We’ve been spraying a good bit this summer. I have been concentrating on a neighbor’s property I farm for a few years and have to catch up on mine, so I’ve been thinking a good bit about spraying. The thing that specifically prompted this item was a conversation with a man who lives a few miles from here.
Roger pointed up to some troublesome pasture across from his place. “It has to be brush hogged every year,” he said. After talking a little bit, we agreed that “Brush hogging is about the same as putting fertilizer on the bushes.” I said what was needed was to spot spray the brush. Roger thought that would do no good , either. This is common idea, but very wrong.
The trick to spraying is to get it right. You have to get the entire foliage wet with properly formulated spray. A lot of people think spraying is not good work. They want to sweat when they work, I guess. Spraying is not big muscle, broad stroke work, it is control and thought work. You have to hit the bush, not just spray toward it, and if it is large or dense, you have to get the other side. too. I want to characterize spraying for effective control of woody plants and some other large pasture weeds.
First of all, you want to decide what you want to kill. Certainly that will include multiflora rose and autumn olive (and the very similar, thorny, slightly harder to kill, tartarian honeysuckle). You will want to vigorously control invasive species, like the new thistles that have come in from the west and tree-of-heaven. But do you want to waste spray on sand brier and the common thistle or other weeds than be controlled by application of lime? Or the many species that can be controlled by mowing at the right time? Each species requires a decision.
Once you have some idea of what you want to control you must decide on the spray. Talk to other people. The Extension Agent, your feed store manager and farmers in the neighborhood can give advice on effectiveness. It is best to use the least amount of spray recommended on the label early in the season. You can begin spraying as soon as the leaves are out in the spring. The concentration given is intended when the spray covers one side of the leaves, you don’t have to drown them, just get 85-90% of the surface. What drops off is wasted. Normally some will miss the target plant. It has little effect on grass, but is hard on legumes.
The least concentration is required in the early season when there is more water and growth is lush. As the season progresses the plants become slightly more resistant and you can move up the range suggested on the label. If you don’t, the kill will become less effective. If it is a rainy time use less, if dry move up to the suggested maximum.
Twisting the outermost part of the nozzle adjusts the diameter of the spray stream. I like to have it spread out to about a foot to eighteen inches at 20 feet from the nozzle. That's too small for close work, and it has to be moved around for large brush at a distance, but seems to be a good compromise.
Do your cleanest field first! These will normally be nearest the house or your starting point. Little plants take little spray, so you are effectively cleaning up more ground by doing the best first. You will be going over this ground later to go further from the house. You can clean up on successive trips a couple of weeks or more later when you can see what you have missed.
All your ground should be gone over each year, if possible. Keeping the “filth,” as folks used to call it, in check, is much easier and cheaper if the weeds never get large. You will find if you clean up an area, including around the edges, that it only “goes back to the Indians” very slowly. Getting the pH up is very helpful, too, because it makes the weeds work a lot harder to get established in thick grass. Also, avoid over grazing, which lets many weed get a start.
The following item on this blog illustrates a spray apparatus that has worked very well for me. At one time I used a tractor mounted sprayer, but as I got older getting on and off became the largest part of the spraying job. The tank behind a four wheeler allows you to sit most of the time but you can easily get off when needed. You can get over a lot of ground when the weed plants are far apart. Having a hand sprayer helps with places too steep or otherwise inaccessible. We still maintain a tractor sprayer for places that require large volumes, such as clearing out along a forest edge, or along a fence line that requires walking some distance and using large volumes of spray. (HINT: You can make your own tractor mounted sprayer for about half the cost of a similar one that comes from a dealer.)
Read the following article for ideas about use of a four wheeler.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Making your four-wheeler work
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5A four wheel ATV is a delight to ride. In fact, is so much fun many never think of it in any other way. Many folks see it as a great work horse on small farms and large, though. They are great for hunting, checking on trespassers and the like.
It is great for going places in a hurry at low cost. It only needs a trail four feet or so wide. This makes it a great vehicle for checking fences. You have the capacity to carry the necessary tools and parts to fix fence on the machine and can go many places in the woods where a pickup or even a tractor won’t go.
You can use it to check cattle, but must be careful to keep the noise down, particularly if you use it to move them. They can be used to bring cattle in, but the speed and noise frighten the animals if you don’t exercise care. If you want to move a square bale or two or a little feed they do well at that too, because they have better flotation with their soft tires and make far less mud.
I use mine to seed right of way by adding a small seeder designed for the four-wheeler. It takes a little getting used to at first, but the investment is quite low, and if stored in the dry it will last years. Sure beats walking and turning a crank. (See Image 1)
I have made two trailers for my four-wheeler. Two inch square tubing and used car wheels work fine, with a bed of treated wood. Be sure to paint all metal parts before putting the bed on to get longer life. You can use a small trailer ball hitch of the type used for pulling trailers behind a car. That works better for the extreme roll and pitch on rough ground, better than the pin in clevis type of hitch used for tractor implements.
If you are going to need electricity from the battery it is a simple matter to use the type of connection usually used for 110 volts. Get heavy wire to the battery, wrap it securely around some solid part of the four-wheeler and use a sturdy, industrial type female plug on the four-wheeler. The voltage from the battery is 12 volts, and the electrical contacts are well covered. The male plug which is inserted into it will pull out if the trailer or attachment comes off, if you use strong cord, well connected to the attachment. This arrangement is easy to connect and disconnect, but you must use only motors designed for 12 volt direct current, without regard for polarity (+ and - may be exchanged), which will be the case for motors in sprayers, seeders and so forth sold to be used with ATV’s. (See Image 2)
One of the trailers I have was made for spraying brush. You can buy 30 gallon sprayers at Southern States or Tractor Supply or on the net. They expect you to mount these directly on your vehicle, but it impresses me that it would be very dangerous to go on a hillside with a half empty tank of spray sloshing about that high above the soft springs of the machine. The trailer has a much lower center of gravity and no springs. 30 gallons will last an hour to an hour and a half if the target plants are small and widely separated. Most of my work doesn’t require getting off. When the spray runs out it is a quick trip in to mix another batch. (If you have a lot of surface area together, such as the edge of a forest, or a badly grown up spot that must be treated, a larger, tractor mounted sprayer, 200-300 gallons, is a better bet. But for widely dispersed plants, the ATV is the way to go. It saves all that getting on and off the tractor.)
The spray trailer is designed to also carry two hand sprayers, and a five gallon can of basal spray mix. One hand spray can be filled through the spray hose with the nozzle removed, directly from the 30 gallon tank, for places where I walk because I can’t get to it with the machine. The other is dedicated to basal spray for larger trees. It is mixed up in diesel fuel, which is expensive, but it is much cheaper than trying to cover all the foliage on larger trees. Just follow the instructions and cover the bottom 18 inches of trunk. Very large trees (over 10 inches) will require treatment again the second year. (See Image 3)
I use Primier Poly Sprayer model 21220, 2.0 gal, made by Chapin, purchased at
http://www.chapinmfg.com/PartsAccessories.asp
They are made of polypropyline, so are very tough and do not rust. You can buy parts, including a variety of nozzles with different spray rates. A young husky fellow might want the 3 gallon size, but 2 gallon is enough for me. Chapin is very good about service, even small orders.
