How to Build a Cattle Enclosure: 15 Steps

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Building an animal enclosure depends a lot on the type of livestock you intend to keep inside. There are several types. This article provides a simple overview of a typical stock corral. Feel free to start an article on any type of pen, divided by type or by livestock.

Steps

Step 1. Determine what kind of fence or fences you want to build

This depends on the type of livestock you have, how much you want to spend on materials and the rest, and how big you want to make it. There is a huge difference between livestock and pasture pens.

• With cattle, for example, farm pens must be more resistant than pasture ones. A cattle pasture pen requires simple barbed wire or a high strength fence, while for pigs, goats, and sheep, a pasture fence requires a net that is five to three feet high, respectively. A horse pasture fence can be barbed wire or high strength, but some want something beautiful and do it with painted wooden planks or iron that looks good.

• There are many types of enclosures available. Some examples include:

  • Electrified fence in the permanent (such as high-strength) or temporary form. The electric fence can be the quickest and cheapest to build if you live in the countryside. It will keep any wire-trained animal at bay, and is also useful as a psychological barrier for wild animals. The electrified wire is said to be energized, or "hot". A temporary electric fence is perfect for scheduled rotation or intensive grazing because it can be moved around all the time.

    This article will not explain how to install an electric fence because it requires different steps than building a standard livestock fence

  • A barbed wire fence with four or six wires per section, a wire fence only with no thorns but high strength or low resistance (this type is often electrified) or a combination of the two - a round of barbed wire runs over the top of the fence and sometimes at different heights, or a twist of thread without thorns on the top while the threads below have thorns. Both are ideal for livestock.
  • Wire mesh, while more expensive than barbed or regular wire, is best for grazing or rearing goats, sheep and pigs, and is a commonly used enclosure for bison and moose. The wire mesh can also be used on farms or ranches that have cows and calves, it is necessary if the producer does not want the calves to escape from the pen. The net is also called "farm fence" or "braided wire" and is in the form of iron wire from a chicken coop or 12 or 14 gauge wire welded into squares at different distances, from ten to fifteen centimeters. It can be ninety centimeters to two meters high.
  • A wooden horse fence or wooden planks are best for those who want something more aesthetically pleasing and don't want to worry about the potential problems of a wire fence. It can be expensive but safe and effective for horses. A wooden plank fence is also suitable for cattle.
  • A fence with iron railings is also suitable for farms with horses or those who want something more aesthetically pleasing. It can also be used for other livestock, such as cattle and sheep, especially in highly frequented areas, such as containment or killing fences.
  • Fence made of metal panels; they are already made of panels that need to be stabilized with wooden posts or are panels that stand alone and only need a tractor to be placed. These, depending on the size, are good for keeping large animals such as deer, cattle (bulls in particular), horses (including stallions), bison and even moose.

  

  Step 2. Determine where the fences will go

  You will need a ruler, protractor, pencil, paper and eraser to draw where your pastures will be arranged, how many you want to have and where the entrance gates will be, where the various passage lanes will be and how you will organize and build the fences so to have a passage without traffic problems from one pasture to another. This is done to reduce or completely avoid the risk of your livestock eating on a pasture before the necessary recovery and / or rest time is completed for that particular pasture..

  You may want to consider printing a map of your land from Google Earth to draw fences, gates, lanes, pastures and fences wherever you want. This can be a lot easier than trying to draw everything to scale on a blank sheet of paper from memory

  

  Step 3. Determine how you want to build pens with the livestock you have in mind

  Plan how to make enclosures by remembering those particular animals that might dig, or climb over barriers, jump or climb over them, or those that might pass through them as if there was nothing.

  • It is difficult to imagine which animals you will catch and how they will test the enclosures. Either way, it's better to play it safe than repent later when building a corral.

