UKC

I'm getting annoyed with barbed wire and its horrible spikiness. 

When on a public right of way (PROW) next to a barbed wire fence and I slip or trip, you would think that statistically speaking it wouldn't be a certainty that I fall towards a barbed wire fence. Luckily I've got off lightly recently but these scrapes could be really nasty.

Which got me thinking.

Some farmers choose to not use barbed wire.

Is this an option for all livestock? Or does it just depend on what you're trying to keep in?

If some animals really do require barbed wire to be kept in their field, could there be a requirement that barbed wire fences next to PROWs have to have non barbed wires on the PROW side of the pole so there's at least something to fall on to take some of the load before you fight with the barbed wire prickles a few inches away.

I appreciate I could just stop falling, but I enjoy it so much this doesn't appear to be an option.

I say go the other direction, complete razor wire. Gives you that rush that climbing has stopped providing.

I don't consider Ronhills as truly comfortable until I've got a few holes from snagging them on barbed wire

Bunch of bloomin wimps these days!

Any fence that needs to be stock proof should have the top wire barbed and an additional wire on it that's electric running at 9.9KV. Even when wearing wellies you're going to get a really ****** BIG zap from that 😆

Horses and to a lesser extent sheep will respect the fence but cattle are clever and will try to work out how to get through weak points. Put 9.9KV into that bad boy and they'll only occasionally get through. Feral pigs are nutters and will just run at the fence, they start squealing before they even touch the wire knowing they're about to get a shock, but they'll do it anyway. 9.9 isn't enough for them. They'll keep at it until they eventually break through.

Barbed wire (only) is for pansies. You have gone soft.

Bring the voltage up I say. We need to be pre-cooking the cow if it tries to escape to up efficiency.

Statistically speaking  I think you must be either unlucky or clumsy if falling obnto barbed wire fences is a common occurence in your life

Apologies in advance for the serious answer:

It's good agricultural practice to put barbed wire on the field side of the fence posts (rather than the path side) so that if animals lean on it, the barbed wire strand pushes into the posts rather than away from them if you see what I mean.

It is also an offence to have barbed wire close enough to a PROW to be a nuisance. That's a fairly subjective call so you could report this to the local PROW Officer and see what they say

I spend a lot of time in the Cheviots and Eastern Southern Uplands.  Often fences on the hill are plain because only sheep are grazed in that area. As said above, does not work with cattle.  Now electric fences are very common and can be a serious problem. Cheviots seem pretty good for gates but some of the hills further west have stretches several km long without a break. Horrible if you get on the wrong side.  There is a particularly bad run east from Turner Cleuch Law, north of Ettrickdale.

Horses have long necks and will lean over an unbarbed fence to get the grass on the other side; its greener as I'm sure you are aware!  As a result the fence slowly gains a rakish angle especially in damp ground.

Cows on the other hand love nothing better than a good arse rub (On my brick gate posts in the field no less, which is why the slabs on the top have come off).  They weight quite a bit and a good scratching post or wooden fence will get some punishment and start to lean.  Older posts will snap at the base.

If it's alongside a path and it's a danger to the public, then it's an obstruction. There's a bit of judgment required as to when this is the case, so you could always outsource that judgment to the PNFS, if the path's within an area covered by us.

We now have an app the public can use to report problems with PRoWs -

Apple: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/path-checker/id1568924988

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colton.path_checker&h...

thanks, I'll start taking note. 

And trig pillars - cattle got the one on Dungavel Hill.

In answer to your opening comment - Barbed wire is certainly necessary for cows, but not for sheep - I kept a small flock of agile Shetland sheep for over a decade, and we didn't use barged wire - not one escaped over our fences, which were of normal height .

best response to a thread in a while

Having attempted to climb a portfenceteau of barbed and electric, I can confirm this.

Neighbour has just had to upgrade the electric fence on his fields, as the horses worked out the timing on the old one and would push it over between pulses