Hi everyone,

I'm going to be getting a Jersey cow in the spring, so I'm looking into fencing options.  Problem is I don't know anything about cow fencing.  I know some of you will have opinions.  What kind of fencing do you use?  Would you reccomend it?  Why/why not?  Have you had problems with keeping calves in, or have you found some secret and magical way to contain them?  (This is one that I'd really like answered, because we have a busy road nearby!)  Basically, I need a few people to tell me which way is the only way to go with cow fence, in their opinion.  Thanks in advance for the help! 

Okay, thanks.  I guess we do know a guy who 'does' dairy cows…didn't think of asking him!  Silly me.

Hi-Congrats on the coming cow. When we started with our first milk cow, we lived on a place, not our own, with no fencing. We tied our cows and steers out on tethers in the pasture with cement blocks.It was right along a highway and we never had any trouble. Each day we would move the blocks and we set water buckets at the edge of the tether circles. 

Our work has taken us to a number of states-most often with our Jersey cows and steers in tow, so we have had a lot of experience containing our critters. We've used electric fence. Our son likes the electric tape better on his place. We have also used portable corrals, gate panels, hog and cattle panels with T-posts, even dog kennel panels.

Now that we have come up in the world a little and our work is not taking us hither and yon, we have invested in nice woven fencing for our pastures. What do they say? It is hog tight, horse high, and cattle friendly. The wires are closer together lower down.

We raise our calves in hutches so they are 3 months old and halter broken before they go on pasture. But if you want your calves to run with their dams, or you raise bucket calves with no dams, you need to consider keeping them safe. Our place runs the long side to a busy road so we can't take a chance that our stock goes walk-about. We also carry a hefty umbrella policy that covers us in case of any unforeseen situations. Yes, people do stop along the road to look at or try to pet our animals.

I guess what I am trying to say with all this is that there is no one way to do containment. Work with what you have or can afford. Go see your dairy neighbor but understand that what he needs for a whole herd is not necessarily what you need for a couple animals. We like to keep things flexible-and keep trying new stuff.

Good luck with your new project. Keep us posted. Welcome to whole new world!

Wow, thanks guys!  I think we're going to do fencing this weekend, so I'm pretty excited and obviously needed some advice.  I'm sure I'll have a blast with the cow, and from the sounds of it, I'm going to learn a lot about fencing really quickly. 

I agree with the woven wire fencing!

I grew up on a dairy farm.  Have raised some individual cows/steers for meat.  Have had horses & raised a few.

Different animals will react differently to an electric wire.  Some it will contain & some it won't.  With the woven wire & a strand or two of barbed wire at the top, you pretty well have it covered and the barbed wire is a deterent for anyone wanting to climb the fence!

Years ago, we had a steer we were feeding out for meat.  We put him in a small area w/electric wire on one side & woven on the other sides.  The electric wire was on the same side as the barn where we would have to take him for loading in the trailer headed to the butcher.  He was so imtimadated by that wire that we had to literally DRAG him across where it had been to the barn!  That was NOT any fun!

Back in the 50's we had one milk cow, holstein, that could NOT be contained.  She would jump anything!  Dad finally hauled her to the bucher!  She liked to get out on the highway & walk it!