Big fencing plans

While adding acreage to the ranch over the years, my goal was to complete a permanent fence around the entire property. After 15 years, I still haven't reached that goal, but all I am lacking are two parcels that are separated from the main ranch: 20 acres on the other side of a blacktop road and 11 acres across a creek. The 11 acres has a barbed wire fence and can hold my daughter and son-in-law's horses. It wouldn't hold goats. The 20 acres is a pine woodlot and has no fences at all. For now, those two parcels will stay as they are.

The main ranch property does have a complete perimeter fence of 48-inch woven goat wire with the 12-inch stays to keep horns from getting caught. I have done some cross-fencing with the woven wire and a good bit of 6-strand high-tensile. Still, my paddocks are way too big for efficient managed grazing. It's time to start doing some more cross fencing. This time, I'm going to use PowerFlex's high-tensile woven wire and offset hot wires. 

I recently visited PowerFlex's headquarters in Seymour, Mo., and picked up a load of fencing, fiberglass posts, insulators and all the accessories needed to build a permanent electric fence.

30 rolls of wire should keep me (and any friends or family

I can recruit) busy for the next year or so.

The aerial map below shows my present and future fence. The perimeter yellow line is completed with most of the interior yellow lines remaining to be done. The red lines are presently a combination of permanent and temporary electric fencing. This electric fence will be renovated into 16-foot lanes so that we can easily move goats to any part of the ranch without having to go through any paddocks or pastures. The big blue dots represent holding/sorting pens. This will be a work in progress, but I will try to keep readers updated as we make improvements.