Farm Fencing

Winter is a great time for fencing, especially in our area.  While it’s cold on the hands and hard on the body, the earth is softer and more giving when ramming in new posts because of the higher levels of moisture. I have been meaning to fence off one of our main dams for a while now.  Our intentions are to turn this into a small reserve with plantings of trees and aquatic plants and not allow direct access to livestock.  Instead, we will give animals access to water through gravity fed lines that I will be putting in at a later date.

So what does this do?

It will relieve compaction caused by animals repeatedly going to the same place for water - this helps the dam’s structure and the reduction of repeated disturbance will also allow of a cleaner water supply.  Water purifying plants can also do their work without being eaten first!

There are still a lot of weeds around the dam site, so I have put our trusty forest pigs in to work and clear the area.  Once they have done their job, it will be planting time.

We are looking to put in aquatic plants, around the edges, shade trees and wind breaks along the south side and also a clumping type of bamboo that we have been carefully nurturing in pots this past year - it will stabilise the overflow area should there be a high rainfall event.

It's hard work - but the results and rewards are worth every minute.