One trouble I have had is getting the top off the sprayer I use for the diesel mix for basal spray. A new sprayer each season might correct that, but I hold on for several years. In that time the diesel gets to the polypropylene a bit and makes the tops stick if you put them on enough to prevent air leak. The following photo shows how I get around this. (See Image 4)
The blue strap is tie-down strap, such as you would find at Tractor Supply or a comparable source. It is attached to the trailer bed. The orange strap on the stick is the same material, a different color. Just wrap on carefully and twist. The diesel mix sprayer is painted yellow so it won’t be mixed up with the water sprayer, which is left the original blue-green.
The other trailer is long enough to carry fence posts and tools to set them. Although we drive all posts we can, there are always some on ground too steep and inaccessible to get the tractor to. The little trailer is the same width as the four-wheeler and is ideal for getting materials to these spots. The picture shows a reel for letting out wire the way a commercial “Spinning Jenny” would. This can be made from scrap material. (Use screws driven by an electrical drill for better strength). (See Image 5)
You have to drive slow, to avoid bump things out, in rough places. The tailgate must be secured with a wire or a small bolt. If I was doing it again, I would make higher sides.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Money
(Some philosophical thought)
There are several kinds of money or money equivalence which vary in interconvertability and other characteristics. These relations are something you have to get straight in your mind.
Land is one kind of money. It always has a value (it never disappear like stocks and bonds can), but the value varies with time. Land was at a low when I started to farm in the 1950’s- $20,000 was the price for about any piece of land, large or small. It’s not that way anymore! The price of land goes down with depression, superabundance of farm products (the case when we bought our farm), cheap imported food and so on, and goes up with abundant money, increased population and desire for rural residence (the present situation) and better access because of new roads.
Land is difficult to get anytime, because location, topography, prior use, size of tract and similar characteristics determine the usefulness to the buyer. It is easy to sell (if the buyer can get the necessary financing), in part because there are so many people who benefit from you selling it. Some of these are: the broker (about one-twelfth of your sale price), the banker (who adds one third or more to the buyer’s cost, if he does not have ready cash), the tax man (tax is always greater after land changes hands) and the fellows who supply the inputs to change raw land into a farm. The fellow that buys land is like the fellow in Greek myth that had to carry the weight of the earth on his back, because there are so many people who add to the burden.
It is often wise to let someone else own much of the land you farm and rent what you farm, if you can make an agreement that is favorable and stable. You need some land of your own for a homestead for the farm, a place to keep machines and have some stock and crops so you can use close-up management of these resources. Land ownership is more a goal than a method.
Land also is a place to live that conveys much the same benefits as owing your own house. It conveys status, it is an excellent collateral for loans (because you are highly motivated not to loose it) and it is something you identify with psychologically. It gives space between yourself and neighbors.
Buying and selling land will be considered in more detail elsewhere.
Labor is another kind of money. You can sell your own or buy someone else’s, and you can use it for your own benefit, or your family’s. Many people who farm both sell and buy labor, that is, they work for a wage or salary or have a business, and hire help on the farm. Labor can be traded (trade work with your neighbors), too. And, it can be wasted (by doing the wrong work or by using an opportunity to work for doing something else that does not give equal satisfaction), just like any other form of money. Everyone has a huge supply of their own labor at birth, and it is the only thing many people ever have much of. Managing one’s own labor is the biggest single problem in a free society. Labor must be a major input to farming.
Assets are a third form of money. If you are going to farm you must have fences, cattle and machinery to work with, whether you have land or not. Assets are more mobile than land and may be accumulated more easily, being bought and sold over time. If you make a mistake in other forms of money, this is the area you have to make it up in. If you want to grow larger, this is where you must achieve it. Your assets incease by the birth and growth of your animals, crops and timber. The increase may be maximized by careful management, by supplying inputs such as fertilizer and lime, labor, adequate fences, predator control, brush control and all the rest. And they can wasted away by neglect.
Cash is like oil and grease, it makes the whole thing go easier up or down. You have to have cash to get the goods you need from others, and that’s what you have to supply to compensate for most of your mistakes. But it is not the objective of farming. You hear of people hoarding money, thousands of dollars hidden way. Not good! It can be stolen or lost and you have nothing, and it doesn’t make more money (in the broadest sense) sitting under your mattress. Too much show of cash makes others envious. Having lots of money makes it easier to make bad decisions, because you don’t think much about how it is used.
Good will is not usually interconvertable with other kinds of money, but it has value. Cattle get out, fences need to be kept up, various disputes occur, and the good will of your neighbors is valuable. A farmer has many things he can give away that mean more to his neighbors than to himself. Fire wood, help in emergencies, a little tractor work, or machine loan, hunting, information, even a good story now and then are very valuable in this regard. Respect is something everybody needs, and like love, it is something you get more of when you give it away.
Money isn’t everything. If it is to you, I don’t recommend farming. There are more profitable places to put your money. The biggest cash payoff in farming is to get out of it. The biggest input is the labor of thinking it all out. Far more than labor in the usual sense. Fortunately, you can think and labor at the same time, and there is no better time to think.
(Some philosophical thought)
There are several kinds of money or money equivalence which vary in interconvertability and other characteristics. These relations are something you have to get straight in your mind.
Land is one kind of money. It always has a value (it never disappear like stocks and bonds can), but the value varies with time. Land was at a low when I started to farm in the 1950’s- $20,000 was the price for about any piece of land, large or small. It’s not that way anymore! The price of land goes down with depression, superabundance of farm products (the case when we bought our farm), cheap imported food and so on, and goes up with abundant money, increased population and desire for rural residence (the present situation) and better access because of new roads.
Land is difficult to get anytime, because location, topography, prior use, size of tract and similar characteristics determine the usefulness to the buyer. It is easy to sell (if the buyer can get the necessary financing), in part because there are so many people who benefit from you selling it. Some of these are: the broker (about one-twelfth of your sale price), the banker (who adds one third or more to the buyer’s cost, if he does not have ready cash), the tax man (tax is always greater after land changes hands) and the fellows who supply the inputs to change raw land into a farm. The fellow that buys land is like the fellow in Greek myth that had to carry the weight of the earth on his back, because there are so many people who add to the burden.
It is often wise to let someone else own much of the land you farm and rent what you farm, if you can make an agreement that is favorable and stable. You need some land of your own for a homestead for the farm, a place to keep machines and have some stock and crops so you can use close-up management of these resources. Land ownership is more a goal than a method.
