The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Techniques and skills => Topic started by: Penninehillbilly on June 23, 2020, 04:26:22 pm
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About to do some fencing on a steep hillside, part of the enclosed area will be almost vertical, with a beck at the bottom. I want to go straight down the hill, across beck to wall about 5metre other side, OH wants to fence along the hillside, land steep, but above the steepest bit, I'm worried if something slips, might end up trapped against the fence, I'm sure I've read something about that somewhere, thoughts please?
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About to do some fencing on a steep hillside, part of the enclosed area will be almost vertical, with a beck at the bottom. I want to go straight down the hill, across beck to wall about 5metre other side, OH wants to fence along the hillside, land steep, but above the steepest bit, I'm worried if something slips, might end up trapped against the fence, I'm sure I've read something about that somewhere, thoughts please?
I'm completely lost - a plan/diagram would help!
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If I’ve understood it right, I’d have thought more risk including the beck and just a small strip on other side; just imagining sheep ending up there at the bottom of the near vertical bit and the beck rising!? (Presumably in the dark with other complications). Or maybe it has a good bridge and gate from other side in case of evacuation?
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About to do some fencing on a steep hillside, part of the enclosed area will be almost vertical, with a beck at the bottom. I want to go straight down the hill, across beck to wall about 5metre other side, OH wants to fence along the hillside, land steep, but above the steepest bit, I'm worried if something slips, might end up trapped against the fence, I'm sure I've read something about that somewhere, thoughts please?
Sorry I don't understand - could you draw a diagram and post it please?
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If I'm picturing this correctly, the risk with fencing the beck IN is that they get trapped on the wrong side when waters are rising. How often does this happen? There are becks and there are becks. Can you fence across the water in a stockproof way that won't trap woody debris? 5 metres is a decent chunk of land though. Does this 5m link to another field you have?
If you fence towards the top of the hill, do you lose a significant amount of grazing land? That steep bit would make a good buffer along the watercourse (call it "rewilded" :innocent: ). I would be worried about something sliding in to the fence if we were thinking cattle; less so with sheep. But remember that from further up the slope, the fence will seem lower and be easier to jump.
I think I would try to find a fenceline towards the top of the slope. If it's safe enough to stand there and knock a post in, should be ok from a sliding-sheep perspective?
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You haven't actually explained [member=22672]Penninehillbilly[/member] why you are so keen on dividing such a difficult field. Would it be better, perhaps, to leave as is and look at a different fields management plan for whatever fields you have ?? I don't doubt you have thought hard about this, but ... sometimes it helps to change the plan: adapt to rather than impose on ?
Just a thought.