Setting up Fence and Water Points By Greg Brann

Water is the most essential nutrient. Increased intake of quality water improves animal health, gains, milk production, and overall well-being. Mature cows need four times more water than dry matter, and calves need six times more. Since milk is 90% water, we can see how crucial water is for livestock. The improvement in animal performance is relative to their current water quality and quantity, and excessive trailing indicates the need for more water. According to a study in Alberta, cattle gains can be as much as 19 percent higher with improved water management.

WATER POINTS

Starting with a good farm plan, based on your goals, livestock, and management will determine the locations of the water points and paddock size. I prefer to develop one primary water source, piping water across the farm and placing water points where you desire for optimum use and animal distribution. If you have a spring or another water source high on the landscape, you can gravity flow to pastures/paddocks located downhill.

You can even go through rises and dips if there is overall grade downhill. Pipelines sometimes get air locked in dips and rises, so having a release valve like a quick coupler or hydrant in those areas is beneficial. It is easy to spot where water points should be located on an aerial map, and that’s the first step, but ultimately, the water point is best located on a higher spot with about a 3% grade, like a knob.

If you plan to rotate daily and divide the field into four paddocks, you will ideally have a couple of water points at planned cross fences. The standard recommendation is to have water in every other fence line, which potentially allows each water point to serve two to four paddocks. I recommend placing water in every fence line whenever possible so water points can be easily rotated. You can also provide two water points to assure water isn’t a limiting factor to animal performance.

Given the choice, your livestock will always prefer to drink from clean troughs and waterers. Clean often!

Grazing livestock is coming under fire in the media as being the number one cause of impaired water quality. However, graziers like us typically have minimal impact on water quality due to our practice of short-duration grazing periods, longer grass recovery times, and limited access to water areas. Also, our residual grass, residue, and roots improve water infiltration reducing runoff and flooding.

Stream impairment is most impacted in low-flow streams where livestock hooves disturb and release sediment, which can carry nutrients, pathogens, pesticides, and other contaminants downstream. Decreasing vegetative cover on streambanks, thereby decreasing the shading of streams, is another way livestock can impact streams. Cattle tend to wade in streams, and although goats and sheep don’t typically like to enter the water, they will run the streambank edge, causing erosion. A University of Tennessee study shows that limited livestock access to streams has minimal to no impact on water quality. If other water systems are down,
I encourage producers to fence with limited access to streams and ponds as an alternative water supply.

FENCING

Fencing is generally needed to control livestock. The amount of pressure on a fence determines the type of fence required for control, so holding areas and over-grazed pastures will require more substantial fencing.

If I had unfenced land, I would start by building a holding area of high tensile woven wire with an offset high tensile electric wire adjacent to the corral. The offset electric wire would be placed
at the nose height of the animal to control and would serve as a training pen for incoming live- stock. The perimeter fence would also be high tensile woven with an offset high tensile electric wire, delivering electricity to high tensile electric cross fencing.

Permanent cross fencing would run across the slope in the long direction of the field, spaced
435’ apart with polywire used for dividing the field into smaller paddocks. When installing a charger/energizer, one joule of power per mile of fencing will power through vegetation. If you have 50 acres or more, I strongly encourage you to buy a remote-ready charger. Another possible option is a plug- in charger with an app on your phone to control the charger.

Besides skimping on the size of a charger, grounding is the most common problem in electric fencing. Three ground rods spaced 10’ apart with a continuous wire connecting them is a minimum for proper grounding. To check if your grounding is adequate, place some steel posts on the electric fence about 300’ away from the charger, then test the furthermost ground rod from the charger. If it tests higher than 500 volts, add more ground rods. The target is a voltage reading of zero on the ground rods.

A shock is delivered to the animal when the circuit is closed by electricity traveling through the ground to the ground rods.

When using a short finder, start at the charger and turn off all the power beyond the segment being tested; then, test the fence; it will likely have 0 amps. Continue testing the fence toward the charger. When the short finder shows additional amps, you just passed the short. Short finders work best where multi wire fences connect on one end only, so the tester doesn’t see the short as a loop.

Understand the goal of your fence and build it accordingly. Is it needed to keep all animals in, including calves? Predator control? Most serious graziers prefer single-wire fences, but multispecies fencing is typically multi-wire. Single wire can work well where stock is trained to the wire and rotated daily.

When setting up perimeter fencing for small ruminants, place the bottom wire 8” from the ground with 6 to 12” spacing between wires, depending on pressure, charge, the height of the fence, and frequency of rotation.

I have maintained miles of electric fence with a zero-turn mower and loppers without herbicides or weed-eating. If you’re using herbicides, consider using only broadleaf control. Very low bottom wires are difficult to maintain and keep charged. Consider constructing your fence with the ability to disconnect the bottom line. Typically, I don’t charge the bottom strand unless animals break through.

True stockmanship utilizes water, with or without fencing,  to settle cattle. In summary, installing a fence that aligns with your goals will ensure peace of mind. Providing quality water will enhance the performance of all your livestock. 

Greg Brann farms 700 acres in Allen County, Kentucky. With experience in grazing manage- ment with NRCS, he now consults with farmers, ranchers, and city planners. Contact him at [email protected] or www.gregbrann.com