5 things you should know when using temporary electric fencing

Sarah Drown for Progressive Cattle

Electric fencing changed the game for cattle producers and sustainability on pastureland. Selecting the correct type of fencing for your operational goals impacts the efficiency of your forage and protects resources on your land.

Temporary electric fencing gives cattle owners more flexibility in their management, says Amanda Courtney, owner of Live Wire Products. Different seasons and changing weather conditions are easier to handle with electric fencing because cattle can be moved quickly and easily, she says. “I can isolate and set up 5 acres [of fencing] in an hour.”

Do five things to increase the longevity and effectiveness of your temporary fencing.

Biden asks for 16% increase to 2022 ag budget

Eastern Washington feedlot owner pleads guilty to $244 million fraud charge

Update on beef export markets

Fed cattle prices rising in preparation for summer grilling season

New fencing technologies are changing the grazing game

Jennifer Tucker for Progressive Cattle

Hello spring, sunshine, nice warm days, blooming clovers and lush green grasses. Hello also, grownup roadsides and deep-green cover crops and hayfields full of volunteer grazeable forage – except we can’t graze these areas; they don’t have a fence. Or, can we?

Having pulled more than a few strands of barbed-wire, smooth-wire and woven-wire fence in my life, I understand how the idea of additional fencing in an area not primarily used for grazing could deter anyone from utilizing cover crop, row crop or hayfields. Often times, these areas are sprayed or mechanically harvested to remove residues prior to the next season. But, what if we used multiple four-legged harvesters rather than the four-wheeled type to manage this area?

Learn about a few fencing techniques that can offer more options for graziers.

New products gallery – April 2021

Our latest quarterly lineup features new products from HydraBed, EZStep fencing, Flybuster and more.

Learn more.

Déjà vu

Erica Ramsey Louder for Progressive Cattle

I just finished reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. In this fantastical story, the main character, Addie, was cursed by “the gods that answer after dark” to always be forgotten.

In the course of her long life, she would have months-long relationships that would begin again each morning because she’d been forgotten the night before. Each day she’d “meet” her friends again. Again and again, day after day, those friend would say the same thing when they spoke, and they’d do the same things they’d done the day before. They would tell her each time that she “looked familiar” or that there was “something about her.” Addie lived in a constant stage of déjà vu.

"The very best thing about ag is raising your kids in the lifestyle that raised you."

Terryn Drieling: Transitioning from feedlot management to cow-calf ranching

Check out our April RancHER column, featuring Nebraska rancher Terryn Drieling.

Read more.

Use rotational grazing to succeed during challenging times

Ray Williams for Progressive Cattle

Whether a challenge is man-made, such as high operating costs, or a natural disaster, such as a drought – or the combination of the two – each generation of producers deal with their own set of unique challenges.

But it is in the nature of cattle producers to accept their fate and make changes to their individual operations to stay in this business. And it is those exact challenges and the producer's ability to change what they can control that makes each generation of producers more progressive and aggressive in their operation management.

Change the way your land and your cattle work together to be more cost-effective.