Fencing

This is one of earlier fences we built to keep the sheep out of the garden area.  It consists of a  32″ page wire with some second hand 2 by 6 railing on top.  We used 2 by 6 railing instead of barbed wire because it’s next to the garden area and it’s safer for kids.  The sheep however like to rub themselves on the page wire.

 

This is very hard on the wire and eventually it will break the strands.  This is quite common in areas where sheep like to gather in the hot afternoon or when they come in at evening, or in high density areas around the yard.  The sheep need something so they can scratch and rub off their coats.  They will use trees, posts, corners of buildings, farm implements, and yes unfortunately page wire.  In our later fences, we started putting a strand of barbed wire about 18 to 20 inches off the ground running along with the page wire.  This has been working really well in keeping the sheep from rubbing on the page wire (see below).

 

 

 

 

 

Below:  Old tree stumps and fences posts for sheep to rub themselves against