Leonard Cohen?

goathunter1

Well-Known Member
No, not bird on a wire, but deer caught in wire. Having just shot my third beast in recent times - two roe, one red- with three and a half legs, I really question whether it's all that important to have that top strand of wire finishing off a fence. I can appreciate when its barb, but if it's just a plain wire is it not actually just cosmetic?
Is it not possible to have the stock fence just reaching up to the top? Is it not possible to have the stock fence reaching to the top and put the plain wire at the bottom? Or, should we be creating a taller, for want of a better word, stock fence?
The amount of beasts that must get hung up in a year and die a lingering death or manage to get free but are maimed must be considerable. Is there no way to stop this quite unnecessary suffering?
So, farmers, tell me why this goes on? Incidentally lest we get too much ping pong, I'm not blaming farmers, I'm asking for their professional, experienced advice.
 
It's not cosmetic, on high tensile fencing ie your stock netting you are talking about, the netting isn't tensioned massively, rather it is just pulled tight and stapled to the posts, but it's the top strands that maintain the tension of the fence and give it a lot of it's strength.
 
hi i have often wondered this as well,but then i thought it through and i think stock/dogs/deer would still get hung up as they could still possibly kick out and get legs through the squares,atb doug,:?:
 
And barbed wire on the top gets the farmer a 85% Grant. Our farmer has had no cows for 15y but he has barbed wire in place..
 
Its down to cost why many farmers erect a 8/80net, the plain wire on the bottom would not work to just increase the height you need a plain wire/barb on the top of your fence to protect it from pressure from the top.
Its sickening i know to come across deer caught in a fence but i cant see it changing soon.
 
cows and horses make a terrible mess of even high tensile sheep wire fences if there isn't a wire above it they lean across and push down to reach any tast morsel they can the result is the sheep wire ends up looking like a hoors knicker elastic

red dot i'm not sure about the 85% grant i think you will find it's more like 40% and even at that the spec of the stuff that has to be used makes it a very expensive exercise, ah roll on all the grant cuts but expect to pay a higher price for your food and access to land for sport and recreation
 
Thanks JRoe. Is it too early to ask the administrators to create an Arts section? I'm sure most good fora (if that's the plural) have them! It would be fine to see some art work from the contributors. We are lucky to see such wonderful sights, which cannot be captured by a camera, but linger in our memories. I wish I could paint!
 
Methinks there is money to be made by some inventive chap coming up with something to help this deer/wire situation. Contributors, get to work. I can't imagine if something like the corks they put on wire to stop the grouse flying into them would do. There must be something.
 
To be fair, the simple solution is to have a single strand of top wire as opposed to the double you more often find, however there is normally a reason for having the two top strands, namely getting the height of the fence up to a sensible and stock proof height. if you just had the single strand that would leave a significant gap between the top of the netting and the wire, enough to get heads stuck through I would imagine, which would cause problems of its own.
We have tried using deer crossing points at high risk areas, this means tying the top two strands together and attaching a long length of 2x4 and pulling them down slightly towards the netting......in principal a great idea, but you can't force the deer to cross on these points..
Stock fencing currently is costing around £6/m round this part of the country, even with government subsidies, which cough up £2.50/m its still an expensive undertaking, and any other extras soon add up, so unless someone thinks of something cheap (and I mean really cheap) I can't see it changing any time soon.
 
The reason many deer get caught up in the two top wires of a fence is usually because they are two slack more often than not a fence thats been in place for a a few years allowing the wires to twist when a deer's leg goes between them, tensioning the top wires every so often will go a long way towards preventing injuries to deer.
 
another reason is the high tensile wire is strung about 3-4" above the net/mesh
should be string at the same height, no gap, no feet can get through
 
I spend most of my "spare" time fencing. Design for most farmers down here, is usually dependent on cost not function.Just the boundary on my main block is over 27klm's, add internal fences & lane ways & 100 klm's is nothing, so a couple of $ here & there is a big consideration. Cattle will be the consideration for most farmers & they "lean on" or push against a fence till it gives. Barbs discourage this. If using netting, 70cm high with two strands of barb above is often cheaper than plain 90 cm fence.

Your prices are very high up there. I priced 17/190/30 "tight grip" just two hours ago for about $3.50 per m. I use a star post every 4m ($9 for 2.4m) & then an 200mm Ironbark post (my own, I can cut 10 000 trees per year without a permit) after every 3rd picket, all corners & gateposts are steel pipe set in concrete. All up it would cost a bit less than $8 per m excluding my own labour. This is for 1.9m deer fence. I still have over 50 klm's to do so in low pressure areas I skimp & am able to get seconds in "Waratah" hinge joint & use 8/90/15 on the bottom run & 7/90/30 above it. It saves me about $2 per m & is easier to use on rough terrain or by oneself. I "NEVER" use barb near deer myself.

Seems that its not just land thats very expensive in Britain, how do your poor farmers do it?

Cheers Sharkey
 
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