Andre Lasle

Hello,

I just got my first heifers- all about 800lbs.
They came from a farm that only had barbwire fencing, no electric.
I ONLY have electric fencing, and it took 24 hours for them to learn this. In the process they ran through my electrified netting.
But, after that rough first day, they seem to 100% respect electric fencing- and my 48" tall electrified poultry netting.
It's been a month and I have had zero issues since the first day.

My question is this: How well do cattle associate the netting/fencing with getting a shock when it comes to new pastures?
I have an area I want to graze, but there is no perimeter fence.
I want to encircle it with the 48" poultry netting.

Obviously I'm not looking for someone to reassure me that my cattle won't run away, but I'm wondering if the change of scenery will stifle their respect for the fencing?
How much of their fear of electric fencing is inductive (applying to all fencing anywhere) and how much is strictly situational (since they are used to it in a specific area).

Anyone use electric netting with cattle- have any input?

Thanks

A while back I posted a new topic "Grazing a Flerd- Feeding minerals without allowing sheep to ingest copper?", and somehow the discussion became a debate about how much copper sheep can ingest.
So I'd like to try and get back to my original conundrum.

I have cattle and sheep and want to rotationally graze them together (as a flerd).
I need to build a DIY mineral feeder that meets the following requirements:

1) Portable. Since it will be moved daily, I want it to be moved by hand- not by tractor.
2) Durable. Cattle and sheep are hard on equipement, so it can't easily tip, etc.
3) Weather-resistant. It will be ON PASTURE, so it needs to keep most elements off the actual mineral.
4) Dual-chamber. Since sheep mineral and cattle mineral have different levels of copper, I believe I need to make this feeder so that the cows get mineral (high) and the sheep get mineral (low), so that the sheep don't consume the cattle mineral containing higher levels of copper.

Any photos of DIY mineral feeders out there? Any suggestions for feeding mineral to a Flerd of combined Sheep and Cattle?

Thanks!

Sadly, no, this is not a thread showing how I made my own DIY indicator light.
Rather, I'm hoping someone can help me find a solution.

I want to have a visual indicator (flashing light) that tells me my electric fence is on and functioning above 4,000 volts.

There are many units on the market, but they all seem to fail at least one of my qualifications:

1) That they flash with each pulse of the fence. I want to look out my window before bed and get a warm and fuzzy feeling, knowing that my animals are safe from predators.

2) That they alert you to a drop below 4,000 volts. Almost all of the lights say they will "warn you if voltage is low", but nearly all of them omit the spec and don't tell you what "low" voltage is.

3) That they function without a battery.


Any insights in to something already on the market?
Or if not, how I can make something that triggers an LED at pulses above 4,000 vdc?

Thanks!

I am looking for suggestions on tooling for grading ground for fencelines.

I am going to be installing a couple miles of fencing over the next couple years. There are some areas in the pasture that have never had fence before and thus the ground has never been prepared for a fence line.

The ground contour on a large scale is actually quite smooth and even, but on a closer level there is a lot of bumps (dips and rises) and large rocks.
Since I want my fence to follow the ground decently, I need to smooth out the bumps and rocks so that line posts on 24.5ft centers will keep the high tensile wire a fairly even height above grade.

On the upside, I have a 110hp tractor to use for the right implement if you have any suggestions. It has a front end loader, so I know I can use it to scoop off bumps and pour that material in to the dips, but for a couple miles of fence line, that isn't realistically efficient.

Some things I started thinking of:

-Heavy Duty Box Blade with Shanks?
-Plowing the fence line multiple passes with a heavy duty subsoiler and then passing back over with something to smooth it?

Attached are a couple photos attempting to show the terrain. Again, on a grand-scale, it looks like super-flat ground- so no material "scooping and filling" needs to be done. But on a ground-level scale in a 10 ft run the ground can bob up and down 12-16"......

Thanks!

Based on Roy's measurement points, the distance is 5.5" (5 1/2").

If I understand you right, its 3.25"
(See attached illustration)

Is there a measurement for the width of the rim, if viewing from the front- the distance between the two edges?

