The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: cambee on February 04, 2020, 06:42:37 am
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Morning. We were awarded (to my surprise) a grant from the Woodland Trust to plant 140 metres of hedgerow and tree whips along the fencing border of our land. Half way through it and even though all the whips are supplied with a plastic spiral my OH is now saying we will have to protect them from the sheep with electric fencing. Well just looked at the cost of that and it’d cost a fortune! Should really have thought of this before applying for the grant but genuinely didn’t think we’d get it. Has anyone experienced planting whips with sheep? Do you think we need the fencing? We have some horse fencing but I assume it would have to be netting. Any ideas? Thanks
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When I read the title I thought this was some kinky sheep fetish thing :roflanim:
I have no idea :roflanim: but as long as your sheep don’t have horns then 2 or 3 strands of polywire is cheaper than netting and much more effective.
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If you look at hedges in sheep fields they are usually totally bald with no growth low down, sometimes the sheep will even strip the bark and kill them. Young trees/whips won't stand a chance I'm afraid. You really need top protect them with stock fencing. You can try and electrify it wi5th three strands but in reality you'd need to keep it electrified for at least three years to give the hedge a fighting chance of establishing.
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You don't need mesh - 2 or 3 strands of wire will be fine - but yes they will need protecting for a good few years.
Be aware that young lambs aren't as affected by electric as grown sheep, so I would avoid having young lambs in there if you can.
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Yes, in our early days we made exactly the same mistake you have - there is now nothing to see ie not a single whip survived. So either you have to get the sheep out of that field, or you have to fence it. We have never had luck with single strand electric wire as they just push through. Would the grant not include a contribution towards fencing? In your case, the whips might survive below the level of the guards, but at some point they would have to be fenced to grow properly.
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The tree planting projects that we have done (one Forestry Commission, one Woodland trust) have had as a proviso that the planted trees are protected on all sides by stock fencing. Luckily the FC grant covered fencing too! Some tup lambs got into our tree area for about half a day - didn't eat anything but broke a lot of stakes by crashing around ::)
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We had a grant when I was in Cumbria. The grant was an amount per tree, it was up to the farmer how to spend it, but you needed to be able to prove that you bought at least that many trees, planted them, and looked after them.
We were given advice by the National Park ecologist. On the moorland they prefer that you don't fence, so the advice was to get the next stage up from whips and to plant them insanely densely in patches of at least 1/4 acre, with a lot of blackthorn especially around the outer edges. The cattle and deer will browse and there will be heavy losses - but the centre of the patches will get established. However, it had to be sheep-free moorland, otherwise the unfenced blackthorn would ensnare sheep and be dangerous.
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Looks like we are buying sheep netting! ???? Should have thought before jumping in. Lesson learned!
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Perhaps I'm missing something, but would you not [member=168308]cambee[/member] have needed to fence the 140m anyway in one way or another, regardless of the grant, in order to use field/s for sheep or any stock animals near term ?!
My reading is that the planting grant is a bonus and that you will potentially be able to layer up over the years for when the stock fence or electric eventually fail.
(Q - Is a traditionally layered hedge actually sufficient to keep sheep in even if very well maintained?)
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No Arobwk the land is all really well fenced with stock fencing. It’s just that we have barely any trees or hedges over the land at all and consequently no songbirds. I wanted to plant hedging (and trees) for that reason and indeed that was the reason I gave to the Trust ie. to attract small nesting birds. I suppose I’ll get them in years to come but meanwhile will have to pay for a load of electric fencing that I wouldn’t otherwise need! Yes I know, bit stupid not to have thought it through beforehand. I have 18 acres so 140 metres is actually the bottom end of only 2 of my fields (there are actually 6 fields in all) but still it’s just an additional unwanted expense. And we have sheep and horses on livery so I don’t have the option of putting 2 large fields out of action for 5 years until a hedge establishes itself. And there’s no where else to plant it where animals don’t go unfortunately.
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No Arobwk the land is all really well fenced with stock fencing. It’s just that we have barely any trees or hedges over the land at all and consequently no songbirds. I wanted to plant hedging (and trees) for that reason and indeed that was the reason I gave to the Trust ie. to attract small nesting birds. I suppose I’ll get them in years to come but meanwhile will have to pay for a load of electric fencing that I wouldn’t otherwise need! Yes I know, bit stupid not to have thought it through beforehand. I have 18 acres so 140 metres is actually the bottom end of only 2 of my fields (there are actually 6 fields in all) but still it’s just an additional unwanted expense. And we have sheep and horses on livery so I don’t have the option of putting 2 large fields out of action for 5 years until a hedge establishes itself. And there’s no where else to plant it where animals don’t go unfortunately.
No good deed ever goes unpunished, eh?
Sorry you are in this fix but the name you chose for this thread is priceless. :roflanim:
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No Arobwk the land is all really well fenced with stock fencing. It’s just that we have barely any trees or hedges over the land at all and consequently no songbirds. I wanted to plant hedging (and trees) for that reason and indeed that was the reason I gave to the Trust ie. to attract small nesting birds. I suppose I’ll get them in years to come but meanwhile will have to pay for a load of electric fencing that I wouldn’t otherwise need! Yes I know, bit stupid not to have thought it through beforehand. I have 18 acres so 140 metres is actually the bottom end of only 2 of my fields (there are actually 6 fields in all) but still it’s just an additional unwanted expense. And we have sheep and horses on livery so I don’t have the option of putting 2 large fields out of action for 5 years until a hedge establishes itself. And there’s no where else to plant it where animals don’t go unfortunately.
OK, silly me to assume otherwise, but now I'm wondering whether you might get away with planting the 140m worth of saplings on the other side of the "fencing border of our land". Could you get away with that perhaps ?
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OK, silly me to assume otherwise, but now I'm wondering whether you might get away with planting the 140m worth of saplings on the other side of the "fencing border of our land". Could you get away with that perhaps ?
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Ha ha! Too late I’m afraid. It’s done and I’m seeing a physio to sort my knee out as a consequence! Better turn out to be worthwhile in 5 years time!
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What a shame Cambee, feel for you - same happened to us when we wanted to plant willow and tree whips everywhere on the croft for windbreak more than anything - wherever the sheep grazed no tree or willow :(