Land also is a place to live that conveys much the same benefits as owing your own house. It conveys status, it is an excellent collateral for loans (because you are highly motivated not to loose it) and it is something you identify with psychologically. It gives space between yourself and neighbors.
Buying and selling land will be considered in more detail elsewhere.
Labor is another kind of money. You can sell your own or buy someone else’s, and you can use it for your own benefit, or your family’s. Many people who farm both sell and buy labor, that is, they work for a wage or salary or have a business, and hire help on the farm. Labor can be traded (trade work with your neighbors), too. And, it can be wasted (by doing the wrong work or by using an opportunity to work for doing something else that does not give equal satisfaction), just like any other form of money. Everyone has a huge supply of their own labor at birth, and it is the only thing many people ever have much of. Managing one’s own labor is the biggest single problem in a free society. Labor must be a major input to farming.
Assets are a third form of money. If you are going to farm you must have fences, cattle and machinery to work with, whether you have land or not. Assets are more mobile than land and may be accumulated more easily, being bought and sold over time. If you make a mistake in other forms of money, this is the area you have to make it up in. If you want to grow larger, this is where you must achieve it. Your assets incease by the birth and growth of your animals, crops and timber. The increase may be maximized by careful management, by supplying inputs such as fertilizer and lime, labor, adequate fences, predator control, brush control and all the rest. And they can wasted away by neglect.
Cash is like oil and grease, it makes the whole thing go easier up or down. You have to have cash to get the goods you need from others, and that’s what you have to supply to compensate for most of your mistakes. But it is not the objective of farming. You hear of people hoarding money, thousands of dollars hidden way. Not good! It can be stolen or lost and you have nothing, and it doesn’t make more money (in the broadest sense) sitting under your mattress. Too much show of cash makes others envious. Having lots of money makes it easier to make bad decisions, because you don’t think much about how it is used.
Good will is not usually interconvertable with other kinds of money, but it has value. Cattle get out, fences need to be kept up, various disputes occur, and the good will of your neighbors is valuable. A farmer has many things he can give away that mean more to his neighbors than to himself. Fire wood, help in emergencies, a little tractor work, or machine loan, hunting, information, even a good story now and then are very valuable in this regard. Respect is something everybody needs, and like love, it is something you get more of when you give it away.
Money isn’t everything. If it is to you, I don’t recommend farming. There are more profitable places to put your money. The biggest cash payoff in farming is to get out of it. The biggest input is the labor of thinking it all out. Far more than labor in the usual sense. Fortunately, you can think and labor at the same time, and there is no better time to think.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Dealing with natural resource extractors
You have multiple use of your land whether you want it or not. The state claims ultimate domain, but aside from that there are a host of others who have an interest in your land and how you farm it. Hunters, people who would like to gather woodland products, such as firewood and edible plants, people concerned with the quality of the water which leaves your land (since they catch some of it for use down stream), people who need right of way, such as electricity, water, and telephone companies, and those interested in extracting natural resources, such as coal, timber, gas and oil.
People in the last group require very careful attention, because they have the capacity to provide considerable income, and also to do considerable damage. The product they remove has great value, they use large machinery, frequently requiring them to borrow a lot of money, which means they are always in a hurry-up mode. They employ people who receive good wages for skilled work, so they have large expenses, too. They are invariably in it for the money, and you have to negotiate details of what they do on your land. Both you and the businessman want to get as much for yourself as possible out of the difference between what he gets for the material extracted and his expense.
The extractor usually has a much larger business than your farm, He deals with land owners frequently, with the resulting advantages in knowledge of applicable law and business practice. Oil and gas drillers, for example, associate with other oil and gas drillers and with lawyers who practice oil and gas law. And they take out leases frequently, so they are familiar with what land owners will try to get. You can usually deal with them on such matters as where a new right of way will go, location and type of fences to be built, size of culverts, and other things related to your farming operation. Large corporations will have specialists in dealing with various personality types among land owners. If one can’t connect with you, they will send another, perhaps tougher, agent.
Companies offer a standard payment, which may be a fraction of the value of the product removed, such as one-eighth royalty, or a price for some unit of measurement, such as a ton of coal. Getting a higher price than the standard is difficult. You may be offered less, so you have to find out what the standard is. In cases where the product is going to produce greater value for the extractor, such as low sulfur coal or thin cover over coal, you may be able to extract a premium, but you really have to study thoroughly, know what you are doing and negotiate well.
With timber it may pay to hire a registered forester. He can “mark” trees to be removed, sparing small trees to regenerate the timber. He can “walk” the tract and make measurements to get a very accurate estimate of the timber will to be removed by cutting the marked trees. He can arrange bids for the sale and oversee the cutting operation to see that the laws are followed on your land. This will cost about 8 or 9% of the sale price, but many think it is worth it, not to have to deal with the timberman, especially on large tracts or high value timber. I sell small amounts of good timber and some low grade timber myself from time to time.
Since you make a sale of this sort infrequently, think, think, think about what is going to happen. Once the contract is written, it is written in stone. Errors and omissions can seldom be corrected. You need to think about where roads will be bulldozed, where spoil will be deposited, where piles of trees will go from well platforms (and what their sale value is, because you are entitled to that, even if the value is too small to market). You need to think about where and what kind of fence you will need during and after extraction. Where will check dams be needed, and where will the rock come from? Is there a spring that needs to be protected? Try to visualize what will happen. Go to sites the extractor has worked on previously. Ask the landowners there what they learned.
You must read the contract very carefully – you are the one ultimately responsible for your interests. Think about what each paragraph does for the lessee. Does he need the thing it gives him? Does it give more than he needs? For example, does the lease specify the geologic formation that is his target? It should not surprise you that the lessee will frequently use wording which gives him formations beyond his immediate objective. An example of this is a coal lease which is sought for a seam near the surface, but which allows the lessee to take ownership or extraction rights for all coal, no matter how deep. In general, minerals become more valuable as time passes, so your heirs can loose out big time. Another hazard is paragraphs concerning liability. You should not put yourself in a position where you become liable for negligence or mistakes of the lessee. The lease should expressly say the lessee assumes responsibility for his accidents. What about damage to your business, such as cows being killed by drinking water from the process, or being killed by the operation? Read it all. Read it several times. With your mind “in gear.”
A lawyer can be of some help, especially if he/she has experience with the industry on large dollar items. A lawyer would be familiar with technical terms, and if familiar with the industry, that is, with common practice in the industry. Remember, though: 1. the lawyer is in it to make money, too, and 2. if he is in the mineral extractive industry it is most profitable for him to mind his interests with the industry. This is not to say a lawyer will routinely try to get you to sign a lease that is not good for you, but he can’t be expected to alienate a segment of his potential clientele. Lawyers are most dangerous in connection with major utilities, and in situations where you have a serious adversarial position with the mineral extractor. If you are trying to sue a utility, you need a lawyer with serious ethical commitment.
You are a land owner, but that is a kind of business, and ultimately you will have to live under the conditions of the contract. Don’t expect someone else to carry your responsibility for you.