    • Goats are famous for testing the boundaries of enclosures, being led to climb them, jump them, walk under them, or even walk through them. Make sure the fence is high enough so that they can't climb over and close to the ground so they can't crawl under it. The space between the threads must be smaller than the size of their head, because if that passes, the rest of the body passes too!
    • Sheep are not as famous as goats for testing fences, but they are the same size; therefore there is a need for enclosures with the same characteristics for this domestic species.
    • Pigs are more fearsome in their digging or crawling under fences than in their ability to climb on them. You will need to set up fences deep enough so that the pigs can't dig under them and escape.
    • Many horse owners will tell you that barbed wire is the worst thing to keep their animals in, and they prefer to spend the extra money on railings or fences rather. Horses are much more likely to jump over a barrier or find a way to open the gate lasso than to crawl underneath or go through a fence. In any case, a stallion who wants to get to a mare in heat will test the stamina of the pen; so if you have a herd of breeding horses, make sure the enclosure they're standing in is strong, tough, and tall enough that stallions can't evade it.
    • Fences for cows are easier to choose, a producer has a wide choice depending on where he wants to keep them. Barbed wire fence is the most common choice for pasture fence. The electrified fence is best for barriers that are heavily tested, or for those who graze cows on rotating pastures. A sturdier fence, such as self-supporting iron panels, wood panels or iron bars is the best choice for fences, marshalling yards and containment or work areas, highly recommended for bulls or felling pens.

    

    Step 4. Plan the type of pillars you need to corner

    This is the fence anchor point and receives the bulk of the forces generated by the fence wires it is connected to, and is the first and most important part you need to build. Search your area well for these guy ropes, you will see all kinds, observe them to see how they have held up over the years. Given the value of a fence, it makes sense to build the corner rods in the best possible way.

    Corner tie rods vary in type and size, there are H, N or tie rods with a wooden pole on top and a wire running from the top of one pole to the base of the other pole. In other words, when you have two H rods against each other, as is commonly seen in pasture pens, three vertical posts, two horizontal crossbeams and wire per tie are the elements needed to build a corner tie of this one. guy. This type of construction is standard and will hold up almost any fence for many years

    

    Step 5. Call the gas company and the telephone company to have a technician come and mark any passing lines on your property

    Make sure you know where the gas pipes are "before" they puncture, instead of facing a big bill for damage or hurting yourself. The gas company will be able to tell you where the pipes go before you start building the enclosure.

    

    Step 6. Get a map of your terrain

    A cadastral may be necessary to establish the boundaries between your land and that of the neighbor. This is the first thing to do, it may take some waiting time.

    • This step is crucial in determining where your perimeter fence will go, especially if your land isn't already defined by existing boundaries such as a road or tree line. It is less important if you are building an indoor fence, within the perimeter fence, you can often detect for yourself where the various fences will go rather than spending money on hiring a professional.

      Surveying for inland pastures and fences requires a good eye to tell whether a line of posts is straight or not, survey posts, beading tape, 100 rib, chalk or paint to mark - the latter two are ideal for mark smaller fences and work structures in addition to those listed above

    

    Step 7. Buy the materials

    In addition, of course, to the poles and wire or wood / iron panels, you will need other tools to pull the wire, drive the poles, cut the wire etc. Buy everything you need before making the first hole.

    

    Step 8. Dig some holes

    An auger or digger is used to make holes for the posts, especially when starting to construct the corner pillars. Posts are planted as needed in your area, depending on the type of soil. The corner posts must be planted so that the base is at least between 60 and 70 centimeters deep.

    

    Step 9. Place the corner posts

    They are usually longer and wider in diameter than those used for lines. Some choose to cement them, however others argue that it rot faster than fixing them with gravel, sand or the soil in which they are planted. Make sure they are straight and level (it is "never" good to have poles raised) before placing the upper pole that connects the three underground. Fill the space around the three posts with soil that has been dug, gravel, sand or concrete if you prefer.

