Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Baymule]

Maybe instead of the 2"x4" non climb horse wire (I used it on our place) you could use the 4"x4" goat and sheep wire. It comes on 330' rolls and would be cheaper to use than the horse wire.

 

[Mike CHS]

I used the heavier sheep & goat fence at first that @Baymule mentioned but I had help then. Those rolls weigh 300+ pounds and can be handled by one person but it isn't easy. I discovered the Gaucho brand wire (High Tensile) field fence at Tractor Supply and finished my fences with that. I don't remember the weight but it was less than half of the heavier Red Brand fence and since I have all hills, I would always start at the high end and let gravity run the fence out.

It is cheaper than the heavier fence and has the advantage of being stronger and needing fewer fence posts. I still ran 10' apart plus I have hot wire because we have a sweet Great Pyrenees that loves to climb. The Red Brand has needed some maintenance to keep tight where the High Tensile has needed none. We have had our neighbors goat in one of our pens and although they tried they couldn't get out of our fence.

 

[Bruce]

You have a tractor Mike, you can use that to tote the massively heavy (*) wire with it. Heck, you could even make something to put on the back of the tractor to hold the roll while you drive and lay it down at the same time.

* yeah I got a roll of that too, took 3 of us to get it in the car. Only took two to get it on the cargo carrier on the receiver hitch for the second roll.

 

[Mike CHS]

But in the case of fencing, there is an advantage to hills as long as you make sure you start out on the right end.

 

[Bruce]

But you have to GET it to the right end! As you well know. One of my rolls was dragged to the "starting line" on a kid's plastic snow sled. I'm guessing those aren't real common there. The other I had help from someone that lives up the side road to get through the ditch and onto the field. From there I stuck a long hollow metal pipe in it, ran wire through that and connected it to the back of the garden tractor. I drove slowly and DW let me know when it needed to be repositioned. That was a generally down hill run.

 

[greybeard]

Bruce said: ↑
Next time pay attention to the sign on the tree telling you the height clearance

A Biltmore stick comes in handy. Buy one or make one



Or, get a straight stick the same length as your arm--shoulder to palm of your hand. Approach the tree to within a few yards (meters for you foreigners) about 1/2 as close as the tree is estimated to be in height. Hold your arm straight out, with the stick straight up in the air and the very end of the stick tightly clenched in your grubby little hand ..
Here's where it gets hard, (more difficult for some than others)
Walk backwards (oh noes!! ) with the stick still straight up and arm fully extended, and your eyes steadfastly on the tip of the stick. When the highest point of top of the tree is right at the top of your stick, STOP! You are now the same distance from the trunk of the tree as it is tall within just a few feet anyway. Make a scuff mark on the ground with your foot and measure from there to the tree trunk.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Whew! So much to learn! How does this idea sound? Why don't I throw a really big BBQ dinner for everyone and all of you show up and teach me what I needed to do. I know it would be a heckofa drive for just about everyone (especially such folks as @Bruce in NW Vermont, @Mike CHS in North Caolina, Miss @farmerjan in SW Virginia, @Mini Horses in coastal Virginia, and Miss @Ridgetop way out in California) but maybe I could make it worth your whiles. OK, I know it isn't realistic. I thought it would prove interesting for you folks to meet a real live Texas Aggie!

OK, I will address your posts and in the next post I provide I will ask for some advice.

Regarding

Bruce you are such a smart ass. I love it!

I thought that very funny as well.

Regarding

Oh..using Google maps, since you already have found your property on that website, there are several 'fence planners' you can access for free to get a good idea what your materials will actually be.
https://myfence.mysalesman.com/?partnerCode=d2a41c2ba6fe#Start

https://www.farmfencesolutions.com/fence-configurator/

https://fencing.bekaert.com/en/fencing-calculator

and

I used the heavier sheep & goat fence at first that @Baymule mentioned but I had help then. Those rolls weigh 300+ pounds and can be handled by one person but it isn't easy. I discovered the Gaucho brand wire (High Tensile) field fence at Tractor Supply and finished my fences with that... It is cheaper than the heavier fence and has the advantage of being stronger and needing fewer fence posts. I still ran 10' apart plus I have hot wire because we have a sweet Great Pyrenees that loves to climb. The Red Brand has needed some maintenance to keep tight where the High Tensile has needed none. We have had our neighbors goat in one of our pens and although they tried they couldn't get out of our fence.

All of you folks amaze me. I will probably 6 feet under (and I know that since the righteous die young I will live to a ripe old age) and I will won't know half of what you folks know.

Now to my questions in the next post.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

I decided to use one of the fencing websites that Mr. @greybeard provided, namely Fencing Solutions, to see what it came up with. I laid out the fencing similar to this (the eastern and southwestern boundaries are my property boundaries, while the northern boundary was arbitrarily chosen):

I chose fencing suitable for goats. The website said I needed 15 330-ft rolls. But it did not mention any posts in the price lists. I went back to see if I needed to change something but the website cleared out everything I had entered. So what I have posted above is a snapshot of Google Maps.

Would it make sense to fence in the above section, build some buildings to house the goats at night at point A, and then turn the goats lose? Or would I need to subdivide the areas so that I could rotationally graze? How hard would building the fence through the woods (all of the southwest boundery and a portion of the eastern and northern boundaries be?

I have a book titled Natural Goat Care, which I have yet to read. Maybe it is time to read that and then maybe I won't have to ask so many questions of you folks.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Mike CHS]

I'm going to let the goat people answer that one but most of the folks that I know in this part of the country do rotational grazing for parasite control. We also do that but have to plan ahead more since we need about twice the acreage than we have. It would help most that offer suggestions to know where your access point and any road areas leading up to the fence. Is water available or will you have to haul it? Any existing buildings for working and/or hay storage?

 

[greybeard]

Is water available or will you have to haul it?

There's a pond in that enclosure. Managing the worm load might be a chore but there are hundreds of thousands of goats raised in central and southwest Texas on pond and runoff water.

How hard would building the fence through the woods (all of the southwest boundery and a portion of the eastern and northern boundaries be?

Depends how good you get with your chainsaw and brush hog. The longest thru-the-woods fence I built here recently was 2200' and it was tough, but it crossed 3 different waterways and was barbed wire..I drug each strand by hand from one end to the other.
Prior to that, my twin brother and I fenced the whole 124 acres when we were 14 and 15 years old and it was all wooded at the time with a a Nat Forest on 2 sides.

Built and maintained several in West Texas on 4 sections thru lots of mesquite and prickly pear which wasn't quite as bad.

Designate a start point and an end point, walk it, then walk it again. walk it a 3rd time with a can of spray paint and mark every tree that has to go..a path tractor footprint wide. Figure out where you want that little angled dog leg offset too. Then start on one end and start cutting.