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Beef   The case of the disappearing fence posts One Waterloo Region farmer has developed his own innovative way of keeping his cattle out of Boomer Creek – a solar-powered, collapsible fence that can be rolled up at the end of the grazing season by DON STONEMAN Keeping livestock that are pastured on river flood plains out of streams is a challenge when floodwaters threaten to take the fences away every spring. Here’s one Waterloo Region farmer’s answer to this dilemma. The farmer, who is a Mennonite, spoke to Better Farming on the condition that he would not be identified. He pastures 500- to 900-pound cattle on the floodplain where Boomer Creek flows into the Conestogo River in Wellesley Township, near Hawkesville, northwest of Waterloo. A temporary electric fence keeps the cattle out of the water course. The electrical fence is supported on two-piece posts made out of PVC conduit pipe. A 40-inch long pipe is placed in the ground permanently. A second piece of pipe, 36 inches long and slightly smaller in diameter, telescopes into the other piece when the electrified cable is rolled up at the end of the grazing season. In the spring, the post is pulled up again, ready for use. A stainless steel spring that can be built in a farm shop holds the two pieces in place. The farmer says a fisherman’s landing net with a collapsible handle was the inspiration for the homemade spring. Why use stainless steel cable instead of wire? It will never rust, it is flexible and easy to pull through holes drilled in the posts, explains the farmer. The electrified cable is 3/16 of an inch in diameter, which the farmer describes as “overkill.” He says 1/16- inch cable would have been sufficient. The electric fence is solar-powered. The posts are put in the ground with a hydraulic post hole driver, but some homemade tools are required. One of these tools is a driver, which the farmer built from three-inch pipe. The driver is seven feet long and there is a flange midway down its length. The hydraulic post driver hammers it into the ground to the level of the flange. The driver is pulled out of the hole and replaced with the PVC post. In instances where soft ground would collapse into the hole, another piece of steel pipe is hammered into the ground along with the driver. When the driver is removed, the pipe holds the soil out of the hole until the PVC post is in place, and then the pipe is removed. Stony soil did not prevent this fencing system from being installed, the farmer observed. About 56 acres of river flats on the Mennonite farm were fenced in two stages. About 1,000 feet of permanent high tensile fence was installed on the high banks of the flood plain in 2001. In 2003, nearly 5,000 feet of temporary fencing was placed near the river bed. The farmer installed 220 PVC posts as well as 35 cedar corner posts. Permanent cedar corner posts cost $12 each. The PVC posts cost $11 a piece, according to Anne Loeffler, a soil and water conservation technician with the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA). The Conestogo River is part of the Grand River watershed. Under a voluntary program launched in 1998, many farmers received a grant from the GRCA to fence cattle out of the river and nearby Boomer Creek. The grant system aims to improve drinking water quality and fishing downstream from farmland, says Loeffler. There has been a high “uptake” for that program in the Boomer Creek basin, Loeffler says. Along 14 kilometres of Boomer Creek and its tributaries, 24 farms have excluded about 1,100 head of cattle that previously had access to the waterway. BF © copyright 2006 AgMedia Inc.. top back