Fencing Archives - Page 2 of 3 - American Cattlemen

Try This Simple Stocking Rate Assessment as You Begin Regenerative Ranching

Posted on December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

Sponsored by:

How do you know how many heads of grazing livestock your ranch can support while still taking good care of your land? Hugh Aljoe of Noble Research Institute discusses overstocking, overgrazing, and a quick way to determine carrying capacity.

During Noble’s courses on regenerative ranching and regenerative grazing, our facilitators often get questions about knowing the proper stocking rate. What’s the correct number of livestock on your property for a given time? How do you know if you’re overstocked?

Let’s start by understanding the concepts involved. Then, we have a suggested method that can supply a ballpark answer on stocking rate to help ranchers get a good start with regenerative ranching and grazing.

Being “overstocked” is not the same as “overgrazing.” Neither is desirable.

When it comes to grazing-land stewardship on a ranch, two concepts need to be fully understood and managed: “overstocking” and “overgrazing.” These two terms are often used interchangeably, but they refer to two very different conditions.

Overstock is the condition of carrying more livestock than the land resource can sustain, either short-term or long-term. The term applies to the property or land resource under grazing management.

Overgrazing pertains to the plants being grazed. It is the repeated grazing of a plant before fully recovering from a previous grazing event. Overgrazing occurs one plant at a time, and overstocking occurs one management unit (pasture or ranch) at a time.

Improve your land, your livestock, and your livelihood… Today!

Build resiliency and profitability for your ranching operation in your land.

There are situations where pastures are both overstocked and overgrazed – no surprise. However, contrary to conventional thought, pastures can be understocked and overgrazed simultaneously. This is often the case when a rancher sets a conservative stocking rate for a ranch. Yet, the grazing approach is either continuous or rotational, with only a few pastures. Pastures will have under-grazed and overgrazed plants present in these cases. The more-preferred plants are repeatedly grazed, while the less-preferred plants are left ungrazed until the livestock are out of the more-preferred plants. Over time, the preferred, heavily grazed plants have reduced energy resources and vigor and eventually die because they never had the opportunity to recover.

Stock appropriately for your land resource

When we approach regenerative grazing, our objective is to be stocked appropriately for the weather events and conditions of the land resource. We also need to graze the pastures appropriately, allowing them periods to rest. Proper stocking and grazing management allow for more uniform utilization of all the plants, minimizes repeated grazing of plants during a grazing event, and allows complete recovery of more-preferred plants (which usually require more extended recovery periods than the less-preferred plants).

The first step in regenerative grazing is to ensure that we are not overstocked—that our initial stocking rate is not greater than the current carrying capacity. In this context, carrying capacity is the total forage produced over time that can be comfortably allocated to grazing livestock in a specific area.

Determining an accurate carrying capacity can appear complicated due to the number of variables involved. These variables include assessing total forage production based on:

• total number of grazeable acres

• estimates of actual forage production by pasture and soil type

• forage type

• forage management

• precipitation and weather conditions

• distance from water, etc.,

and then allocating a percentage of the total production for grazing (for example, 25% grazing utilization for native range, 50% grazing utilization for introduced pasture). While doing this thorough assessment at some point is important, we don’t want it to impede our efforts to succeed at regenerative ranching.

Feeding Hay

To assess overstocking, look at how much hay you feed

The good news is there is a simple assessment you can use to determine if you are stocked at a level greater than your carrying capacity based on current management and current weather conditions. The amount of substitute hay you feed per year can indicate your grazing management and stocking situation.

Hay feeding to increase carrying capacity means a producer is supplying forage, usually purchased, to substitute for the lack of enough natural forage production on the ranch. We need to examine this closely.

For every month of hay that is fed above what is planned (assuming the economic feasibility of the hay), the ranch is overstocked by at least 8.3%. By the same token, for every one-month livestock are made to “hustle” for forage on range or pasture (hustle being defined as livestock grazing behavior to find the next bite of forage after most of the leaf material has been removed from a pasture), you’re also overstocked by at least 8.3%. The 8.3% is simply one month divided by 12 months times 100%.

Build resiliency and profitability for your ranching operation in your land.

