The Bovine Bugle

Youngsters do need to be fenced in

I spent an hour or so this morning splitting some large cedar posts into smaller posts. It's December and I am still building and fixing fence. When I tell this to other farmers they look at me kind of funny since fence building, for the most part, is a spring/early summer job for farmers who still put their animals outside. Here, where we have animals with access to the pastures all year long, we build and fix fence all the time no matter what the season.

The fence I needed to build and repair is where the younger heifers/steers are overwintering. The fence was fine during the grazing season when it was keeping in the calm, complacent milking herd. But for the nosy, fiesty young animals the fence needed to be beefed up. I once heard a fellow grazier refer to a young bunch of heifers as being like a bunch of juvenile delinquents; no respect for anything and seeing how much mischief they could get into. I replaced a dozen or so broken or weak cedar posts around the pasture with new ones, and tightened up the sagging, loose fence. We are fortunate to have northern white cedar growing here on the farm that we can cut for fence posts. As I mentioned earlier, when the 6' posts are too large I split them into smaller posts. I use my chainsaw to rip part-way through the post and then use a splitting axe to finish the job. From the 5 large posts I split I ended up with 15 fence posts.


With a good fence, good shelter, and good round bales to eat, the heifers and steers should be happy and not give us too much trouble through the winter.

Don't let them fool you. They're feisty! Note the new fence in the background.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at December 3, 2004 03:48 PM