ok wanting to fence off 12 acres of land to hold chickens goats pigs sheep and other livestock what would be the best route
probably welded wire with a hot wire to keep the sheep and pigs away from it on the inside and predators from the outside
Best in terms of keeping stock in and predators out? Something along the lines of excellent livestock-quality 2x4" wire, at least 4' tall and preferably more like 6' tall, with one standoff hotwire at 12-18" on the inside, one on the outside at about 6" that you go out and weedwhack the weeds out from under every week without fail, and another hotwire maybe 6" above the top of the fenceline. Best in terms of budget? The above is Not Cheap if you are fencing twelve acres!!! Somewhat cheaper and almost as good would be small-stock fencing, the kind with vertical stays every 6" and the horizontal ones a bit closer together towards the bottom than higher up; or even cheaper is normal field fencing (pagewire) with verticals every 12", but lambs/kids/chickens can easily go thru this if they want, and so can many predators. Adding hotwire is still a good idea but it will never be as good a fence as the deluxe version described above (that most people could not afford for 12 acres ) Another approach would be to run plain field fencing (pagewire) around the whole property, have a higher-security area to keep the animals in at night (see first paragraph), then use electric fencing to subdivide the 12 acres to allow for controlled grazing during the daytime. For some situations this might be the best approach, for others it would not be as good, it just depends what you're wanting to do and how deep your pockets. Good luck, have fun, Pat