If a ranch is stocked correctly, there would be enough grazeable forage at the end of the growing season to last until spring green-up. Grazeable forage ideally should last 30 days into spring. That way, livestock can graze last year’s forage (with some new growth within the stand), while the already grazed pastures recover or regrow at the beginning of the growing season.

For most producers, there will likely be a need to feed some hay for extreme conditions or occasional situations where hay is required or desired. In some climates, hay is needed during the winter due to the depth of snow cover; elsewhere, bale grazing is used for desired hoof impact. However, for many producers, especially in the South, hay is expensive to increase the carrying capacity. That is why producers should carefully evaluate the cost of hay and minimize the need for substitute hay feeding.

Overstocking can take a toll on ROI and your land resource

Substitute hay feeding does not apply only to the additional livestock numbers stocked above carrying capacity. It applies to ALL the livestock on the ranch.

Consider a ranch with a carrying capacity of 100 cows, but the current herd consists of 120 cows fed hay for 1.5 months. No substitute hay feeding is required at a stocking rate – the number of livestock present on a property for a given amount of time — of 100 cows. However, at the actual herd size of 120 cows, it is not just the extra 20 cows that require hay; all 120 cows will need to be fed hay.

Let’s generalize and assume one round bale of hay per month of hay feeding. Then, realize that the extra 20 cows cost the ranch 20 cows x 1.5 months of hay and 120 cows x 1.5 months of hay, which equals an extra 180 bales. At $100/bale delivered and fed, that is an additional $18,000 direct cost to the cow enterprise, or $900 for each of those 20 cows over carrying capacity.

Will the calf production of the additional 20 cows cover all their other direct costs plus the additional $900? Not likely, even in a good cattle market. There is an argument that one can prorate the cost of the hay across all the cows as one examines the enterprise. But take a critical look at the incremental increase in costs relative to the increase in revenue as well as the implications for the land resource of overgrazing—the whole picture.

In regenerative ranching, we assess both the direct cost and the cost to the land and ecosystem. There is a point of diminishing returns for both economic and ecological outcomes where the additional production units cannibalize the returns to the resource. Unfortunately, it is usually after we ascertain that we have passed that point of diminishing returns.

Start regenerative ranching with a stocking rate below carrying capacity

When you begin regenerative ranching and practicing regenerative grazing, you should give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. A great place to start is to ensure that the stocking rate on the ranch is below the carrying capacity of your pastures and other growing forage.

Use this simple assessment of fed hay and “hustle” to quickly determine your carrying capacity and adjust your ranch’s stocking rate as needed. It can also help you determine a safe place to begin regenerative management on your grazing lands.

Hugh Aljoe

Hugh Aljoe serves as the director of ranches, outreach, and partnerships. He has been associated with Noble Research Institute since 1995. Before coming to Noble, he managed a 3,000-acre, 1,500-head cattle operation in Texas. Hugh received his master’s degree in range science from Texas A&M University with an emphasis in grazing management.

Tips for Building Fences in Difficult Terrain

Posted on August 15, 2024August 15, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

Tips for Building Fences in Difficult Terrain

By Heather Smith Thomas

Building a good permanent fence can be challenging in rocky, frozen or swampy ground when it’s impossible to dig post holes efficiently, or set posts with a tractor-mounted post-pounder. Regardless of the type of fence, it will only be effective and durable if posts are well set. People who build a lot of fences have come up with innovative and effective ways to get the job done.

Fencing In Rocks
If terrain is too rocky to drive wood posts, metal T-posts are often used, since they are much smaller in diameter and can often be driven farther into rocky ground. If a person can get them down past the “shovel” portion, they are usually deep enough to hold.

If you need to set larger posts, like brace posts, in rocky ground, you might look for other options. A small rock drill is more portable than a jackhammer, since it doesn’t need compressed air. An electric drill can be used for drilling holes into concrete or breaking up concrete, and has various bits—including 1.5 inch chisel bits for drilling into solid rock. “This drill rotates and drills at the same time and can make a hole exactly the right size for a metal T post,” says Thomas.

In solid rock you only need to drill down about a foot and drop the metal post into the hole and it is tight and secure because there’s no give in the surrounding rock. For a brace post you can make a deeper hole using extra-long bits that can go down about 30 inches.

