October 6, 2006
Lucas Taylor,
livestock foreman at Prather Ranch, grabs the hinge of the
flop-down fence pole.
MACDOEL, Calif.
– Going around in circles makes sense for irrigating crops,
but what if you want to use the ground as livestock pasture?
That’s the question Northern California’s Prather Ranch
wrestled with a year ago, and it confounded Lucas Taylor, the
livestock foreman, until he recalled an article in BEEF
Magazine. This summer, Taylor showed off the results at the
annual Siskiyou County Cattle Tour.
It’s a series of electric fence lines with sections that
flop down beneath the tires of each tower on the pivot system.
Once the tower is past, the special spring-loaded fence poles
flop back into place.
“It’s kinda spendy,” Taylor said, pointing out that each
flopping post and each wire guard beneath pivot towers costs
about $50.
In the big pasture off Ball Mountain Road, Taylor has the
place divided into four pastures and after this season’s
grazing said he intends to go to eight paddocks beneath the
pivot. That means 15 different fences for a 400-acre field;
300 acres are beneath the pivot, the remainder in corners.
Even if cattle stack up on the fence line, Taylor said they
respect the fence. And, it doesn’t flop unless the pivot is
walking over it.
Under the Prather grazing system, around 750 cow calf pairs
and 100 head of replacement heifers get about three days in
each 38-acre paddock during summer use. Taylor moved the
cattle off in late August and plans one more trip around the
circle right before the animals are shipped to winter pasture
in late fall.
Adam Gate, who came to work for Pivotal Fencing three years
ago, said by phone from Colorado that use of electric fencing
under pivots “is really taking off” in Front Range
country. He said the system was sold by word of mouth starting
in 1998 as the inventor perfected things.
In addition to the pole with the spring-loaded hinge at the
base, key parts are a guard to keep wires from fouling with
pivot tower wheels, and properly tensioned springs at the end
of each run of fence.
“It’s really quite simple,” he said, “but without any
of the three key components it wouldn’t work.”
Taylor said he quickly learned another wrinkle: The fence line
must be laid at an angle to the pivot so no more than two
towers are walking over the fence at one time. He describes
the floppy poles as well-built, with a cast iron base and
fiberglass top.
At Prather Ranch, the pivot itself is equipped with nozzles
dangling from flexible hoses so if cattle don’t get out of
the way of the pivot the system just brushes over their backs.
Taylor said he’s had no problem with animals trying to use
the passing pivot and a laid-down section of fence as passage
to an adjoining paddock.
Under ideal grazing rotations, however, the pivot walks around
after the cattle have left a paddock, adding water to
encourage new grass growth.
The
steel foot of the flop-down pole is secured to the ground with
an iron pin to ensure stability.
Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His email address is tmoore@capitalpress.com.