    • Join the topmost pole with the other three. You will need a yardstick and a chainsaw to cut the places where the posts meet and the joint needs to be very tight. Very often you need a club to make the upper pole join perfectly with the underground ones.
    • Put the draft wire. This wire crosses from the top of one pole to the base of another, pull the wire well with a stick by rolling the wire as much as possible without breaking it, this reinforces the tie rod.

    • Continue with the middle crossbar and the other corner pieces.

      Keep in mind that corner pillars are not needed with panels or railings. Even temporary electrified fences do not require permanent corner pillars

    

    Step 10. Put the first pass of fence wire

    This will serve as a guide for where to place the line posts with the post driver. The first wire should be between 20 and 25cm above the ground.

    This step is not usually necessary for fences with panels or railings, or electrified but temporary

    

    Step 11. Place the fence line posts

    They are made of wood or steel and placed at regular intervals. The distance varies depending on the enclosure, it can be from 2 to 15 meters from each other. The closer the better, finances permitting, and it is a necessity if you build a containment or work fence that will be severely tested by the animals you lock up in it. All the poles you use should have been treated, without exception, because the chemically unpressed poles have a much shorter life than the treated ones. These same posts should be pointed so that it is easier to drive them into the ground with the post driver.

    Ideally the posts should be planted 35-45cm regardless of the terrain. For uneven terrain you will need multiple posts, such as on the edge of a hill or in a valley

    

    Step 12. Put the rest of the threads

    You will have to decide how many wires you want to put, especially for fences made of wire and that's it. The standard is four lines of wire for each barrier (especially for barbed wire fences), but there are manufacturers who prefer to put five or six lines of wire, especially if along a road.

    • Make sure the space between each strand is equal. This is also part of what makes a fence strong and durable. If the wires are not spaced regularly, it is easy for an animal to stick its head in the middle or even pass through or under it without any problems. You have to make sure this is a hard thing to do.
    • For plank or railing fences, the standard is three planks or iron bars, one on top of the other equally spaced.

    

    Step 13. Hammer the wire staples into the posts

    Each pole must be connected by the wire held up by the staples. This is important because livestock will find a hole in the pen, and this can be caused by a wire not connected to the post by a paper clip, or a wire snapped in two. The paper clip can be hammered perpendicular to the post, or at a slight upward angle to make it harder for an animal to pull it off.

    Check the perimeter of the fence to see if you have forgotten any paper clips or anything else

    Step 14. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the enclosure you need to build

    Step 15. Let the animals out to pasture

    Once you have finished making the enclosure, you can finally let the animals go to graze. Keep an eye on them for an hour or so as they explore the new pasture to see if they find any holes to escape from. If there are no problems, you can also go!

    Advice

    • Check and double check that the poles are aligned and at the same distance, the wires placed at the same distance from each other.
    • Use a winch or pulley to pull the wires well. Don't just use your strength as it will never be enough. Save energy handling posts and hammering staples
    • Always keep in mind what type of animal you want to keep inside the enclosure. Goats and cows need different enclosures, for example.
    • When building a fence, you need to treat the first line you put up as a guide to knowing where to plant the posts.

    • It can be difficult to fence off hills or valleys, especially if they are steep. I should plant a pole at the base of the hill and hammer the guide wire into it (the paper clip should be inserted into the pole long enough to hold the wire, but not to keep it from moving into the eyelets of the pole), then plant a pole on the top and join the wire to that pole.

      • Or, just unroll the wire along the fence first, drive all the poles, put all the other wires, pull them, then follow them and hammer the staples into the poles, starting at the top of the hill. You may need a stick or something else to hold the wire in place as you hammer the staples.
      • There are other ways to put wires on hillside fences, do your research and find the one that works best for you.

    • The steps above are mainly for building wire fences. If you are making a fence of panels or railings, it is the opposite: first go the posts, then the iron bars or panels. It is the same for temporary electrified fences.

      Mesh fences are constructed in the same manner as panel / railing fences