In rocky terrain where it’s not too steep and there are lots of surface rocks, you can create an above-ground basket/cage of rocks as a brace to anchor the fence. “Stacked rocks can be secured with net wire, or you can make a net-wire cage to put rocks in. A cage 3 to 4 feet in diameter makes a solid anchor to secure your wire and stretch it from there. If terrain is too rocky to set wood posts, you can usually put steel posts into the ground deep enough to hold, using rock baskets every so often for braces,” says Thomas.

Pilot Post
When using a post pounder to set wood posts along a challenging fence-line you can use a metal “post” to create a pilot hole. The metal post will often go down through rocky ground if it’s not solid bedrock, whereas a wood post would be forced out of line or shatter. Roger Swanson, a rancher in Lemhi County, Idaho, many years ago created a 7-foot metal pilot post, 3 inches in diameter. This can be driven into the ground with a post-pounder, creating a hole to start the wood post into. The pilot post is solid enough that you can drive it into just about anything but solid rock.

Thomas has made several of these for his own use. “A person can drive that pilot post down as far as possible, then pull it out with a tractor or skid steer loader. Then, you can insert a wood post into the pilot hole and drive it—forcing it into the slightly smaller hole—and the post will be very solid and secure,” says Thomas.

Pipe Posts
Some people use pipe posts; oilfield drill-steel pipe is great for making braces in rough terrain and won’t burn up in a wildfire. In western regions, fires destroy many wood fences, but pipe fences are still standing; the pipe posts will last more than 50 years. A person might have to replace the wire if a really hot fire goes through and makes it brittle, but the pipe posts will still be there and won’t have to be replaced.

Dick Iversen (Timber Creek Ranch, near Culbertson, Montana) has had a lot of experience building fences and hiring fence builders. “We had a huge flood in 2011 and had to replace 7 miles of fence on our river bottom. Then we had a fire during the summer of 2017 and had to replace 6 miles of fence between us and the neighboring ranch, in rough terrain,” he says.

For permanent fences he now prefers posts created from oil field drill-steel pipe. “This is great for making braces.” Oil field pipe is surplus and usually reasonable in price and is easy to cut with an electric hand-held band saw. “If I’m cutting pipe in a place where there’s no electricity, I use a little portable Honda generator,” says Iversen.

“Once a pipe post is in the ground, the ground tends to rust it to the soil around it, and it’s very solid. It’s very difficult to pull it back out. These posts work really well for corrals,” he says.

Todd Hermanson (Hermanson Fencing Company, Inc.) built Iversen’s new fences. Hermanson has been building custom fences for 40 years, in three states. He used to do traditional fences with wood and steel posts, but now does mostly pipe fencing, using discarded drill steel piping from the oil drilling industry. With a jack-hammer type hydraulic post pounder that he invented, he can pound pipe posts into any kind of terrain—solid rock, frozen ground, or bogs.

“This kind of fencing started with us. We took Bobcat hydraulic cement breakers and modified them to use for pounding posts. It was trial and error, but I have a guy in my shop who is good at making things. We came up with a system to do this kind of fencing—and it has caught on like crazy,” Hermanson says.

“The only thing that might shorten the life of these posts would be alkali ground that tends to eat up metal. It takes 2 minutes to pound another pipe post in. Even when repairing fence, if there is a broken off or rotted-off railroad tie, we don’t have to dig it out; we just pound a pipe post right down through the middle of it. This saves a lot of time,” says Hermanson.

In difficult terrain, this system is equal to none. “When we put fences across creeks or gullies. It’s very cost efficient and will be there a long time.” The pipe holds much better in places where it would be hard to brace with wood posts or the traditional steel posts.

The pipes are much stronger, and take less time to install. “You can put in a pipe brace, with the right equipment, in 10 to 15 minutes, which makes it a lot cheaper; a double H brace with wood posts or railroad ties takes more than an hour, and even longer to install in rocky or frozen ground,” Iversen says.