When the extractive process is going on, try to remain business like and in contact with the person in charge of the operation. Appearing interested in the process will do more at less expense than any other tactic you can employ. If there is a problem, discuss it, but don’t expect to get expensive changes. Don’t expect to “get tough” – the extractor will doubtless have dealt with many trying that before you. Make notes and take pictures of the action, before and after pictures, and pictures of problems that arise. This is a record, and it is proof of how things were at a certain time.
Dealing is knowledge-based work. You may have to hire help in the form of a lawyer, but remember he is your employee. His function is to give you advice in his area of expertise, not to run your business. Ask for alternatives. Ask "What will happen if I do so and so?" Try to be creative – think of things that others are not thinking about. You are the one to get the profit or loss. Your mineral royalty is much more important to you than it will be to the lessee or the lawyer.
Don’t ever threaten anyone. That is guaranteed to take you downhill in a hurry, with no return. Do what you have to do tactfully, but don’t loose your self-respect and your contact with the other party.
You have multiple use of your land whether you want it or not. The state claims ultimate domain, but aside from that there are a host of others who have an interest in your land and how you farm it. Hunters, people who would like to gather woodland products, such as firewood and edible plants, people concerned with the quality of the water which leaves your land (since they catch some of it for use down stream), people who need right of way, such as electricity, water, and telephone companies, and those interested in extracting natural resources, such as coal, timber, gas and oil.
People in the last group require very careful attention, because they have the capacity to provide considerable income, and also to do considerable damage. The product they remove has great value, they use large machinery, frequently requiring them to borrow a lot of money, which means they are always in a hurry-up mode. They employ people who receive good wages for skilled work, so they have large expenses, too. They are invariably in it for the money, and you have to negotiate details of what they do on your land. Both you and the businessman want to get as much for yourself as possible out of the difference between what he gets for the material extracted and his expense.
The extractor usually has a much larger business than your farm, He deals with land owners frequently, with the resulting advantages in knowledge of applicable law and business practice. Oil and gas drillers, for example, associate with other oil and gas drillers and with lawyers who practice oil and gas law. And they take out leases frequently, so they are familiar with what land owners will try to get. You can usually deal with them on such matters as where a new right of way will go, location and type of fences to be built, size of culverts, and other things related to your farming operation. Large corporations will have specialists in dealing with various personality types among land owners. If one can’t connect with you, they will send another, perhaps tougher, agent.
Companies offer a standard payment, which may be a fraction of the value of the product removed, such as one-eighth royalty, or a price for some unit of measurement, such as a ton of coal. Getting a higher price than the standard is difficult. You may be offered less, so you have to find out what the standard is. In cases where the product is going to produce greater value for the extractor, such as low sulfur coal or thin cover over coal, you may be able to extract a premium, but you really have to study thoroughly, know what you are doing and negotiate well.
With timber it may pay to hire a registered forester. He can “mark” trees to be removed, sparing small trees to regenerate the timber. He can “walk” the tract and make measurements to get a very accurate estimate of the timber will to be removed by cutting the marked trees. He can arrange bids for the sale and oversee the cutting operation to see that the laws are followed on your land. This will cost about 8 or 9% of the sale price, but many think it is worth it, not to have to deal with the timberman, especially on large tracts or high value timber. I sell small amounts of good timber and some low grade timber myself from time to time.
Since you make a sale of this sort infrequently, think, think, think about what is going to happen. Once the contract is written, it is written in stone. Errors and omissions can seldom be corrected. You need to think about where roads will be bulldozed, where spoil will be deposited, where piles of trees will go from well platforms (and what their sale value is, because you are entitled to that, even if the value is too small to market). You need to think about where and what kind of fence you will need during and after extraction. Where will check dams be needed, and where will the rock come from? Is there a spring that needs to be protected? Try to visualize what will happen. Go to sites the extractor has worked on previously. Ask the landowners there what they learned.
You must read the contract very carefully – you are the one ultimately responsible for your interests. Think about what each paragraph does for the lessee. Does he need the thing it gives him? Does it give more than he needs? For example, does the lease specify the geologic formation that is his target? It should not surprise you that the lessee will frequently use wording which gives him formations beyond his immediate objective. An example of this is a coal lease which is sought for a seam near the surface, but which allows the lessee to take ownership or extraction rights for all coal, no matter how deep. In general, minerals become more valuable as time passes, so your heirs can loose out big time. Another hazard is paragraphs concerning liability. You should not put yourself in a position where you become liable for negligence or mistakes of the lessee. The lease should expressly say the lessee assumes responsibility for his accidents. What about damage to your business, such as cows being killed by drinking water from the process, or being killed by the operation? Read it all. Read it several times. With your mind “in gear.”
A lawyer can be of some help, especially if he/she has experience with the industry on large dollar items. A lawyer would be familiar with technical terms, and if familiar with the industry, that is, with common practice in the industry. Remember, though: 1. the lawyer is in it to make money, too, and 2. if he is in the mineral extractive industry it is most profitable for him to mind his interests with the industry. This is not to say a lawyer will routinely try to get you to sign a lease that is not good for you, but he can’t be expected to alienate a segment of his potential clientele. Lawyers are most dangerous in connection with major utilities, and in situations where you have a serious adversarial position with the mineral extractor. If you are trying to sue a utility, you need a lawyer with serious ethical commitment.
You are a land owner, but that is a kind of business, and ultimately you will have to live under the conditions of the contract. Don’t expect someone else to carry your responsibility for you.
When the extractive process is going on, try to remain business like and in contact with the person in charge of the operation. Appearing interested in the process will do more at less expense than any other tactic you can employ. If there is a problem, discuss it, but don’t expect to get expensive changes. Don’t expect to “get tough” – the extractor will doubtless have dealt with many trying that before you. Make notes and take pictures of the action, before and after pictures, and pictures of problems that arise. This is a record, and it is proof of how things were at a certain time.
Dealing is knowledge-based work. You may have to hire help in the form of a lawyer, but remember he is your employee. His function is to give you advice in his area of expertise, not to run your business. Ask for alternatives. Ask "What will happen if I do so and so?" Try to be creative – think of things that others are not thinking about. You are the one to get the profit or loss. Your mineral royalty is much more important to you than it will be to the lessee or the lawyer.
Don’t ever threaten anyone. That is guaranteed to take you downhill in a hurry, with no return. Do what you have to do tactfully, but don’t loose your self-respect and your contact with the other party.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
On renting, buying and partnering a farm
Renting or buying a farm is a big deal, one of the most important decisions that a renter or a landowner will make. This article concerns some thoughts on the business aspect of renting and buying. You want a written document that will guide each party in what the other expects, and will secure to each what he has to have to make an economic deal. Both should remember that the other has to have certain things to profit from the exchange, to make it worthwhile.
