Fence Maintenance

I work at a large horse farm that has more that 200 miles of 4-rail wooden fence. The maintenance crew used to weed whack the grass under the fence, but have switched to spraying glyphosate. They buy it by the drum! Unfortunately, appearance is an issue so just letting everything grow up over the fences is not an option. Any suggestions?

Different fences... Just kidding, sort of.

You need to prove to them just how much time and money they are spending that could be avoided by installing permanent barrier.

Recycled conveyor belting will create a nice mowable edge that will last forever, but $$$. Cedar boards would do the same thing, but not last forever. Or concrete curbing/sidewalk.

You may not be able to get them to change all of it at once, but try to get a couple test sections to figure out the cost and how much they will save in maintenance.

Or you could throw out some GMO seed so they still get stuff coming up after they spray Just kidding! The gly-resistant weeds will be there soon enough, anyway.

Probably the most permie answer I know of is do you have someone there who uses goats for weed control. Here a neighbor up the creek has a herd of about 400 goats he charges to bring in to clean up such things. They set electric fence temporarily to keep the goats contained to the area be cleaned. Given the mileage of fence likely this and weed barrier are simply out of reach so you probably are already looking at the most economical answers. The only other answer would be some sort of semi permanent ground sterilization. That either means really nasty chemicals or some sort of salt sterilization(maybe MgCl, CaCl or KCl).

What about fire? Propane torches are made for burning weeds.

Kyle Mays wrote:What about fire? Propane torches are made for burning weeds.

Might not be suitable to large pasture, too easy to start a range fire.

Split rail fences are very easy to light on fire also.

Mike, my work is on a large GMO/chemical farm so I know how frustrating it is to see something going on everyday that you don't agree with and know is wrong. However unless you have a major stake in this horse farm and or a realistic vision of it evolving into something better maybe you should save your efforts for elsewhere.

Make the smallest change for the greatest benefit. Sorry if you already know this and are way beyond someone reminding you of permaculture principles (I have no clue how far down the path you are).

That said, I don't really have any knockout ideas for this situation. Goats or sheep might work, maybe seeding a mix of short, attractive, locally adapted plants under the fence could help. Something to entice the horses to reach under the fence and clean it up themselves? I don't know much about horses. Oh, and a scythe can be much faster than a weed wacker except it might not look quite as manicured especially right up next to the posts, but 200 miles would seem a bit crazy.

I haven't tried this yet. But a very experienced farmer suggested it to me. It seems like it might work.

Put lime under the fence, a really thick layer like >3" of lime. Hopefully weeds will not grow through that. Microrrhyzae will help spread the lime around the field.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice. We'll have to do some experimenting out here this spring. The trick is to get it to scale up.

Here in the desert, we simply drag along the fence line with a tractor and a Gannon box. Some people use a special set of chains. It makes an excellent firebreak too. With a wood fence, you MUST do something about high weeds along the fence line in Arizona. We get lightning and small fires on occasion. I don't see why the same technique would not work for you. Why can't it be mowed by a tractor maybe? You have to use a tractor to spray anyway.

One thing I see done here in ND is to bail the weeds up into round bails. They then use it for cattle and horse feed!

Why can't your place use a round bail like they do out here? They take "wasted" prairie "weeds" and bail them up. They cut and bail with the same tractor and out pops a round bail ready for eating. Even the state gets involved and sells the weeds along the freeway for bailing!

Something to think about, because it would give the horses natural feed that is free for the harvesting. There is initial purchase price of equipment, but the savings in chemicals can be written off. The gas and maintenance are there if they spray or mow or bail anyway, so why not get free horse feed?

One other advantage, natural "weeds" give your horses some much needed local sources that build their immunity. Protein sources in the form of bugs are important too. It's better for everybody.

YLE

Our horse farm is small, but we still have to take care of electric fences. We have been using a large bicycle handle Stihl string trimmer, but that's a lot of work especially in summer heat when the weeds grow fast. The tow-behind trimmer from DR Power seemed like a good solution. So I ordered a DR Power “PRO XLT Tow-Behind Trimmer” to keep fence lines clear. It was expensive, just under $2000 with options, but the concept seemed good. It’s a powerful, belt-driven string trimmer with a 9.7 pound-feet torque, ~7 hp gasoline engine and a cutting head with heavy cord. The cutting head is mounted on a spring-loaded swing arm offset to the side of the tow vehicle. The idea is that the swing arm reaches under the fence line then swings around fence posts cutting to “1/2 inch” of the post. But there are problems.

• The first was with “free delivery” that couldn’t be to my address because they weren’t sure an 18-wheeler could turn around despite my telling them others had in the past. They also refused to off-load onto the main road about 500 yards away, so I had to travel 25 miles to a freight depot, wait there 40 min for it to be loaded on my truck, and then manage to lift the pallet-mounted machine off back home. Time-consuming nuisance!
Design flaws:
• The machine has a guard that guides the swing arm around fence posts allowing cutting close to posts. The cutting cords reach the guard but as soon as they begin to wear, it cuts less close to the posts so expensive cords must be changed frequently. This means cutting most weeds even with short cords then going back with new cords to get close to posts. Time consuming.
• The swing arm is on a powerful spring and bangs back so hard after passing a post it seems almost self-damaging. But despite the strong spring, it cuts close approaching a post but not so well moving away even with the tow vehicle travelling less than 2-3 mph. Where I can, I will cut from both sides of a fence to clean both sides of fence posts. Between having to make final cuts from both sides with new cords and the initial cleaning under the fence, that means 3 passes!
• Briggs and Stratten used to supply the engine, but now it’s a DR Power design built in China. The B&S engine had a manual choke, but now it’s automatic as is the throttle. If the starter rope is pulled with the engine switch off, the choke will be closed and flood the cylinder. Unlike engines with a manual choke, the choke and throttle can’t be kept open while pulling the starter rope to clear the cylinder - if this mistake is made, it must sit for hours before it will start. Most small engines have a “kill switch” used only to stop the engine; this problem would not occur with a kill switch rather than a run switch. When it does start, it runs at full throttle immediately - that’s not good for any engine.
• The tow vehicle I planned to use needed a ball hitch, so I ordered one from DR Power. What they sent did not fit the tow arm - it was a hitch for a highway trailer, not a weed cutter. Not only that, they changed $100 plus shipping for what’s available at a local hardware store for ~$35 and Amazon for $25! To their credit, they gave me a full refund including shipping both ways. Again, this was a waste of time.
Failure
• The second time I tried to change the cutting cords, the special cutting head spit out a spring and was toast. Despite this being a brand-new machine purchased with a 3-year extended warranty, they require I do the repair using a part they promised to send in 5-7 working days. That was mid-July but today I was told the repair part arrives August 22! Six weeks, not 5 days!
Bottom line:
• I am sorry I bought this machine, but I will continue trying to make it work.

Hi Allen,

Welcome to Permies.