Steep Terrain
On steep slopes that are risky for a tractor, often a person can use a pounder mounted on a skid steer or a track machine, since it has better stability than a tractor and can go up relatively steep slopes without tipping over. Some people walk beside a track machine and drive it from the ground with a joy stick; you don’t have to be on it to drive it. This is safer, especially going through areas where it’s too steep to take any kind of vehicle or tractor.

This is handy for one person fencing alone because you can drive it as you walk beside it, and stop it where you want to set a post. This can save time and labor and one person can set a lot of posts.

Bogs And Swamps
Metal posts can often work when a fence has to go through wet areas and sloughs where it would be difficult to drive wood posts. If a bog is not too deep, you can use 7-foot T-posts that go far enough down to hit solid ground where they could hold. In some situations where the bog is too deep to hold posts, a person can build an above-ground jack fence. Building any kind of fence across a bog is often best accomplished in a dry season, or in winter when the bog is frozen, so you can get around in that area with a machine to set posts, without sinking into the mud.

Frozen Ground
Winter is not the best time to build fences that require posts set in the ground, but sometimes a person has no choice. There are times a fence must be repaired or a new fence built, regardless of the weather. Frozen ground can be challenging for setting posts, and cold weather is hard on machinery.

In cold weather, some people set metal posts instead of wood posts, since wood posts tend to shatter if the ground is solidly frozen. “With a jack-hammer hydraulic post pounder, however, a person can usually pound wood posts through a foot or more of frost (especially if a pilot post is used to start the hole) and then go on down to desired depth, and pipe posts will go even deeper,” says Thomas.

If frost is too deep for driving posts, fire is a common way to thaw ground for post holes.

“Old metal tubs or half barrels work well to make these little ovens. A cutting torch can be utilized to create small vent holes along the bottom edge (to draw air in, to keep the fire going) and a 5-inch-diameter hole in the top of each oven for the smoke to come out,” says Thomas. Fires can be set under several ovens, on the spots where you need to dig a hole or drive a post, letting them burn while working on other parts of the fence, and the ground underneath may be thawed within a few hours. In places where frost is really deep, scoop out the embers after the fire dies down, dig down through the thawed dirt, put the embers or coals back in, and add more wood.

Another method is to use hot water. One fence builder who had to set posts for a feedlot on frozen ground used a pressure washer with hot water, sticking the wand into the ground at those spots, slowly melting the frost down to the depth needed for setting posts. It was faster than fire, but still time-consuming for the hot water to melt its way down that far through the ice.

Above-Ground Fence
Another alternative in terrain that’s difficult or impossible to set posts is a jack fence (buck fence) or worm fence. A worm fence is created by stacking logs or large-diameter poles on one another, interlocking in two directions. The finished fence is a continual series of corners/angles. A short, small-diameter pole or short board is nailed or screwed to the logs/poles at the corners, to keep them stable so they will never shift around.
A pole jack fence (poles nailed/screwed onto jack legs) works well where ground is too rocky or boggy to set posts, but in windy country must be anchored so it won’t blow over. Fence jacks should be treated on the bottom end of those posts, to keep them from rotting. They will draw moisture, especially if built over swampy ground.

Portable Fencing
Temporary fences in winter or on rocky ground can be created with portable metal panels that interlock and don’t require posts. Portable corrals also have this advantage.

Portable electric fence can be installed with step-in posts, even if the ground is frozen, inserted into holes made with a cordless, battery-powered drill. For this type of fence it’s usually best to use portable posts made of metal rods, rather than the plastic step-in posts because the metal ones are less apt to break. You can add screw-on insulators to the rebar after you pound those in.

Time-Saving Tips for Trouble-shooting Electric Fences

Posted on June 25, 2024June 25, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

Time-Saving Tips for Trouble-shooting Electric Fences

By Heather Smith Thomas

Many stockmen create permanent paddocks using traditional fencing or electric hard wire, and divide those paddocks with portable hot wire that can be moved as often as needed to strip graze or mob graze. Portable fencing is also handy for strip grazing stockpiled pastures, windrows or bale grazing in winter. Portable fence is handy on rented pastures where you can’t afford to invest in permanent fences.

