You’ve heard it said that “good fences make good neighbors” or “some fences are built to keep people out, but some fences are built to keep (the cattle) in!”
For us, this project has been a few years in the making! When we first bought our property, it was completely full of pine trees. We cleared enough for the house, orchard, barn, garden, and about 5 acres for cattle. Then an opportunity came that we couldn’t pass up. A herd of Dexter Cattle! 7 cattle, with 3 cows expecting. We needed more than 5 acres! Fast forward 4 years and lots of forestry mulching, running the cattle through the new pasture on single line electric, and many hot days outside, and our new section of pasture is finally fully fenced. 2000+ feet of fencing stretched over a multitude of t-posts, and H-frames, plus 2 gates! Whew!
In amongst all that fencing, the other chores had to be completed, including alot of work in the garden. We just couldn’t let all that work be for naught this year, ( the deer ate everything in the main garden last year) so we put up a(nother) fence! Only 400+ feet with 2 gates this time. Thankfully the garden had been much more productive ( until we experienced the driest June on record ever for the Lynchburg area). With rain back in the mix, we will be planting a multitude of squash, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, and prepping for fall gardening!
And lest we give ourselves too long of a break, there was one more space to fence. This year we have had 3 bull calves, that will be steered for grass fed beef, but we realized we can’t always rely on our cows having bulls! Therefore, we needed a quarantine space to bring steers from other farms into our system. This will ensure the steers are in good health and allow our herd to familiarize themselves with the new cattle before the steers are allowed to join the herd. 500+ feet of fencing and 2 more gates! Whew! If I never put up a new fence again it will be too soon! I also wouldn’t have it any other way!
~Courtney
