Round Bale Electric Fence

Round Bale Electric Fence FENCING Fence Systems 15-6-21 Last winter Fred Patron of Goodeve, Sask., needed a temporary "overflow corral" for his beef cows, but the ground was frozen too hard to install electric fence posts. He solved the problem by using round bales as a substitute for posts. "It eliminates the cost of conventional fence materials and provides a windbreak for the cattle," says Patron, who farms with sons Brian and Bernie. "Normally we keep our cows in a corral during the winter where they calve. The following spring we move the cow-calf pairs to a pasture. However, the corral was over-crowded last winter so we needed more room. "We spaced the bales 20 to 30 ft. apart in a zig zag fashion so that we could stretch the wire tight between bales. We wrapped extra nylon twine around each bale in order to make the sides firm. Then we wrapped a single wire around the bale and tied it to the electric fence. As we released more animals into the holding area, we added more bales in order to make the corral bigger. When the weather warmed up we used a front-end loader to move bales farther out to keep cows out of muddy ground. When we wanted to turn the cows out to pasture, we simply wrapped up the wire and removed the bales with a front-end loader. We later used them for bedding." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Fred Patron, Box 99, Goodeve, Sask., Canada SOA 1CO (ph 306 876-4827).

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