Steve Kenyon, a rancher near Busby, Alberta has been rotational grazing a long time and bale grazing more than 20 years, using electric fence. “With most of my cross-fences I’ve found it works best to have permanent electric fence. I don’t use as many temporary fences anymore, because of the labor involved. Labor is my highest cost, so spending money up front for a permanent fence saves more in labor later,” he explains.

In winter you need to make sure the charger works adequately. “In that situation I like to use a bipolar fencer. It still works as a regular fencer in summer, but can be used as a bipolar fencer in winter when cattle are standing on snow, which acts as insulation. Normally the electricity comes out the hot wire, through the body, down to the ground and back through the body to the fence, making a complete circuit. Snow breaks that circuit; the animal doesn’t get much of a shock. In winter I can have a fence reading of 7 or 8 kilovolts, which should be a powerful fence, but I can grab hold of it and barely feel it if I’m wearing boots and standing on packed snow,” he explains.

With the bipolar fencer there are two wires. “One is half the pulse as a positive charge and the other is half as a negative charge. If an animal touches either wire, it still gets half a charge through the ground—right through the snow.” But if they hit both wires together, they get the full charge and it eliminates the need for the ground.

If the pasture you graze intensively is near your house, you can move fence multiple times a day. But if a pasture is 30 miles away, you can’t drive back and forth several times a day to move fence. You might move the cattle just once a day or every other day, which is still better for the land than continuous grazing.

Every pasture is different. “In our operation we have one pasture 5 miles away, where we manage 100 head. This has different economics than the one that’s 20 miles away where we are managing 600 head. Labor and equipment cost divide up differently, with more animals,” he says.

Terrain also makes a difference. If you have bush or trees, steep areas, or creeks running through, you can’t strip graze as easily. Hilly land is more awkward than a rectangle that’s relatively flat. Class of livestock also makes a difference in how you graze and set up the pasture. The nice thing about electric fence is flexibility.

“We can now tackle difficult terrain with temporary fence much better than in the past,” says Jim Gerrish (American Grazingland Services). “Once you have the basic techniques figured out, and the right tools, putting temporary fence up the foot of a mountain isn’t that big a deal—as long as you are not doing miles and miles.” It is better than trying to put permanent fences in places where you may not want a fence forever.

There are also creative ways to strip graze fields irrigated with pivot sprinklers. “Wheel lines are my least favorite irrigation system to try to manage grazing around. It’s common to have the fence short out on the pipe,” says Gerrish. You have to be creative to work around some of these things.

Kenyon doesn’t use insulators on his fences. In a dry climate there’s no need for insulators if wire is touching dry wood. “One of the biggest costs on my farm is labor. In the spring we fix all the damage from wildlife. When I was using plastic insulators, moose and deer walking through fences pulled them off, and I was constantly replacing lost and broken insulators,” he says.

“I now use two-inch barbed staples to fasten wire to a wood post. This is not a wet environment so posts are usually dry. Also I am only powering a couple miles of fence (just the paddocks currently in use, leaving the rest unhooked) rather than 30 miles of fence on the whole farm. I can still have 7 kilovolts in my fence, even though when it rains this might drop to 4. It still has some charge, and the cows are well trained and rarely touch the fence,” he explains. If you have a good charger, they don’t want to touch it again after their first encounter. If they learn about “hot” wires as calves—or curious yearlings—they always respect it.

“I have power through all my fences. On a barbed-wire fence, I run power through the second bottom wire. When it’s dry, it works fine. When it’s wet there may be power loss and I might have to disconnect it. But the cattle know that all my fences are hot and don’t touch them.” None of his cattle try to reach or push through. This also prevents rubbing on a fence—minimizing wear and tear.

“In 25 years of doing this I haven’t had any animals caught in a fence because cattle don’t touch my fences. I’ve seen problems with other fences that cattle go through. My neighbor’s cattle got through a fence that wasn’t hot and ended up getting hurt—and one died in a well because it went through a barbed-wire fence. But with my electrified fences I’ve never had animals go through.”

Troubleshooting Tips
People who use electric fencing figure out ways to make it easier to locate a problem when the fence shorts out and stops working. Insulated handles that hook up to different fence lines can be unhooked to determine which line has a problem. There are faster ways, however.

