the bottom strand of the fence and then he hammered them to below the surface of the ground.  This is a very long and slow and painstaking process (pun not intended) but it seems to work.

Stake tied to bottom strand

Stake hammered to ground level.

It's not helped by the way the fences have been stapled to the posts.  We were told by the guy we bought the place off that the deer fenced paddocks were put up for ostriches.  Ostriches don't need the bottom foot or so fenced, so he'd had to go through and drop all the fences down to ground level.  Except he didn't drop them to the ground, or rather he didn't drop all of them to ground level.  In some places there was more than 20cm (8 inches) between the bottom strand of the fence and the ground.

The gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground.

So our first job in each paddock we're making sheep strong is to drop the height of the fence.  Then we go along staking down the bottom.  In some places a single stake between fence posts is sufficient, in others two is needed.  We've run out of warratahs and flat stake standards so Hubby bought 30mm x 6mm flat bar in 6m lengths and just cut and drilled them from there.

Three paddocks down, two to go!