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It wasn’t long ago that when a herd or flock out-smarted their fencing and made it into the neighboring farm field, a farmer would first round up whatever help he could find and then use his drafted army to wrangle up his livestock and move them back to where they belong. Today, in many cases, that neighboring farm field is now a housing development, apartment complex or even a strip mall. The fact is, fencing isn’t just for looks and the value of having a well-made fence is higher than ever.
That is exactly why the Ohio Forage and Grassland Council (OFGC) hosted a Fence Building Workshop in July, and they couldn’t have chosen a better farm. Jorgensen Farms, in Westerville, is a case in point for why fences are a necessity. The farm’s pastures, greenhouses and rustic architecture is only a mile from some of the fastest developing parts of Ohio.
“Even in the countryside we see houses going up everywhere,” said Bob Hendershot with OFGC, one of the presenters of the workshop. “Since we bought our farm I know there have been 32 houses built that I can see from my front porch that weren’t there 30 years ago.”
There were many difference fencing options discussed at the workshop, along with choices that are friendly to organic operations. But the common message of the day was that no matter what the use of a fence might be, do not skimp when it comes to supplies or installation.
“Good quality matters in fence,” Hendershot said. “Posts, wire, and all of the materials need to high quality because you want everything to last the life of the fence, which is ideally 30 years. It is extremely difficult to replace posts, especially if you have a whole series of them to replace. You want to avoid that extra work as much as possible.”
Participants of the workshop were asked to bring along their work gloves as the day was designed to be a hands on — building an actual fence for the farm and learning about the latest in fencing technology like pneumatic staplers and woven-wire fence made from high-tinseled wire.
“The difference between high-tensile and standard fencing is standard uses a very mild, soft steel and to increase strength a producer would need to use a larger diameter wire,” said Curran Lehr, regional sales manager for Bekaert Corporation. “The technology we use in most of our products is a high or mid-tensile. We use a higher carbon type of steel and condition it in a way that, for any given amount of steel, there is a much better breaking strength. So a 12.5-gauge wire that is high-tensile is stronger than a 9-gauge wire that is twice its size in traditional steel.”
The last thing farm owner, Val Jorgensen, wants to see is her animals in the neighbor’s yard or flower garden and most importantly out of traffic. A quality fence can make a great grazing system as well.
The saying “good fences make good neighbors” definitely works in cases like Jorgensen Farms and after a day of good help putting up state-of-the-art fencing technology, keeping her animals where they belong will be the least of her worries.
VIDEO:
At the workshop, participants were about to use a great time saver in fence building; a pneumatic stapler.
Curran Lehr with Bekaert Corporation discussed the latest in fencing technology at the recent workshop.
Audio:
Bob Hendershot talks about why quality is so important when it comes to picking out supplies for a fencing project.
Bekaert Corporation’s Curran Lehr gives an overview of the new technology in fencing.
It is good to know that the diameter of the fencing is what causes it to be more strong or not. My father needs some thick diameter fencing for the animals we have at our house. we can’t risk them getting out and bothering our unpleasant neighbors.