First, a note on using a lawyer. A lawyer is like an architect, in fact more so, in that you have to tell him what you need (or want). The lawyer knows very little about the farming business. He doesn’t do farming, he has never seen the farm and he doesn’t know the people involved. The farmer is the expert on what has to be done, it’s his life, and he has the responsibility. Don’t depend on a lawyer who doesn’t have training or experience in writing the specialized kind of contract you need. You must take the initiative. Lawyers who know farming are “rare as hen’s teeth” in West Vrginia
Any lawyer can help you avoid falling afoul of the law in adversarial situations, but that is about all. Lawyers all think farming is so simple - there is nothing to writing a farm lease or other document. But they will invariably follow a house or business model for the contract, not a farm model. You need to think about everything you need and be sure it gets in. And like everything else in life, you may still get surprises. Don’t be passive.
Renting is not going to involve big money. The best interest of both parties, renter and landowner, is to keep the place up and avoid adversarial relations with the neighbors. The property that is to be rented must be clearly stated and what the renter can do with it described, and someone designated to be the lessor contact person if a group owns the farm. It should say when the money is due and how much, and the length of time the farm lease is to last (such as ten years, or ten years and as long thereafter as both parties agree).
At this point the lessor’s interest and lessee’s interest diverge. The lessor’s interests include: determination of who will be responsible for damage – if cattle get out, farm assets are damaged, etc. What is the lessee allowed to do? Does it include cutting timber, hunting, fishing, digging mushrooms, ginseng, sassafras and the like? Camping? If brush hogging is required, it should be written in. Likewise fence repair, any required rebuilding of fence, maintenance of roads, etc. that the lessor expects.
The lessee’s interests include: can the lessor drive through the fields at any time? Can the lessor make any use of the facilities? Who is responsible for upkeep? If the lessee must leave, is the cut and stored hay his? Does he have to clean out the barn/s before leaving?
Both parties should have a clear understanding of reasons and procedure to remove a farm tenant. Where housing is not involved, it can be rather simple. If the renter plans to live on the rented farm there is a lot of additional law that becomes applicable because of that. If you keep an eye on the property and notice and act on problems early enough, it helps a lot. Especially if a rented house is involved.
Some things beyond the contract should be ascertained by the lessee before signing. Are there continuing complaints from any neighbor, such as straying animals, odors from farming, excessive dust from a neighbor’s road, a history of children or dogs in the neighborhood intruding, complaints about manure in the waterways and so on? If so, it would be best to look elsewhere. If you have any suspicion, talk around the neighborhood. Don’t rely on the lessor to act against his own interest, even if that would be the moral thing to do! Observe, observe, observe and think, think, think!
The most important part of buying a farm is when. Land varies immensely in price over the decades. In 1962 any farm sold for $20,000, regardless of how large the farm and how fine the house was. Today that wouldn’t buy ten remote acres with a tent on it! Part of the difference is the decline in value of the dollar. It has lost (2008) 18% of its value since 2000, according to the Official United States Inflation Calculator. Part of the low price of land in 1962 was at that there were tremendous farm surpluses. This depressed what you could make from a farm, and consequently what the farm was worth. The population was lower, and industry was booming, too. The lucky ones of us coming of age at that time had the chance of a lifetime. However, $20,000 in 1962 represented as much “real money” (purchasing power) as $140,678 as this is written in 2008 (determined by the Consumer Price Indicator calculator).
The present may or may not be a good time to buy a farm. The currency is very unstable, but the demand for food is rising. Grain looks good, but other countries can produce cattle, which can be imported, so demand for meat is difficult to predict. Land is notoriously high now. Maybe if you have a good income elsewhere and want to invest it, or money to invest, or adjacent land is available, it might be a good risk. At best it won’t disappear completely like so many paper assets (stocks and bonds) did in the “Great Depression” of the thirties. There has been a saying around Central West Virginia for the last two decades or so, “If you want to go into farming, get a car dealership first.” The ordinary farmer should consider renting land, if possible, until he has the assets to operate the new land and put up a hefty down payment.
The second most important part is where. If you already own, and adjacent land comes up for sale and it can be farmed, this might be your chance. Adjacent land is much more valuable. Take it from someoneone who has farmed two tracts 12 miles apart. Adjacent land will reduce fence by the common border, will eliminate the need for travel and transportation of equipment and farm products.
You must have a very good farm on the other end to overcome the cost of much travel.
If you are buying a residence too, the thoughtful person will also be aware of the cost of too much distance from stores, utilities, school bus routes and also church, if so inclined. The quality of the land should be of obvious importance in buying a tract to be farmed.
If you are buying or selling to a family member or someone you trust, consider a “land contract.” When you buy something that will take a long time to pay for, the interest will be one third to one half as much as the principal. If the buyer doesn’t need all the money immediately, he can finance it for you. This arrangement cuts out the middleman who makes the loan, because the seller receives the interest. You should be able to negotiate a lower rate from the seller than a standard lending agency. You will need to talk to someone familiar with this practice and will want to work with a lawyer.
The written agreement between the four parties (including the two wives) when we purchased the our farm was written by a Harvard Law graduate, and was so inadequate one manager of Farm Credit was on the verge of denying us credit until we got something better. The agreement made no provision for the responsibility of the parties. My partner never did any work, and almost nothing to compensate. I made two or three trips to State College, PA, home of Penn State, to get something this Farm Credit manager was happy with. (They have expertise in doing work for serious farmers at Penn State.) I told the Penn State lawyer straight out what the situation was. He dallied and I dallied and finally the manager moved elsewhere and the whole thing fell through. I don’t know if my partner would ever have agreed to it. A partnership contract is difficult, of course, because duties would have to be defined if written properly. There’s nothing worse than a non-performing partner. I know, I’ve been there. Make a dime, share a nickel, loose a dime, make it back by yourself!
A partnership agreement should include the following, at least: What the duties of each person would be, how decisions will be made, what the labor, money, machine, land, etc., input from each partner will be, how earnings will be divided and when (monthly, annually), and how expansion will be handled, or reduction, and termination. Also, if there is housing involved, who will live in each dwelling, who will be responsible for upkeep and repairs additions and such.
There should be formal statement of how records will be kept, both of finances and farm operations. This could be considerable on farms keeping livestock. How will demands such as divorce and disability be handled? These do happen, and they can destroy all the partners.
It takes a certain amount of “guts” and diplomacy to do this. You have to be objective, though, to avoid hard feelings later on and to assure continuity. You must be objective, It’s better to be prepared.
First, a note on using a lawyer. A lawyer is like an architect, in fact more so, in that you have to tell him what you need (or want). The lawyer knows very little about the farming business. He doesn’t do farming, he has never seen the farm and he doesn’t know the people involved. The farmer is the expert on what has to be done, it’s his life, and he has the responsibility. Don’t depend on a lawyer who doesn’t have training or experience in writing the specialized kind of contract you need. You must take the initiative. Lawyers who know farming are “rare as hen’s teeth” in West Vrginia
Any lawyer can help you avoid falling afoul of the law in adversarial situations, but that is about all. Lawyers all think farming is so simple - there is nothing to writing a farm lease or other document. But they will invariably follow a house or business model for the contract, not a farm model. You need to think about everything you need and be sure it gets in. And like everything else in life, you may still get surprises. Don’t be passive.
