Livestock Fencing
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Cattle Fencing
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Livestock Fencing

Good farm fencing protects and confines valuable livestock by keeping them from roaming into unsafe areas and by keeping predators away from them. Barriers may be physical, psychological (electric shock), or a combination of both. There are a wide variety of livestock and farm fencing, such as mesh wire, woven wire, barbed wire, and electric fencing. Board and vinyl fences are also attractive and useful for certain situations, such as horse fencing.

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Types of Animals

The type of livestock that you want to confine greatly determines the type of fencing you need to install. Select your type of fencing based on cost, type of livestock, maintenance, and durability. Horses will run through a fence or get tangled in it causing harm to themselves. Cattle and goats will climb over fences, while sheep and swine may try to scoot or root under fences. Alpacas and llamas will rub their beautiful fleece on barbed wire. Any livestock will put a fence to its greatest test when there is a lush green grass on the "other side of the fence," or for an opportunity to breed. So it's easy to understand that cattle on a controlled grazing pastures have different fencing needs than horses.

Smaller livestock, such as goats need predator control fencing to deter coyotes and stay dogs from entry. In addition, permanent boundary fences may require require studier fencing materials than fences for cross fening and temporary paddocks.

If you are installing horse fencing, then PVC

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Before You Start Building

Before shopping for livestock fencing materials, know your local county bylaws. Are there rules about fence height or unacceptable types of fences? Are there requirements for road set-back? What are your neighbors using for farm fencing and why?

Know exactly the boundary of your property line. You may need to get a survey. An error of a few inches on either side of the fence line could cause law suits and fences to be taken down and rebuilt.

Carefully measure and plan your perimeter and cross-fencing and gate placement. If your area is not square or rectangular, determine where to place the corners.

Calculate your budget. Use the free

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Planning Your Fences and Gates

Before you sink your first fence pole, you need to plan out where your fences will go. If you plan to do pasture rotation, you'll need to set up your fences to easily rotate your animals from one pasture to another, and from the barn to the pasture. Field boundaries and cross-fencing may be planned using the aerial map of your farm. Aerial maps for most acerage are available from

Clearing Your Acerage for Livestock Fencing

After you have planned out where all your fence lines and gates will go, your next step is to clear out all the brush and trees that grow on your fence lines. There are a variety of ways to clear our brush and trees, including chain saws, a box blade on a tractor, and herbicides. If using herbicides, check if your state requires an operators permit for certain types.

Removing Old Fence Posts

If you are replacing a wooden fence, you'll need to remove any old rotted fence posts. To do so, remove 1 or 2 shovel-fulls of dirt from the side of the post from which you'll pull. Dig down about 12 to 18 inches. This gives the post room to move out, rather than break at the soil line. Wrap a strong rope or chain around the post 2 times and then attach the rope ends to your tractor or the hitch on a truch and slowing pull the post out.

Solar Powered Electric Fence

If you plan to install an electric fence, you need to consider how you will electrify the fence. There are basically three options: attach the charger to an existing electrical circuit, use a 12-volt battery, of install a

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