Dividing up a Field

lough

Well-Known Member
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I have a 12.5 acre or 5 hectare field. At the minute it is divided into 5 divisions of different shapes and sizes. The plan was to divide it up into 5 permanent plots with an equal size of 1 hectare each and then divide it up with temporary fencing for grazing and being able to cut silage of any part of it.
In the end I settled for 3 permanent divisions as shown in the photo, Plot A being 2 Ha, Plot B is 2 Ha and Plot C is 1 Ha.
The most important part is I want to put in a handling pen and am going to put it in where I have the red star. I plan on putting in a road where the yellow line is so that you can walk the cows from plot B to the pen.

Has anyone else any better ideas on how to divide it up.

The red line is a main road and would be busy at times
The purple line is a side road and would have a few cars on it
The blue line is a lane and would be accessed by three main users
 
View attachment 82260 View attachment 82261 I have a 12.5 acre or 5 hectare field. At the minute it is divided into 5 divisions of different shapes and sizes. The plan was to divide it up into 5 permanent plots with an equal size of 1 hectare each and then divide it up with temporary fencing for grazing and being able to cut silage of any part of it.
In the end I settled for 3 permanent divisions as shown in the photo, Plot A being 2 Ha, Plot B is 2 Ha and Plot C is 1 Ha.
The most important part is I want to put in a handling pen and am going to put it in where I have the red star. I plan on putting in a road where the yellow line is so that you can walk the cows from plot B to the pen.

Has anyone else any better ideas on how to divide it up.

The red line is a main road and would be busy at times
The purple line is a side road and would have a few cars on it
The blue line is a lane and would be accessed by three main users

Personally if it was me I’d be putting the pen at the other end of the yellow line road, less risk of the animals breaking out on to road when corralling. Gate at blue road, turning spot at handling pen, so you can turn Jeep or tractor and trailer for loading and unloading stock.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Personally if it was me I’d be putting the pen at the other end of the yellow line road, less risk of the animals breaking out on to road when corralling. Gate at blue road, turning spot at handling pen, so you can turn Jeep or tractor and trailer for loading and unloading stock.
Just my 2 cents.

Only problem is then cattle in plot c have to go out through the middle off a plot not in a corner ???
 
Only problem is then cattle in plot c have to go out through the middle off a plot not in a corner ???
Temporary electric fence will make a corner in any part of any field, he is going dividing these plots up again with temporary fence anyways so a gap can be put anywhere.
 
Temporary electric fence will make a corner in any part of any field, he is going dividing these plots up again with temporary fence anyways so a gap can be put anywhere.

Aye true enough, I'm just keep thinking in terms of "stone mad limmies" the only temporary thing on them is your sanity !!!!
 
Aye true enough, I'm just keep thinking in terms of "stone mad limmies" the only temporary thing on them is your sanity !!!!
A fair point, but I've found
a few cracks of 10000v will tame 99 per cent of animals, always the 1 per cent,you could put up a 10 foot wall around it they'll still get out.
 
Personally if it was me I’d be putting the pen at the other end of the yellow line road, less risk of the animals breaking out on to road when corralling. Gate at blue road, turning spot at handling pen, so you can turn Jeep or tractor and trailer for loading and unloading stock.
Just my 2 cents.
I was going to say the same, if you move stick from division to division through the pen then they think nothing of it the day you want to catch them they think nothing of it till there caught, you can go straight into it from any paddock and don’t have to try force them up the lane where they will know straight away something is about to happen
 
Why don't you make paddock C by bringing the wire from the intersection of the red and purple lines? I think that will make them all more even then?

I'd have the loading point further down the blue line then as well
 
I was going to say the same, if you move stick from division to division through the pen then they think nothing of it the day you want to catch them they think nothing of it till there caught, you can go straight into it from any paddock and don’t have to try force them up the lane where they will know straight away something is about to happen
Could also feed them meal in the yard from any section, get them used to going into it.
 
Aye true enough, I'm just keep thinking in terms of "stone mad limmies" the only temporary thing on them is your sanity !!!!
I try and not keep any mad ones, We had Limousin's here long before anyone else had them and found them ok. We did have one recently and she was ok to handle in the pen or if she calved but if you took just one cow out of the field she would have to come as well or if you didn't she would clear the fence and be out on the road, she didn't stay around long
 
I never thought of that, I would probably run a pipe along the fence between B and C plus between A and B and site a few drinkers along the fence. What should I be looking out for?
Sounds like a good plan, I'd leave out plenty of spots to put a drinker in, gives great flexibility when block or strip grazing, I have 5 points in a 3 ha field, have a philmac stop cock at each, just move to plastic drinker from point to point, means I can put up a back fence which helps grass regrowth.
 
Personally if it was me I’d be putting the pen at the other end of the yellow line road, less risk of the animals breaking out on to road when corralling. Gate at blue road, turning spot at handling pen, so you can turn Jeep or tractor and trailer for loading and unloading stock.
Just my 2 cents.

I did think of putting the pen at the other end of the yellow road when I had the drawing finished. The reason I put it where I have shown it is plot C comes into a very narrow point there and you would never get in with a mower and eventually it will just become over grown with bushes and weeds so was thinking it would put a wasted space to good use.
I could still move the cattle through that point when moving them between the plots
 
Sounds like a good plan, I'd leave out plenty of spots to put a drinker in, gives great flexibility when block or strip grazing, I have 5 points in a 3 ha field, have a philmac stop cock at each, just move to plastic drinker from point to point, means I can put up a back fence which helps grass regrowth.

Do you turn of the water at that point and disconnect the pipe and move it to the next location. How does the pipe and fitting stand up to being constantly disconnected and reconnected. Do they wear and leak over time or do they be ok
 
Do you turn of the water at that point and disconnect the pipe and move it to the next location. How does the pipe and fitting stand up to being constantly disconnected and reconnected. Do they wear and leak over time or do they be ok
Ya, I have a philmac stop cock at each point, then a short piece of pipe to the fitting on the trough.
No problems so far anyways, the only piece getting tightened and loosened is the short piece of pipe from trough to stop cock, so even if I do have bother it's easy replace that bit, but to be honest I dont even see it being any trouble, them philmac fittings are very easy to seal, dont even need to tighten with a wrench, hand tight has always worked for me, only use a wrench on any fitting that's getting buried.
 
The only slight issue I see you having in the future is that philmac are gone rediculous for changing their fittings every few years so if one gets damaged you’ll either have to replace them all or have an odd ball somewhere. Hopefully that won’t happen tho!

an alternative would be to fit out the pipe from the trough with a geka fitting and similar on each ball valve, they can be opened and closed and the centre rubbers just pop out to change them if needs be. They can leak an odd bit with a lot of wear but that would more so be where a connection is getting dragged around the place constantly like on a garden hose
 
Why would I have to replace them all?
The only thing that moves with the trough is the short pipe, no part of the stop cock fitting is moved, the nut, o ring and gland all stay with each stop cock.
 
Anyone seen one of these fencing systems in action?

Dad's going on about one to divide up our stubble turnip field this year, two in fact as the field is 120m at it's narrowest! Recons they'll be faster than what he insisted on doing last year which was basically tangling up the wires into a mess then getting pissed off!
 
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