Renting is not going to involve big money. The best interest of both parties, renter and landowner, is to keep the place up and avoid adversarial relations with the neighbors. The property that is to be rented must be clearly stated and what the renter can do with it described, and someone designated to be the lessor contact person if a group owns the farm. It should say when the money is due and how much, and the length of time the farm lease is to last (such as ten years, or ten years and as long thereafter as both parties agree).
At this point the lessor’s interest and lessee’s interest diverge. The lessor’s interests include: determination of who will be responsible for damage – if cattle get out, farm assets are damaged, etc. What is the lessee allowed to do? Does it include cutting timber, hunting, fishing, digging mushrooms, ginseng, sassafras and the like? Camping? If brush hogging is required, it should be written in. Likewise fence repair, any required rebuilding of fence, maintenance of roads, etc. that the lessor expects.
The lessee’s interests include: can the lessor drive through the fields at any time? Can the lessor make any use of the facilities? Who is responsible for upkeep? If the lessee must leave, is the cut and stored hay his? Does he have to clean out the barn/s before leaving?
Both parties should have a clear understanding of reasons and procedure to remove a farm tenant. Where housing is not involved, it can be rather simple. If the renter plans to live on the rented farm there is a lot of additional law that becomes applicable because of that. If you keep an eye on the property and notice and act on problems early enough, it helps a lot. Especially if a rented house is involved.
Some things beyond the contract should be ascertained by the lessee before signing. Are there continuing complaints from any neighbor, such as straying animals, odors from farming, excessive dust from a neighbor’s road, a history of children or dogs in the neighborhood intruding, complaints about manure in the waterways and so on? If so, it would be best to look elsewhere. If you have any suspicion, talk around the neighborhood. Don’t rely on the lessor to act against his own interest, even if that would be the moral thing to do! Observe, observe, observe and think, think, think!
The most important part of buying a farm is when. Land varies immensely in price over the decades. In 1962 any farm sold for $20,000, regardless of how large the farm and how fine the house was. Today that wouldn’t buy ten remote acres with a tent on it! Part of the difference is the decline in value of the dollar. It has lost (2008) 18% of its value since 2000, according to the Official United States Inflation Calculator. Part of the low price of land in 1962 was at that there were tremendous farm surpluses. This depressed what you could make from a farm, and consequently what the farm was worth. The population was lower, and industry was booming, too. The lucky ones of us coming of age at that time had the chance of a lifetime. However, $20,000 in 1962 represented as much “real money” (purchasing power) as $140,678 as this is written in 2008 (determined by the Consumer Price Indicator calculator).
The present may or may not be a good time to buy a farm. The currency is very unstable, but the demand for food is rising. Grain looks good, but other countries can produce cattle, which can be imported, so demand for meat is difficult to predict. Land is notoriously high now. Maybe if you have a good income elsewhere and want to invest it, or money to invest, or adjacent land is available, it might be a good risk. At best it won’t disappear completely like so many paper assets (stocks and bonds) did in the “Great Depression” of the thirties. There has been a saying around Central West Virginia for the last two decades or so, “If you want to go into farming, get a car dealership first.” The ordinary farmer should consider renting land, if possible, until he has the assets to operate the new land and put up a hefty down payment.
The second most important part is where. If you already own, and adjacent land comes up for sale and it can be farmed, this might be your chance. Adjacent land is much more valuable. Take it from someoneone who has farmed two tracts 12 miles apart. Adjacent land will reduce fence by the common border, will eliminate the need for travel and transportation of equipment and farm products.
You must have a very good farm on the other end to overcome the cost of much travel.
If you are buying a residence too, the thoughtful person will also be aware of the cost of too much distance from stores, utilities, school bus routes and also church, if so inclined. The quality of the land should be of obvious importance in buying a tract to be farmed.
If you are buying or selling to a family member or someone you trust, consider a “land contract.” When you buy something that will take a long time to pay for, the interest will be one third to one half as much as the principal. If the buyer doesn’t need all the money immediately, he can finance it for you. This arrangement cuts out the middleman who makes the loan, because the seller receives the interest. You should be able to negotiate a lower rate from the seller than a standard lending agency. You will need to talk to someone familiar with this practice and will want to work with a lawyer.
The written agreement between the four parties (including the two wives) when we purchased the our farm was written by a Harvard Law graduate, and was so inadequate one manager of Farm Credit was on the verge of denying us credit until we got something better. The agreement made no provision for the responsibility of the parties. My partner never did any work, and almost nothing to compensate. I made two or three trips to State College, PA, home of Penn State, to get something this Farm Credit manager was happy with. (They have expertise in doing work for serious farmers at Penn State.) I told the Penn State lawyer straight out what the situation was. He dallied and I dallied and finally the manager moved elsewhere and the whole thing fell through. I don’t know if my partner would ever have agreed to it. A partnership contract is difficult, of course, because duties would have to be defined if written properly. There’s nothing worse than a non-performing partner. I know, I’ve been there. Make a dime, share a nickel, loose a dime, make it back by yourself!
A partnership agreement should include the following, at least: What the duties of each person would be, how decisions will be made, what the labor, money, machine, land, etc., input from each partner will be, how earnings will be divided and when (monthly, annually), and how expansion will be handled, or reduction, and termination. Also, if there is housing involved, who will live in each dwelling, who will be responsible for upkeep and repairs additions and such.
There should be formal statement of how records will be kept, both of finances and farm operations. This could be considerable on farms keeping livestock. How will demands such as divorce and disability be handled? These do happen, and they can destroy all the partners.
It takes a certain amount of “guts” and diplomacy to do this. You have to be objective, though, to avoid hard feelings later on and to assure continuity. You must be objective, It’s better to be prepared.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Fence Building
There is but one fence and electrified high tensile is its name! There is a certain technology you have to follow, but there is considerable latitude also. A three wire high tensile fence is legal (in West Virginia), if properly built. Posts may be set 75 feet or more apart, but must be close enough to follow the contour of the ground. It is quite adequate to keep bulls and cows in heat separated, the only fence that will do so. However, cattle can be stampeded through it, and new born calves will fumble through, apparently they do not understand the wire is the cause of their pain.
Let’s discuss how it works in general terms. The controller loads a capacitor with electricity, this is allowed to run into the fence for about three thousandths of a second. If anything is in contact with the fence and the ground it will get shocked at this point. After the very brief period the fence is unloaded, that is, the charge is allowed to drain away into the ground. This will repeat in about three-fourths of a second. The electrical quantity that causes pain is the energy that passes from the fence wire to the ground through the animal (or unfortunate person), not the voltage. Energy is measured in joules (pronounced the way West Virginians pronounce “jewels” - jewlz).
