Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have 10 very fertile acres that would allow for chickens, barn, garden, and corn field or more vegetables. About half of the 10 is wooded. I think that is about perfect for the minimum. If I had a horse or larger animals, it would require more. This land is in another county and I pay more than $600 a year in taxes for the privilege of keeping it in case I need it someday. Right now I live on 1.25 acres about 25 miles from Charlotte. We will probably never move to the property, but it is there should we need it. My children will probably sell it for almost nothing some day. Their choice. At that point I won't care what they do with it.
Well if you had known hundreds of grandpas who smoke their whole life and lived long, happy lives you might have something...
Not to mention, most of the grandpas all over the western United States have done the same thing...Seems that becomes a statistic, now doesn't it?
(I'm right though, aren't I...You don't live in West Texas)
I live in Central Texas and a lot of our neighbors have barbed wire, so does my property but I was smart enough to fence off a few acres immediately with a 4 strand bi-polar electric fence. Behind that fence is the old barbed wire fencing, my "second line of defense".
The neighbor has 4 horses and a donkey on 75 acres and her mare is constantly bloody and torn up from the barbs. So is the donkey although much less frequently. The mare actually ran through the barbed wire on two different occasions.
My wife's horse came from Pensilvania where he was kept in barbed wired fencing, he has the scars to prove it too. He is a smart animal otherwise but they don't always end up in a fence because they are dumb.
My wife is a veterinarian and the majority of fence related injuries to horses that she has seen (and learned in school about) were from barbed wire fencing.
Your mileage might vary and that's OK. People did a lot of things for a long time and some things are difficult to change. My example with smoking was along the lines that 50 years ago doctors recommended it - now it is a widely known fact that it is deadly. Yes, you have the isolated odd genetics in a man or woman that allows them to live their full expected age even if they smoked but the stats are on the side of the fact that smoking is bad.
Precisely my point.
In ranch country (that is, where we need more than "just a few acres" to run horses) they've been running in barbed wire for generations. And getting injured is fairly uncommon.
I realize you don't have the experience to understand this, but the stats are on the side of barbed wire.
Like I said, if you were in West Texas, you'd know better.
Back east a pasture will almost be less than 5 acres.. There is no room for western sizes here... Land here can be very costly, and in my off the beaten path little town starts at 15,000 per acre.
Chances are that acre will be littered with rocks, a lot of sapling trees not worth anything as fire wood much less boards, and it might be red maple which is toxic to horses.
Wire fences in the East make no sense anymore. The woods here is so tight that hunters commonly shoot deer at 25 yards or less.
I see lots of home kept horses on land that the whole place isn't on more than 2 acres... Sometimes not even 1.
I think that depends on where you live. Here on the high plains, fire is the natural way for prairie regeneration. NOT having fire is what's un-natural.
Back east a pasture will almost be less than 5 acres.. There is no room for western sizes here... Land here can be very costly, and in my off the beaten path little town starts at 15,000 per acre.
Chances are that acre will be littered with rocks, a lot of sapling trees not worth anything as fire wood much less boards, and it might be red maple which is toxic to horses.
Wire fences in the East make no sense anymore. The woods here is so tight that hunters commonly shoot deer at 25 yards or less.
I see lots of home kept horses on land that the whole place isn't on more than 2 acres... Sometimes not even 1.
Back east a pasture will almost be less than 5 acres..
I'm inclined to think it's not so much space or trees as it is rainfall. Our average annual precip. where I live is about 14 inches.
Carrying capacity of 10-30 acres per head is typical. I've known a lot of easterners who say 1 acre per head is plenty...
Granny pointed out the same in one of her posts in this thread...
Quote:
We bought 60 acres 5 years ago. This seems like a LOT to our friends coming from the SouthEast Coast, where grassy, rich-soiled pastures are green almost year-round; but out here, with long winters and sandy soil, um - not so much. We can only run - at the most - 7 Dexters, who eat 1/2 as much as full-sized cows
Really, barbed wire was never for the East in the first place. There was just never as much of a need for it because there wasn't the massive amount of space that needed to be fenced.
Last edited by itsMeFred; 08-18-2012 at 06:46 PM..
.
Really, barbed wire was never for the East in the first place. There was just never as much of a need for it because there wasn't the massive amount of space that needed to be fenced.
So it is a matter of cost really, not a matter of what is better. Barbed wire fencing is dangerous to animals, period. If you must save money, better just run the high-tensile wire (minus the barbs).
Wow, until reading this thread, I didn't realize barbed wire was an issue. In the years I spent on the farm, none of our horses or cattle had any sort of issue... and that's all that was/is used around here. Our fields were all surrounded by barbed wire as were everyone else's in the area. Granted, we didn't have that many horses or cattle, but never an issue--no issues on my grandfather's farm either with his milk cows, bulls, riding horses, or draft horses. I would assume there are tens of thousands of miles of barbed wire everywhere (rural) around here. That's practically all that is used for fencing, other than corrals, the rodeo arena, and on dude ranches. I've never heard anyone make a peep about barbed wire.
Actually... the only creature I know of that had an "accident" with barbed wire was me when I was a kid. For some unknown reason, I was running along a barbed wire fence (yeah, I know that's pretty smart) when my foot caught on an old rotted fencepost that was lying along the fenceline... took my down pretty fast and threw me right into the barbed wire fence face first. I was able to rotate my body quick enough so that my shoulder and upper arm actually took the barbs. Ouch. I got a pretty gruesome gash out of it... and a trip to the hospital.
Wow, until reading this thread, I didn't realize barbed wire was an issue. In the years I spent on the farm, none of our horses or cattle had any sort of issue... and that's all that was/is used around here. Our fields were all surrounded by barbed wire as were everyone else's in the area. Granted, we didn't have that many horses or cattle, but never an issue--no issues on my grandfather's farm either with his milk cows, bulls, riding horses, or draft horses. I would assume there are tens of thousands of miles of barbed wire everywhere (rural) around here. That's practically all that is used for fencing, other than corrals, the rodeo arena, and on dude ranches. I've never heard anyone make a peep about barbed wire.
Actually... the only creature I know of that had an "accident" with barbed wire was me when I was a kid. For some unknown reason, I was running along a barbed wire fence (yeah, I know that's pretty smart) when my foot caught on an old rotted fencepost that was lying along the fenceline... took my down pretty fast and threw me right into the barbed wire fence face first. I was able to rotate my body quick enough so that my shoulder and upper arm actually took the barbs. Ouch. I got a pretty gruesome gash out of it... and a trip to the hospital.
Chris, it's not a "big deal". You are free to use whatever you want for your livestock fencing. I just know I will not use barbed wire, is all
OD
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
