Sheep Fencing

[cibula11]

We have 3 lambs (2-3 months old) and an acre of pasture that has vinyl four rail fencing. They can scoot right under neath it and over the first rail. I don't need anything fancy and would most likely let them graze only when we are home, but wondered if I lined the inside of the 4-rail fence with chicken wire 2-3 ft up if that would keep them in? It would be much cheaper, and I could rotate it from place to place. Would this work?

I realize this would not be ideal but I don't want to invest $500+ in new fencing when we have a perimeter fence and a nice one at that.

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

You could run one or two wires of electric fence under your bottom rail of vinyl fence. It wouldn't cost much, plus the hot wires will keep your lambs in and the critters who may want to hurt or eat your lambs out. Chicken wire or field fence would make a good physical barrier to keep the sheep in, but depending on what type of soil you have a coyote, fox, or neighborhood dog may be able to dig in and wreak havoc.

Here are some links to places that sell electric fence supplies, as well as other fence supplies:
http://premier1supplies.com/
http://www.kencove.com/

There is a lot of good information there and hopefully that will help you decide what kind of fence is best for you.

 

[cibula11]

What is the best kind of electric fencing for rotational grazing? I see polywire/tape, high tensile. I where I would run the wires between the rails on the vinyl I'd only need 2 strands, but I'm guessing I'd need 4 or 5 for everywhere else. I don't need to have the entire acre fenced, just a third or a 1/4 so I could rotate every month or so. And then there come the question of voltage?

I have cattle panels now, but not enough of them and I have to move the fence every few days. Any thoughts?

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

As far as fences go sheep are quite easy to get along with compared to goats. If your sheep are "hot-wire broke" they have already learned to respect the fence and are less likely to test it. We held 280-something weaned Dorper cross hair lambs off of a barely field with a two-wire low tensile hot fence on fiberglass posts spaced 50 feet apart. This was in the winter of 2011 while we were in the grips of a horrific drought. They had grass hay free choice, but even though they were still hungry for something green they never tried the fence. When the barley was big enough we turned them in a few hours a day, and even after they had a taste of the "good stuff" they never ran through or jumped over the fence and always waited for us to let them in to graze. You fence options will be determined largely by what kind of livestock you have in that pasture. Both Premier and Kencove have electric net fence that can be moved around, much like you are doing with you panels. I believe that similar products are available through some online livestock supply stores, like Valley Vet and Jeffers Livestock. You could also run a couple strands of electic tape or rope in one fence all the way across the pasture, and then move that fence over how ever many feet every day or every few days to give them access to fresh grazing. Personally, I don't like that idea for sheep since they will continue to graze to short stuff as well, and parasitism could become a problem in a hurry. I am also not a fan of electric rope as we had a ewe lamb lose a foot after she got tangled up in some. If you are looking at a more long-term solution then you can divide your pasture in paddocks with a "semi-permanent" high tensile hot fence with just two wires with gates for each paddock emptying into a lane that goes up to water. This way the critters can track back up to the same water source no matter which paddock you have them in, and you can rotate from paddock to paddock as you see fit. If you plan to have cattle in the rotation you will want at least a third wire on top to discourage the cattle from trying to step over or jump the fence. We have been using a 100-mile plug-in low impedance Zareba charger and have been very pleased with it. I think for the money it may be the best charger on the market. For our amount of fence this is overkill, but we have a strong predator population so our fence has to be knock-you-on-your-butt hot. I like plug-in chargers more than solar chargers because they tend to have more stored energy, which means more zap.

Here is a link to the FAQ on Gallagher's website: http://www.gallagherusa.com/electric-fencing/faq.aspx
They have a lot of good information there to help you determine what kind of fence you need. I would use their energizer selection chart here: http://www.gallagherusa.com/electric-fencing/energizer.selection.aspx to help determine what you need in a charger. Since you have sheep then it is a good idea to choose something that will keep predators out. You can look at the specs on several different chargers, find out what will work for you, and then take that information to compare to other brands of chargers to find what you need at the best price.