High-tensile smooth wire fencing offers advantages over barbed wire such as increased strength, ease of handling and reduced maintenance. Electric Fencing Electric fencing, when installed as a temporary system, may be used to restrict livestock from watercourses when the pasture management program is operated on a rotational basis. However, it is very important to maintain the buffer strip along the watercourse, regardless of whether fencing is necessary or not. Farmers, who include in their crop rotation plan an area for pasture, require fencing. Since a particular field may be used for pasturing only periodically, perhaps one out of 5 years, temporary electric fencing is the logical choice.
Many farmers have fields abutting watercourses that are permanent or rough pasture.
Since these areas are in permanent grass cover, consider a permanent fence. If spring flooding occurs adjacent to the stream, or if steeply sloping erodible lands abut the watercourse, locate the fence at an adequate distance back from the watercourse to provide protection for this area. The fencing system can be severely damaged by heavy spring flows, ice, debris, etc., if located in this floodplain area. Animals such as mature cattle, horses and swine cause the greatest damage to the banks. Certain classes of livestock require a different method of fencing to hold them, i.e., swine.