The capacitor mentioned previously determines how much energy the charger will hold. Typical values are 8 to 15 joules for a 110 volt charger. The charge is limited by the capacitor in the charger. This is safe, that much electrical shock will not damage your body. My daughter worked in the Cardiac Care unit at Ruby Memorial Hospital, so I asked her what charge was used to restart a person’s heart. She told me 450 joules. So there seems to be a considerable margin for safety. I don’t recommend touching an electric fence while standing barefoot in a stream, of course. A charge from considerably less than fifteen joules is an emotional experience that will be remembered for a long time, I can assure you! The idea is for the fence to cause pain, so the animal will avoid it. You don’t want to hurt people or hurt or damage animals.
Several things affect the amount of energy that a charger actually supplies to the animal. One is the quality of the insulation. The polyethylene and ceramic insulators available are excellent, in effect allowing no charge to leak off. Another is loading by grass or brush. This is often significant, and so one should place the lowest wire17 (or a little more) inches off the ground for cattle, unless there is some special reason. This height would be a joke for barbed wire, the cattle would lift it with their heads and go right under. Keeping the bottom wire up is one of the hardest things for someone used to building barbed wire fences has to learn. I know, it took me two decades! This height also encourages cattle to eat the grass under the fence, an important consideration. You don’t want to supply the labor to trim it out if the animals will do it. If the wire touches the ground, or a metal post, serious leaks will occur.
Your “fence tester” reads in kv (kilovolts), because it is difficult to measure joules, and once the charge is in the fence, the energy (or pain) delivered in a short circuit (you or the animal) is about proportional to the voltage. The animal stands in “bare feet” on the ground. I’ve never seen the ground so dry that they challenge electric fence, but I understand this is a problem in the arid West. You wear shoes or boots, which are good insulators, so you only get full energy when you are on a knee or sitting on the ground. If you wear lined leather gloves of the sort ordinarily used in winter you can handle all but a very hot fence with your hands.
I never use metal posts – wood for permanent and fiberglass for temporary, corners are larger posts set in concrete with no braces. Or drive six-inch posts on firm ground. More than three wires are best for approaches to pens where you work cattle, where you plan to wean feeder calves, and along the road where cows may be with very young calves. In these areas we use six wires, posts at about twelve feet, and in some areas “stiffners,” the “T” shaped fiberglass rods with notches, halfway between posts. Make your own “clips” from short pieces of wire left over from fences. The ones you purchase do not last very long. Cows will try to keep their baby calves away from 2 or 3 wire electric fence, but once in a while they will get through. It is best to build a more secure fence (six wirres) if you plan to have new born calves along the road. When they escape in other directions they will come back through the hot fence. Only a small fraction ever get through, and even those learn very quickly. Occasionally one will get stuck on the wrong side, so look for them when you feed.
If you buy animals that are not used to an electric fence, you have to train them. Put them in a lot that is secure, and put an electric fence across it. A temporary string fence is OK. Feed on one side and put the new animals on that side. They will learn what electricity is, and will approach all fences more gingerly. If a few get through, let them remain on the second side while you feed on the first side. Let them get hungry and try it again. The way a bovine checks the fence is by touching it with its nose, the most sensitive part of its body. An animal which is familiar with electric fence will be easier to control with other kinds of fence, too.
You need 2 to 2.5 kv on the fence to control animals. More is better. This is a fair jolt for you, too, but your shoes help insulate. Use 4.0 kv or better to train. Once they are trained, they do not challenge a fence for weeks, and if you have a gate that uses wires and hooks, they can be hard to get through the gate when you want to move them. The tube gates that are widely used work much better for getting animals from one field to another.
Internal fences on our place are all two wire, the second one mainly for a safety factor. Fences through a woods are not put directly on trees, because trees grow over the insulators or pull nails through the polyethylene insulators and let the wires drop. We use treated 2x4 “ insulator boards” to space the wires like they are on posts, and spike them to the trees through holes cut in the board the size of the spikes drilled through the 2x4’s. (Use junk trees, because the tree must be cut above the top nail for timber.) Do not drive the spikes all the way in, leave an inch or so for tree growth. These “insulator boards” are made at the house of scrap treated lumber on rainy days, and kept for use when needed.
We use barbed wire only in places too isolated to reach with electric fence. The back side of our farm is a strip mine high wall, and we need a few roads fenced where the miners left a road to the isolated hill top. We do not use high tensile, non-electrified fence, due to the necessity of keeping it very tight. For sorting pens we use high woven wire with posts at ten to twelve foot intervals. Electrified fence is not suitable for crowding animals. Even if it is made tight enough so they can’t force their way through, the electrical shocks would make them too wild to handle. We also use woven wire on the road side of the field where calves spend the first two weeks.
Temporary fence can be made with “Polywire” string and fiberglass rods for posts. The Polywire is polypropylene (the plastic used for ropes) with several strands of stainless steel woven in to cary electricity. I always use two strands. The conductivity is not as good as the standard wire, so you have a limit as to how long a fence can be made with it and still be effective. I can’t advise on this distance, because it depends on the charge on the fence you attach it to.
Two uses we have made of temporary fence are to isolate the bales in one corner of the meadow while pasturing it and second to funnel animals into an alleyway. Longer temporary fence can be made with fine gage wire. Either can be wound up effectively on the plastic reels sold to wind longer extension cords on.
To be secure when animals are under stress, such as a sorting lot, the best choice is woven wire. I believe the final pen before a cattle chute for working or loading should be made from two inch lumber and be high enough to prevent cattle from jumping over. Five feet four inches will hold all but the most wild animals. The posts should be ten feet apart or less for four board 2x 8 fences in such a lot.
Gates for sloping ground can be a problem. You want to set posts vertically, but the gate, if it is square, does not adapt to the slope of the hill. You can get around this by making a gate yourself, using hardwood, preferably white oak since it has the best rot resistance. Use a single 3/8 or 7/16 bolt in each end of the horizontal board and don’t tighten the bolts up to the point they prevent the end of the gate from being lifted. Set the post the gate is to be hinged to first, and tie to it loosely with wire or good rope. Then set the other posts the outer end will have to contact. This is necessary because the width of the gate will change as the outer end goes up or down. This isn’t beautiful, but it works. In situations like this you need to put (very small) gravel in the walkway, because it will erode badly when cattle go through it in wet weather.
There is but one fence and electrified high tensile is its name! There is a certain technology you have to follow, but there is considerable latitude also. A three wire high tensile fence is legal (in West Virginia), if properly built. Posts may be set 75 feet or more apart, but must be close enough to follow the contour of the ground. It is quite adequate to keep bulls and cows in heat separated, the only fence that will do so. However, cattle can be stampeded through it, and new born calves will fumble through, apparently they do not understand the wire is the cause of their pain.
