Post by Lisa on Sept 6, 2010 14:39:13 GMT -5
Ok, so new here and new to cattle.. Hi, everyone! We're going to get our first milk cow, a 1 yr old heifer and a 4 mo old calf on
Thursday. We have a big, nice barn to work with, but practically no fencing, so we're having to sorta "wing it" for a while. We're leasing to own and don't have any rights to the property yet; our landlord (a great guy) has the ten acres surrounding our house planted in hay that he doesn't want grazed - at least for now. He may be ok with it come late fall after his last cutting.
So, we separated out the big barn into several "stalls" with chain link (thinking it would be pretty easy to take it down and move it if our sale doesn't go through next summer) and, at our landlord's suggestion (who raises a good deal of cattle, himself), we ringed about a 1/4 acre corale out the back door of the barn. Very little to graze on there, but weeds, though. So, we know were going to have to rely on a lot of haying -- at least til we own the place.
The worry is the electric fencing, though. We've never worked with it before -- and it makes me nervous. A little because of the little children around here (but I expect they'll learn quickly not to mess with it), but more because I'm concerned about it not holding my cows in. They've been used to ten acre pasture, and barbed wire fencing, and we know that the heifer broke out of that -- apparently in an amorous attempt to meet up with a beau at a neighboring farm. But we are exactly adjacent to a fairly busy two-lane highway here and there's just not much room for the girls to roam like they're used to . There's a good, sturdy, four-wire barbed wire fence along the road -- but I keep thinking "What If?"
Will the barbed wire really keep them in, you think?
(background info on my nervousness: we're used to goats, who required -- and had-- extremely solid fencing, so this tiny bit of wire for such big animals just feels so wrong!)
Thursday. We have a big, nice barn to work with, but practically no fencing, so we're having to sorta "wing it" for a while. We're leasing to own and don't have any rights to the property yet; our landlord (a great guy) has the ten acres surrounding our house planted in hay that he doesn't want grazed - at least for now. He may be ok with it come late fall after his last cutting.
So, we separated out the big barn into several "stalls" with chain link (thinking it would be pretty easy to take it down and move it if our sale doesn't go through next summer) and, at our landlord's suggestion (who raises a good deal of cattle, himself), we ringed about a 1/4 acre corale out the back door of the barn. Very little to graze on there, but weeds, though. So, we know were going to have to rely on a lot of haying -- at least til we own the place.
The worry is the electric fencing, though. We've never worked with it before -- and it makes me nervous. A little because of the little children around here (but I expect they'll learn quickly not to mess with it), but more because I'm concerned about it not holding my cows in. They've been used to ten acre pasture, and barbed wire fencing, and we know that the heifer broke out of that -- apparently in an amorous attempt to meet up with a beau at a neighboring farm. But we are exactly adjacent to a fairly busy two-lane highway here and there's just not much room for the girls to roam like they're used to . There's a good, sturdy, four-wire barbed wire fence along the road -- but I keep thinking "What If?"
Will the barbed wire really keep them in, you think?
(background info on my nervousness: we're used to goats, who required -- and had-- extremely solid fencing, so this tiny bit of wire for such big animals just feels so wrong!)