Make your own split log fence

The saying that good fences make for good neighbors is especially true if you have farm animals. Having a good fence in place before bringing an animal home is important. The type of fence needed will depend on what you are raising and what it is that you would also like to keep out. Many animals, especially when young, are vulnerable to predators. Fencing is one of the bigger investments one makes for containing livestock. High tensile electric fencing with one foot spacing in between wires starting at one foot above the ground and the last at about 8 feet will keep most things in and most things of concern out, as long as the fence charger is of ample voltage. During the winter months in areas that get a lot of snow such as where I live, those lower wires will draw voltage to ground making the fence unreliable. However, if the animals are brought in for the winter, then it is not such a big deal. For me, I am looking at getting some Scottish Highland Cattle. The snow doesn’t bother them and they’d prefer to be out in the snow than in a barn. Since, I have an abundance of pine trees around the perimeter of my back field; I have decided to make my own split rail fence to contain them. Time wise, it will go up much slower than a high tensile fence, and I may regret my choice before it is finished. If I did not live near a busy road, I would likely just go with electric wire and posts. The finished product will be rugged and should keep them in, even if the electric portion of it were to go down. Posts are 8’, with 2’ in the ground. Rails are put in at 1.5’ and 3’high. For the fence in the picture, I used 6’ posts. For the cattle, I will go with longer 8’ posts so I can run a strand of electric along the top. Since I am not worried about predators with Highlands, the split rail fence should work well. If I was concerned about predators I could run more electric strands at lower heights. Grass is one thing that grows well in cold climates. Having grazers that can convert that growth into food, should be a part of any cold climate subsistence farm. More on this topic later.

Making the fence:

For making the fence I cut down pine trees and then sectioned them into 8’ sections with my Husqvarna chainsaw. I then make a cut on the section ends. I then place a metal splitting wedge into the cut and drive it into the log section with the back end of my splitting maul. This causes the log section to start to split lengthwise. With a second wedge placed further up the split, I repeat driving the wedge into the log. The advancing wedge frees the previous wedge, thus allowing it to be removed to continue with the process. With just two wedges, an eight foot log can be split in half in about 5 minutes. Each half can then be split in half again by repeating the process for each half. Each 8’ section should yield 4 rails. Larger diameter sections may yield 6 or more rails. Splits should always try and go thru the center cord wood. For posts I just use halves; no need to split further. Carefully, I use the chainsaw tip to punch holes at 3.5 and 5’. Since the first 2’ are buried, this gives rail heights of 1.5 and 3’. Rail ends are tapered with the saw and cut in such a way that the outside part of the log is face up and the V cut is face down. This makes for a stronger rail. Rails are inserted into the holes after the first post is set and backfilled. The second post is not back filled until after it is lifted upright and the other ends of the rails are slipped into their respective holes. The chainsaw can be used to make final trimmings on rail ends thru the post holes to get additional sections to fit right. If the fence follows a contour as like for my driveway, then each additional post can be sited by eye. If it is a straight section, then a piece of twine should be strung between the two corners of the stretch to serve as a guide for keeping the fence row strait. More on making strait fences can be found on DIY post fences on the web. Using this kind of fence to provide stout support for a welded wire fence would probable work well for goats too. Regardless of function, the finished product will be sharp looking! I am not sure how long the posts will last. I am guessing 5 to 10 years. Rails should be good for 10 years. Any ideas out there on making posts in the ground last longer? Use of roofing tar? Copper based paints? Anything more environmentally benign?

Starting Small & Growing Big- Common trait amongst successful farms

Over the years, I have noticed a pattern amongst the various farms I have visited. This pattern seems to repeat itself over and over again in many of the stories I have read about on the internet and in literature. Successful farms start off small and may grow to become large. Big failures usually start off big, take on massive amounts of investment money or debt to get started, and usually pitch the concept of “Economies of Scale” on the production cost side of things to make something look viable on paper. Generally, my belief is that if something is not viable on a small scale, then it won’t be viable by starting it off on a large scale. Don’t get me wrong in thinking that I don’t believe in the advantages of scale, I do. It’s just that I don’t believe in starting big to achieve economies of scale off the starting blocks is viable. By starting off big, one looses all the advantages of the “learning curve”. Everything has a learning curve, even in industries proclaimed to be proven and tested. The advantage of starting small is that learning curves will cost less and are easier to remedy. Given time, the small farm can grow into a well run efficient enterprise as long as it does not make too many baby steps in its growth or tries to grow faster than it has the means for doing so.

Taking too many baby steps or trying to grow faster than one has the means for doing so can waste as much money as starting off big. This is done by making poor investments. Poor investments are made by investing in something that will likely be out grown within a very short period of time if the farm or enterprise grows. Investing with an immediate–term vision without looking at what is need down the road a short ways is a sure way to lose money. Likewise, making a number of half measure investments because the cost of doing it right is always too costly will result in a finished farm or enterprise that is poorly constructed and inefficient. These pitfalls of a small enterprise can be mitigated by just creating a multi-year vision. Written is best, but at least having one conceptually in one’s head is essential.

People are what make great companies and farms great. Under estimating the importance of this is what makes it so difficult to make starting off big work well. Large expense can be spent to recruit the best talent possible, but even the recruited talent will not have had the advantage of that which can come with a learning curve. They may get up to speed, learn, and adapt much faster, but they cost much upfront and still take time to get up to speed and to integrate. If not enough talent is brought in, things progress slowly, mistakes are made, staff burnout, and areas start experiencing selective neglect. Starting small allows time for personal growth, employee growth, and time for bringing on more people and time to focus on that which needs focusing on. Small enterprises are typically better at valuing and retaining talent. Big enterprises have a tendency to forget how it is they got to be big by forgetting the people that got them there and the people that make it work. Starting off big has bigger challenges in that personal connections between the top and the staff just don’t exist. My advice on starting a farm, enterprise, or even a new ministry within a church is to start small, limit the scope of focus, let things grow organically after initial beachheads have been established, and don’t forget that people are number one. Making gains at the expense of people is a sure fire way to failure.