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FENCE!


Caroline
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I love my high tensile - it remains the cheapest option possible for us - I guess prices are different than here in North Carolina.

 

I know someone who contracted with the guy who does state highway fences here in NC. He put up some great looking fences and not too expensive from what I remember (though I could be wrong).

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I didn't share the details of the fence the highway contractor put up for my friend. I had a lamb on my lap and was typing one-handed.

 

It was, I think, 36 inch woven wire on wood posts (is wood costly there?), topped with two lines of either barb or smooth electric (can't remember which). My friend then added a line of electric offset at the bottom and the top.

 

I fenced about four acres with high-tensile for around $1000 if that gives you a way to compare. We used t-posts for the lines with wood corners.

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We fenced a 20-acre field this summer with high tensile woven wire. The paddocks are divided with 5 strand high tensile wire. I shopped around quite a bit and found the best prices through Wellscroft (even compared to our local fencing suppliers). They'll give you a volume discount if your order is big enough. They are a Premier distributor (and carry other products) but, at least in our case, the shipping costs were far less than Premier's. The people who answer the phones are very courteous and knowledgable. Quick too - many orders arrived in 24 hours. A second thing I'd recommend is renting a post pounder (I think we paid $125/day). We put in over 300 pressure treated posts in 3 days in rocky soil and only broke 3 posts. Finally, we got a grazing grant for a portion of the fencing cost. You might check with your local Cooperative Extension to see if there are any programs in your area.

 

Kim

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We actually got two grants - one for the fencing and one for irrigation - I lost my file (my husband lost the file, I should say) or I could give you the exact title of the grants. This may be the same or a similar program. One of the objectives was to keep the sheep out of the streams surrounding our property. The program was admisistered through the grazing specialist at the SWCD office. Our contribution was 25%. It was really quite a good program. I'm talking to the grazing specialist again sometime this week and will try to get you more information.

 

Kim

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Sam, the water convservation grants are great if you can get them - but I suspect they will be way too slow for your purposes. The county will take applications which means they come out to your farm to look at your set up, discuss rotational grazing, look at ponds and creeks that you will need to protect from livestock, etc. Based upon this information they fill out a form which will also provide a "score" for your project. I suspect that will qualify for the "first time farmer" benefits (which is starting farming within the past 10 years) which means potentially they could pay for 90% of the costs. But the kicker is that you are competing for these funds with others in your county and the funds are only released once a year (although I think two years ago they may have had two rounds of projects). My county agent submits my application each time around and so far no luck. Thus I have had to do most of my fencing myself - and I have held off on most of the water conservation projects in hopes that I might "win the lottery" with this grant program one day - but I can't hold my breath for that.

 

It is certainly worth having your county agent submit an application - cause as they say - you can't win the lottery if you don't have a ticket (on the contrary, a statistics professor friend of mine also was fond of saying that "your odds of winning the lottery are not substantially improved with the purchase of a lottery ticket").

 

Good luck.

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check with your local extension agent - I don't know about fencing/grazing in VA where you will be, but the farm in Leesburg I owned qualified for the Chesapeake Bay preservation grants - and we had a complete Spring fed watering system installed and only had to pay about 10% of the cost... from what I recall, though, you do have to apply for the grant around the first of the year, and then go through inspections and approval process. One the grant money is "claimed" for the year, you need to reapply for the next year and - I'm pretty sure their are other erosion preventative applications, so it's definitely worth cehcking into!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Sam,

Sorry I took a little while to get back to you but it took me a while to find my file on the grazing grant. The grant was a Round IX Ag SPF Non-Point Source Abatement and Control project entitled Oneida Lake Watershed Grazing Initiative. Not sure what all that title means, but it was administered by our State Soil and Water Conservation Service and we worked with the grazing management specialist and a water specialist (not sure of his title) to implement the plan. Not only did we receive funding for the fencing and irrigation systems, but we also had a grazing management plan developed for our property. The program was great and I would recommend anyone considering doing these types of improvements speak to their local Ag office.

 

Kim

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