“Having a Smartfix fence tester/fault finder (made by Gallagher) is helpful,” says Kenyon. “Other companies have similar testers that show how much electricity is going through the wire at that point, the direction of the fault and how much loss there is. A regular cheap fence-tester only tells you how much power it has, but the Smartfix tells you which direction. This can save hours trying to find it.”

Farmers and ranchers tend to be frugal and buy the least expensive materials. “They think that $20 for a digital fence tester is all they can afford,” says Gerrish. “Many modern energizers can be remotely turned on and off, which helps when fixing fence, but the combination testers can point the direction the short is, and identify how much voltage is being lost. These cost more money but just one morning spent finding one or two shorts faster than you usually do will pay for it.”

“With one of these testers you start from the fencer and work away from it,” says Kenyon. “Let’s say you check the fence right by your charger and it says there’s 20 amps of loss this direction, going away from the fencer. When you get to your first T, you test all three sides. Maybe the first side still shows 20 amps of loss, and then you test the other directions. Usually one will be high and one will be low. You know you don’t have to check the one direction; you go the other way. You just keep following it along, and every T you come to you can check; it should take you right to the fault,” he says.

“I can usually find the fault in the fence before the cows do. If a tree falls across it, I can find it. I check the fence daily and know what Kilovolts my fence usually sits at. It might be 5 kilovolts, and if there’s a drop I know there’s a problem and can find it.”
This reduces the amount of labor in tracking down and resolving problems. He doesn’t keep all the fences hooked up—just the ones in pastures the cattle are currently using. “There’s no need to power your whole farm and have more to check.”

Newer Innovations Can Save Even More Time
Now a person can simply look at the fence to see if the wire is hot. If you can see a flashing light, the fence is “live,” and you can see this light up to 1/2 mile away at night.

This innovation was created by Bill Brown in 2018. His company is called Insulights. “We developed a universal insulator that fits on almost any kind of post—wood, steel, T-posts—or you can just hang it on the wire. It picks up the burst of electricity when it comes down the line and flashes a high-intensity LED light. A person checking fences can see this visual indication that the fence is working,” he says.

“It flashes 24/7 and you don’t need to put it on every post—just wherever you want to be able to check the fence. As long as a burst of energy is coming through that line, it will flash. If the voltage on the wire drops—if a tree comes down on it or a lot of grass is touching it or an animal breaks it—the light will dim and then shut off, and you’ll know the fence is down or shorting out,” Bill explains.

“We now have almost 60,000 units of our Insulights flashing in the U.S. and internationally, and people love them.” Insulights was awarded a Farm Bureau Top Ten Ag Innovation of the year in 2021.

The Insulights team will soon introduce their new project, the Smart Monitor unit that attaches to the fence and monitors the electricity. Every morning it will send a text message to your phone, telling you what the voltage is and whether the fence working. If the fence is fine, you can go on about your day but if something happens during the day or night, it will start sending text messages every 15 minutes for an hour to let you know the fence is down.

“This alarm system is cellular, which is an upgrade to similar products that are trying to depend on Wi-Fi, which is a huge difference,” Bill says. You’d need to have Wi-Fi in the barn or out in the field. It has to have line of sight and can only be a quarter mile away. Many farms and ranches have fences in uneven terrain or farther away.

“Our patented monitor sends the status right to your cell phone as an SMS text. We use that system, so we don’t need to have an app, and it will work with all the cell phone carriers. If you want the messages sent to someone else in your family or to a hired hand, you can copy them, to also receive those messages.” Then if you are off the farm and unable to fix the fence yourself, that person could see there is a problem.

“We go to a lot of farm shows and state fairs, demonstrating our Insulights for the past 4 years. The people we talk to love this flashing insulator, but their main response was to say that if there was a way it could text message them it would be even better.”

Electric fences have revolutionized livestock facilities to make them safer, keep the animals out of traditional fences and prevent wear and tear on permanent fences. Today more stockmen are using electric fencing to facilitate rotational grazing. Checking fences and making sure they are working is often one of the biggest chores and headaches when using electric fences. This innovation can make it much easier.

Bill was raised on a family farm and loves working with livestock families and making their job easier to care for their livestock.