Jill Anway
Chillin' with the herd
My husband is wondering, do we need to bury hardware cloth like we did for our chicken run? We will be putting up fence soon.
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Cattle panels & hardware cloth
- Thread starter Jill Anway
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babsbag
Herd Master
What are you keeping in or out?
- Thread starter
- #3
Jill Anway
Chillin' with the herd
Keeping goats in and unwanted guests out. Just not sure if it's necessary.
Baymule
Herd Master
Cow panels have 6"x6" holes in them. Kids can walk right through them. You might want to consider some other type of fencing. And some dogs can crawl through the holes.
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- #5
Jill Anway
Chillin' with the herd
Mini Horses
Herd Master
Well, a fox can go thru cattle panels. So, depends on predators in your area. You may want to consider hot wire as an additional control added to the panels. Plus, are the animals contained in a "safe lot" at night? (when most predators are out).
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- #7
Jill Anway
Chillin' with the herd
We will have a small barn to put them in at night.
To answer your question, NO, typically you do NOT have to apron out anything on a livestock fence. You do it on a chicken enclosure to keep predators from digging in/under (weasles/mink/coons/possum/fox/coyotes/dogs/cats/etc.) for a chicken dinner. That's not normally going to be an issue with goats/sheep/cattle/etc. Some folks will apron on the inside of a pig enclosure to keep them from digging out, but it's typically with welded wire fencing (2"x4") or even hog panels...
Some goats can jump over a 4' fence, and a decent sized coyote can jump 4' straight up from a stand still. Stray dogs typically will not jump over the fencing but will try to go through it or under it. For the above reasons as well as others, many folks like to put a hot wire at the top of their fencing to keep things from trying to go over, another hot wire outside down low to keep things from trying to go under, and one about goat knee height inside to keep the goats from rubbing against the fence thereby stretching it and eventually damaging it.
Some goats can jump over a 4' fence, and a decent sized coyote can jump 4' straight up from a stand still. Stray dogs typically will not jump over the fencing but will try to go through it or under it. For the above reasons as well as others, many folks like to put a hot wire at the top of their fencing to keep things from trying to go over, another hot wire outside down low to keep things from trying to go under, and one about goat knee height inside to keep the goats from rubbing against the fence thereby stretching it and eventually damaging it.
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- #9
Jill Anway
Chillin' with the herd
Thank you #Latestarter for answering my question. We are going to start frencing soon and want to make sure we do it right.
One of my heighbors has Barbados sheep. His fence is a 5' "V" wire mesh with 2 strands of barb wire on top to bring this fence to 6 feet. Coyotes jump over this fence and have killed some lambs. He also had 2 Barbados rams and one of them has jumped over it. 
