# how much grazing space needed for 1-2 cows?



## mener6896

I've looked at other posts, and most were interested in more cows that I am.  I only want to raise 1, maybe 2, cows for beef (spring-fall butcher)  I'm getting a quote tomorrow on fencing, but I'm not sure how much to fence in.  If my darling husband would let me go the cheap route and just do welded wire, it would save on the cost thus allowing me to fence in more area.  However, he wants the 3 rail wooden fence to keep it all looking nice.  I really am not sure how much land I have to fence as I'm not a good guesser, but I would say an acre or 2.  Is this even worth it?  I'm starting with pigs this spring, of course, we are building a pen for them.  But my hope is to eventually get a cow, just for beef.


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## Bossroo

Inform the hubby that he will be repairing and/or replacing the 3 rail fencing every other week.  As for the carrying capacity ... it depends where you are located, how well the grass grows, amount of irrigated pasture that you have, rainfall,the weather, soil type, etc.


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## goodhors

Agreed, wood rail fence for cattle is year around work.  Even with hot wire.

I would have the pretty rails in FRONT of the wire fences to look at, with electric inside the wire fencing to prevent rubbing.  Cows need a rubbing post or place, they are ALWAYS itching stuff.

If you have dry season in your summers, you need more acreage for the cattle.  If you have consistant rainfall, so grass grows most of the time, pastures can be smaller.  My Dexter heifer was fine on about an acre of VERY GOOD pasture, always had plenty to eat.  Larger cattle eat more, so 3 acres would be more of a size they needed. 

If you TEND the pastures, mowing when grass gets up to about 8 inches, not mowing shorter than 5 inches, your pasture will be MUCH more productive all season.  Around here, that can be every 10 days in spring.  Mowing only once a season to remove brush, is not going to make for good pasture all season.  

I keep 7 full size horses on  10 acres of grazing with a daily handful of grain each, all summer.  Horses are fat and slick, working, with only 12-14 hours of turnout daily.  They would be porkers with longer grazing time!  But you have to manage the pasture to keep grass growing well all season.  Letting grass go to seed means you have no grazing the rest of the summer from that plant.  It has gone dormant, his job is done for this year!

Maybe husband would listen to a cow guy, about rail fence not being what cattle need.  Upkeep is much higher too, with painting or staining as wood dries out with time.  No wood fences for me.


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## patandchickens

You can put several strands of very-hot electric on your board fence to protect it from the stock.... but has your husband PRICED board fencing yet, in comparison to any kind of wire?

That may cure him of wanting it 

Pat


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## mener6896

we had an estimate guy come out for fencing and talked my husband out of the board fence.  He didn't mind the wire fence as long as it looks good, meaning he doesn't have to put it in and get the posts crooked.  Also, the fence guy said we would be fencing in a little over an acre.  We also have another 1-2 acres that could be fenced in, but all in all, it may have to wait as just the 1 acre is $5,500 to install.  I may have to start saving, and cows could come next spring as opposed to this spring.   We'll stick with pigs this year.  I can spend the next year or so getting pasture ready.  Since it has always just been grass, we usually mow every week.  I may look into the best pasture grasses to plant...


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## goodhors

Unementioned was high-tensile wire for cattle fencing.  We have high-tensile and have found it to be an excellent fence for all our animals.

This is professionally installed, using machine driven posts and 8 stands of wire.  We found the price, INSTALLED, was cheaper than buying the woven wire and doing the work ourselves!!  Both of us HATE doing wood posts, so the machine driver to install posts was a WINNER!

There are a few things that need to be kept up for high-tensile to work well.  These would be walking the fence line, replacing the occasional popped staple on a wire.  I may get 2-3 staples to fix over the course of winter, couple more over summer.  I do keep the fence weed whacked to prevent power lose keeping the weeds burned.  Really easy to keep clean.  For cattle, I probably would have ALL the strands hot, as a preventative.  For our horses, we have 4 hot, top, middle and bottom two stands as recommended by the fence company.  It kept my heifer in fine, but she was excellent with any kind of electric wire, NEVER bothered it.  Some cattle are more pushy, so best to burn them and keep them off the wire.

I guess that about covers it for upkeep!

We have had the high-tensile for many years, it has been the easiest fence to take care of that I know about.  Animals are secured, with a VISIBLE fence, don't bother the wire because fencer is ALWAYS on.  No savings to run fencer now and again, animals will test it, get out eventually.  Our fence has double braced corner posts and gate posts.  There is no sag or leaning posts.  Single bracing does not last or keep the fence nice.

Locally there are a lot of "home-built" high tensile wire enclosures of 2-3, MAYBE 4 strands of wire for the big spenders.  These are the places that have the terrible accidents with livestock getting cut up reputation for high-tensile fencing.  Fences are NOT BUILT as recommended, not kept up with fencer always on, have too wide a spacing of wires that allows heads thru or under.  Posts are often metal, not well braced in corners or gates.  They don't hold when the wire pulls constantly, as high-tensile wire does.  After I hear about a high-tensile wire accident, and MANY details in poor job become apparent.  It is NOT the wire's fault that it was improperly installed or utilized for fencing.  Overcrowding in paddocks is a big factor with horses.  Those horses would get hurt with ANY kind of fence, because they have no place to escape the bully.  "Saving money" on keeping the fencer on, "since animals should KNOW" after being burnt on it in the past, now you shouldn't need to keep the wire hot anymore!  Just stupid animal keeping practices have been the case after I ask questions.  No fence would have prevented those kind of accidents.  They lean over, walk on, woven wire if the electric is off!  I can't have my animals getting loose in the neighborhood, and I rely on our high-tensile wire to keep them enclosed, protected from other loose livestock or tourists!!

Ask other fence companies about high-tensile wire installations and prices.  The driven posts are super, never move, install FAST!  It was cheaper in materials, so maybe you could have more land enclosed, make a couple pastures, for the same price as woven wire install.  

High tensile wire is not a bad fence when installed to specs.  Badly built, it can be a nightmare.  The couple fence injuries here over many years, were when the fencer was out, hit by lightning and we were not checking it daily (1st no-no).  Horses fighting over a fence (2nd no-no is single fence between horses) broke a wire.  Injuries were clean cuts, healed fine.  One STUPID horse who wanted to rub rump on post and kicked wire down when it stung him.  Again, clean cut, healed good, and HE GOT SOLD.  He knew fence was hot, did rubbing anyway and reacted badly.  He was purchased, didn't raise him. I won't own a stupid horse that injures himself like that.  If he did it once, he will do it again, so BYE!

Another couple times we have seen a young horse get frightened, run full tilt at the fence, hit it and get thrown back with no injuries.  The quantity of strands spreads out the impact, HOLDS horse from forward, then puts them back where they belong in the pasture they started from.  No single part of horse gets ahead to slice itself on the 8 multiple wires.  This would be a vastly different result if horse only hit the 2-3 strand wire fence, wires would break, parts of horse going thru it, causing the nasty wounds that are blamed on high-tensile fencing.  

Husband saw weaning where grown cows were hitting the wire as calves were removed, no cuts or problems on the cows.  They had more strands because it was a high animal density setting, 14 strands as recommended for cattle things like that.   He said it was just amazing that cows were not hurt, ramming fence numerous times before finally gave up trying to get their calves back.  Fence was in fine shape after.   He was really sold on the high-tensile fence before we had ours installed.  The cattle folks LOVED it, stock was registered Angus, with primary product bull calves for future breeding bulls.  They could afford ANY kind of fence, went with this.

I would get this fencing again if we needed to fence in a place.  Has been a great product to live with and good with the animals.  Easy upkeep and looks nice all the time.


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