Stock panels for pasture fencing

So, leave it to my brother to ask me to explain why we chose to install stock panel perimeter fencing. It occurred to me that if he had this question, others might as well. So for all of you with an incurable curiosity about livestock fencing, here is our answer.

First of all, everyone has to approach fencing in a way that works for them in their situation, in terms of thinking about short-term and long-term resources and goals, what kind of livestock you plan to have and for what purpose, how many animals, how much land, whether you plan intensive rotational grazing, etc., etc.
Most people will tell you to use some variation of electric fencing, whether it be New Zealand style or whatever. And it is certainly easy and cheap up front. But if something shorts it out, it's immediately ineffective, both at keeping livestock in as well as keeping predators and marauding dogs out. And tall grass, or snow, or a branch, or all manner of things can short it out. So it requires constant vigilance. Plus, when it's working, you have to worry about zapping yourself on it---or your neighbor's kid or your grandkids doing the same. Based on the kind of farm and lifestyle we want to have, electric doesn't fit.

The next thing many people recommend is woven wire. We did the dog run with it, just to see how it would go. What a pain in the neck. It is really hard to do anything other than a straight line on level ground with woven wire. You've got to stretch it, and it really needs wooden posts, which will rot unless you are willing to put pressure-treated wood into the soils that will feed you and your animals. It is impossible to unroll and work with in a wooded area. And if something falls on it, or your animals challenge it, either of which is fairly likely, you've got to redo an entire stretch of fence.

Stock/cattle panels make sense in both the short and the long term. Short term: they are fast and easy to install using T posts. They do well over uneven ground. It is easy to carry them into and install them in wooded sections that would be impossible to run woven wire through, and impractical to run electric fencing through. They don't need to run in a straight line, and in fact are stronger when curved and bent around corners, trees, rocks, etc.. The t-posts are easy to whack in among tree roots. Gates are a snap.

Long term: They last a long time with little maintenance. Stock panels are strong. T-posts won't rot. The stock panels are easily moved if you decide to rearrange your fencing or carve up paddocks differently. If something falls on a stock panel fence, you can just bang the affected panel back straight and reclip it to the T-posts. You haven't lost a whole stretch of fence.

We are in this for the long haul. All things considered, we figured that stock panels cost about twice as much as woven wire, and that this was one of those up-front infrastructure costs that is worth it, and will repay us for years to come. And, like anything else, it's a choice to spend this money over other things that people might decide not to live without (like . . . hot running water).

(We are indebted to Gene Logdon's ruminations in All Flesh is Grass, for providing us with a sane, common-sense perspective on pasture fencing for small farms.)