Let’s discuss how it works in general terms. The controller loads a capacitor with electricity, this is allowed to run into the fence for about three thousandths of a second. If anything is in contact with the fence and the ground it will get shocked at this point. After the very brief period the fence is unloaded, that is, the charge is allowed to drain away into the ground. This will repeat in about three-fourths of a second. The electrical quantity that causes pain is the energy that passes from the fence wire to the ground through the animal (or unfortunate person), not the voltage. Energy is measured in joules (pronounced the way West Virginians pronounce “jewels” - jewlz).
The capacitor mentioned previously determines how much energy the charger will hold. Typical values are 8 to 15 joules for a 110 volt charger. The charge is limited by the capacitor in the charger. This is safe, that much electrical shock will not damage your body. My daughter worked in the Cardiac Care unit at Ruby Memorial Hospital, so I asked her what charge was used to restart a person’s heart. She told me 450 joules. So there seems to be a considerable margin for safety. I don’t recommend touching an electric fence while standing barefoot in a stream, of course. A charge from considerably less than fifteen joules is an emotional experience that will be remembered for a long time, I can assure you! The idea is for the fence to cause pain, so the animal will avoid it. You don’t want to hurt people or hurt or damage animals.
Several things affect the amount of energy that a charger actually supplies to the animal. One is the quality of the insulation. The polyethylene and ceramic insulators available are excellent, in effect allowing no charge to leak off. Another is loading by grass or brush. This is often significant, and so one should place the lowest wire17 (or a little more) inches off the ground for cattle, unless there is some special reason. This height would be a joke for barbed wire, the cattle would lift it with their heads and go right under. Keeping the bottom wire up is one of the hardest things for someone used to building barbed wire fences has to learn. I know, it took me two decades! This height also encourages cattle to eat the grass under the fence, an important consideration. You don’t want to supply the labor to trim it out if the animals will do it. If the wire touches the ground, or a metal post, serious leaks will occur.
Your “fence tester” reads in kv (kilovolts), because it is difficult to measure joules, and once the charge is in the fence, the energy (or pain) delivered in a short circuit (you or the animal) is about proportional to the voltage. The animal stands in “bare feet” on the ground. I’ve never seen the ground so dry that they challenge electric fence, but I understand this is a problem in the arid West. You wear shoes or boots, which are good insulators, so you only get full energy when you are on a knee or sitting on the ground. If you wear lined leather gloves of the sort ordinarily used in winter you can handle all but a very hot fence with your hands.
I never use metal posts – wood for permanent and fiberglass for temporary, corners are larger posts set in concrete with no braces. Or drive six-inch posts on firm ground. More than three wires are best for approaches to pens where you work cattle, where you plan to wean feeder calves, and along the road where cows may be with very young calves. In these areas we use six wires, posts at about twelve feet, and in some areas “stiffners,” the “T” shaped fiberglass rods with notches, halfway between posts. Make your own “clips” from short pieces of wire left over from fences. The ones you purchase do not last very long. Cows will try to keep their baby calves away from 2 or 3 wire electric fence, but once in a while they will get through. It is best to build a more secure fence (six wirres) if you plan to have new born calves along the road. When they escape in other directions they will come back through the hot fence. Only a small fraction ever get through, and even those learn very quickly. Occasionally one will get stuck on the wrong side, so look for them when you feed.
If you buy animals that are not used to an electric fence, you have to train them. Put them in a lot that is secure, and put an electric fence across it. A temporary string fence is OK. Feed on one side and put the new animals on that side. They will learn what electricity is, and will approach all fences more gingerly. If a few get through, let them remain on the second side while you feed on the first side. Let them get hungry and try it again. The way a bovine checks the fence is by touching it with its nose, the most sensitive part of its body. An animal which is familiar with electric fence will be easier to control with other kinds of fence, too.
You need 2 to 2.5 kv on the fence to control animals. More is better. This is a fair jolt for you, too, but your shoes help insulate. Use 4.0 kv or better to train. Once they are trained, they do not challenge a fence for weeks, and if you have a gate that uses wires and hooks, they can be hard to get through the gate when you want to move them. The tube gates that are widely used work much better for getting animals from one field to another.
Internal fences on our place are all two wire, the second one mainly for a safety factor. Fences through a woods are not put directly on trees, because trees grow over the insulators or pull nails through the polyethylene insulators and let the wires drop. We use treated 2x4 “ insulator boards” to space the wires like they are on posts, and spike them to the trees through holes cut in the board the size of the spikes drilled through the 2x4’s. (Use junk trees, because the tree must be cut above the top nail for timber.) Do not drive the spikes all the way in, leave an inch or so for tree growth. These “insulator boards” are made at the house of scrap treated lumber on rainy days, and kept for use when needed.
We use barbed wire only in places too isolated to reach with electric fence. The back side of our farm is a strip mine high wall, and we need a few roads fenced where the miners left a road to the isolated hill top. We do not use high tensile, non-electrified fence, due to the necessity of keeping it very tight. For sorting pens we use high woven wire with posts at ten to twelve foot intervals. Electrified fence is not suitable for crowding animals. Even if it is made tight enough so they can’t force their way through, the electrical shocks would make them too wild to handle. We also use woven wire on the road side of the field where calves spend the first two weeks.
Temporary fence can be made with “Polywire” string and fiberglass rods for posts. The Polywire is polypropylene (the plastic used for ropes) with several strands of stainless steel woven in to cary electricity. I always use two strands. The conductivity is not as good as the standard wire, so you have a limit as to how long a fence can be made with it and still be effective. I can’t advise on this distance, because it depends on the charge on the fence you attach it to.
Two uses we have made of temporary fence are to isolate the bales in one corner of the meadow while pasturing it and second to funnel animals into an alleyway. Longer temporary fence can be made with fine gage wire. Either can be wound up effectively on the plastic reels sold to wind longer extension cords on.
To be secure when animals are under stress, such as a sorting lot, the best choice is woven wire. I believe the final pen before a cattle chute for working or loading should be made from two inch lumber and be high enough to prevent cattle from jumping over. Five feet four inches will hold all but the most wild animals. The posts should be ten feet apart or less for four board 2x 8 fences in such a lot.
Gates for sloping ground can be a problem. You want to set posts vertically, but the gate, if it is square, does not adapt to the slope of the hill. You can get around this by making a gate yourself, using hardwood, preferably white oak since it has the best rot resistance. Use a single 3/8 or 7/16 bolt in each end of the horizontal board and don’t tighten the bolts up to the point they prevent the end of the gate from being lifted. Set the post the gate is to be hinged to first, and tie to it loosely with wire or good rope. Then set the other posts the outer end will have to contact. This is necessary because the width of the gate will change as the outer end goes up or down. This isn’t beautiful, but it works. In situations like this you need to put (very small) gravel in the walkway, because it will erode badly when cattle go through it in wet weather.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)