what size should a round pen be?

[The Good Shepherd]

Hello All,

 

I can not for the life of me remember how many linear feet of fencing material are needed for a 50" round pen?

 

I know there is a post on this on the board. I was thinking its about 157 feet of mesh fence material? How far apart should the t-post be? every 5'?

 

Hubby is finally building me a roundpen - if only I could remember how many feet of fence and how many t-posts?

 

Help

[Pam Wolf]

Hello All,

 

I can not for the life of me remember how many linear feet of fencing material are needed for a 50" round pen?

 

I know there is a post on this on the board. I was thinking its about 157 feet of mesh fence material? How far apart should the t-post be? every 5'?

 

Hubby is finally building me a roundpen - if only I could remember how many feet of fence and how many t-posts?

 

Help

 

50' diameter or radius. I'd go for the larger and there is a math formula for the circumfrance of a circle

 

Pam

[hsnrs]

DH made a round pen that was 50 ft. but it wasn't big enough. Personally I'd make it bigger than 50 ft. but not 90 ft (my new one is 90 ft and is a bit big. We used about 11 cattle panels which were 16 ft long each. Tposts were every 8 ft I believe (not sure though) with a small walk through gate.

[Pam Wolf]

Pi x R2 (pie are square)?

[Ooky]

2(pi)r

 

or in other words the diameter of the pen you want times 3.14159

[The Good Shepherd]

2(pi)r

 

or in other words the diameter of the pen you want times 3.14159

 

 

Oh Thank you

 

Now, how far apart should the t-post be? every 5 feet?

[juliepoudrier]

Here's a way to figure it out without doing the math yourself!

 

I used cattle panels, and I believe we put a t-post at least every 8 feet, and then we may have gone back and put t-posts in between, ending up with something every 4-5 feet.

 

J.

[The Good Shepherd]

Here's a way to figure it out without doing the math yourself!

 

I used cattle panels, and I believe we put a t-post at least every 8 feet, and then we may have gone back and put t-posts in between, ending up with something every 4-5 feet.

 

J.

 

Thanks Julie, Math was never my strong part

 

I see you have Karakul sheep - how many do you have - I only have 4, but I think they are the cutest with their fat tails

[juliepoudrier]

Hi Claudia,

I have about 15 right now. I'm slowly transitioning out of the breed, though I'll probably always keep a few. It's just harder to market them for meat around here (people equate their leanness with less meat, when in fact it's really just less fat, which as we know, mostly goes in the tail!), and so I'm adding in mule sheep instead. I do love my karakuls, but they really are more of a niche sheep and in keeping them I've resigned myself not to make a lot of money off them (although I personally love to eat them and do sell them to friends and family for meat). I'd love to have the time to do something with their wool, but that's not in the cards right now either.

 

J.

[The Good Shepherd]

Hi Claudia,

I have about 15 right now. I'm slowly transitioning out of the breed, though I'll probably always keep a few. It's just harder to market them for meat around here (people equate their leanness with less meat, when in fact it's really just less fat, which as we know, mostly goes in the tail!), and so I'm adding in mule sheep instead. I do love my karakuls, but they really are more of a niche sheep and in keeping them I've resigned myself not to make a lot of money off them (although I personally love to eat them and do sell them to friends and family for meat). I'd love to have the time to do something with their wool, but that's not in the cards right now either.

 

J.

 

 

Since I am just a novice herder, I do have to ask, how are they for sheepherding? I have BC's and GSD's?

[juliepoudrier]

My breeding ewes which are generally not worked except as part of the whole flock are pretty light. I have a group of five yearlings that I worked with dogs from the time they were lambs and they're a bit heavier, though they don't seem to ever have gotten as heavy as the dog broke dorper cross hair sheep (puppy and round pen sheep). So I'd say that well-broke karakuls are probably medium-light, and less dogged ones stay pretty light. The karakul lambs make a nice transition sheep from the heavy hair sheep, especially when it comes time to work a youngster on driving, when the hair sheep are really too heavy.

 

As you know, the karakuls tend to be high-headed, but I think it's more a characteristic of their structure for them to be that way, as opposed to other breeds, where high-headedness can indicate a little bit of wildness....

 

J.

[The Good Shepherd]

Thank you so much Julie . I wish every day I had more experience