In the tall brush of my property was a decent condition Minnesota running gear.
A couple of the rims are rusted thru and I'd like to find replacement ones but don't know where to start.

Attached are photos of a couple of the rims and a picture of the model/serial of the Minnesota running gear, and tire.

I believe they are 15" rims...
They are 5-bolt pattern.
The spacing between each bolt is 3.25", approximately.

Tires say "P205 / 75R15"

Any one know how to help me find the proper terminology so I can go to a junk yard and find replacements?

Thanks,

Hello,

I am going to be purchasing some heifers soon and integrating them with my sheep.
Currently I am feeding my sheep a "sheep mineral" which does not contain copper.
Copper is poisonous to sheep, but necessary for cattle.

How do folks run these two species together and satisfy both animals requirements regarding copper / no-copper successfully?


Thanks,

Andre

Hello new Permie!

I too live on exactly 120 acres, a mix of pasture and woods.

As already mentioned, Walter Jeffries is a great resource (Sugar Mountain Farm), check out his blog.
Additionally, Grant Schultz is raising Kune Kune pigs on his farm, Versaland, on primarily hay, forage, wild meats, etc. Worth exploring his videos as well.

The amount of land needed to truly sustain a domestic hog in a wild setting is a lot. You'd probably raise just a few on your entire 120 acres, and they'd do a lot of potential damage unless you managed them quite intensively.
The hogs will require more lysine in their diet than they will likely find. This is why Walter Jeffries supplements with Whey from a local dairy.
Additionally, the hogs will take a lot longer to reach slaughter weight.

I cannot yet manage my hogs over my entire 120 acres (due to lack of fencing) so I have to settle with raising them on 1.5-2 acres, in a rotational paddock system. They eat a ton of acorns, grasses, frogs, mice and worms, but I still supplement their feed with local Non-GMO corn/soy.

Until we all have 25-year established systems like Mark Shepard's, it would be wise to consider supplementing with high quality feed and then also growing a lot of feed yourself.
My hogs have been eating squash, pumpkins, beets and potatoes for the last 2 months- all surplus from what I grew in my market garden this year.
Additionally, I have a cluster of Jerusalem Artichokes that they haven't even been introduced to yet.

So, my opinion, if you want to raise the hogs in a decent timeframe 6-8 months, and can't manage them across your entire 120 acres, then build a system something like:

1) Supplement with high quality non-GMO or Organic feed.
2) Rotate the pigs and monitor their rooting so that you don't destroy the soil profile.
3) Grow a much bigger garden than normal and feed them the surplus and use them to "till" the garden for you. They will root out every last piece of remaining vegetation for you.

Hello,

I am a couple days away from the backhoe arriving to help me bury piping for (2) heated livestock waterers and (3) yard hydrants.
I live in Zone 3b, so the recommended water line bury depth is 8ft to prevent freezing.

I am just now starting to worry about the possibility of backflow/siphoning in the event that I lose water pressure.

For anyone not familiar with a yard hydrant, there is a drain in the bottom of it and when the flow is shut off, the water in the vertical pipe is supposed to drain out below ground.
Additionally, I am installing (2) curb stop valves so that I can turn off water to the hydrants or to the cattle waterers separately. Since the cattle waterers don't have drain-to-waste holes like the yard hydrants, I am using a drain-to-waste curb stove valve so that it will drain when I turned it off and vented the waterers.

I am NOT worried about water siphoning in from hoses connected to the yard hydrants (I can easily install vacuum breaks).
I AM worried about water siphoning in from underground, where the drain ports are.

In theory, if I lost water pressure (lets say my pressure switch failed and shut off my well pump), then a vacuum could be created which could siphon dirty underground water (from my cattle area, i.e., not clean) in to my drinking water.

The simple answer is to install a "backflow preventer".
But, I need my entire plumbing system to be 8ft underground to prevent freezing, and I cannot seem to find any reliable underground backflow prevention units that I could use.
They all seem to need to break to atmosphere and typically are installed above ground.

Any suggestions on preventing the possibility of backflow while keeping my plumbing underground and reliable (i.e., backflow device that doesn't require routine maintenance)?

Thanks,