Well maintained fences make for less headaches either by keeping things safely in or safely out.

Ponies are best behind rails.

If you don’t believe me think about what would happen if Brian, having shut his paddocks up for hay (see Brian’s Diary pg 4), forgot to maintain his fences and looked up to find his stock having a cheerful munchfest! 

Not only would he have sick animals from gorging but he’d have no feed for winter.  Stock does not give a hoot, honk, moo, or baa about forward planning.

And not only when it comes to feed.  When your prize bull notices your pride cow is in season, he will not care about the time of year, the age of Miss Champion Moo or whether or not you have no feed due to the previously mentioned free for all in the hay paddock.  The language of love will be all he cares about.  So it is up to you to have boundaries in place.  Well maintained fences are synonymous with family planning on a lifestyle block – for the four legged animals at least.

Don’t forget good fences do indeed make good neighbours – especially if Miss Cow in question does not belong to you but to Mr and Mrs Neighbour.  Wandering animals have caused more neighbourhood wars than your average school picnic. 

What you need for your fence:

• Strainer post: Think of a colander: what you don’t want (the water) runs out, what you want to keep (the peas) stays in – and when you do this you call it straining.  Fences are no different – you toss the neighbours noisy bull out through the holes and keep your innocent cow inside.  Straining.  Okay maybe not but fences are built in sections called strains. A line is marked out for the fence, then a strainer post is put  at each end of the section. Strainers are heavier and longer than the other posts and have to stay in place when the wire is tightened or ‘strained’.

• Stay: A stay leans on an angle against the strainer post on the side of the strain to give you something to climb on when you need to jump over the fence to get away from the very grumpy bull you have just stopped from pursuing his heart’s desire.  It also stops the strainer from being pulled over when the fence is tightened.

• Intermediate posts: These are smaller than strainer posts, and hold the fence upright and the wire in place, making them very useful indeed. 

• Staples: U-shaped nails sharpened at each end are placed over a wire to fix it to a post or batten.   My younger sister once informed our father she could not find any of these – she could however find a box of n- shaped ones.  Yes it’s true.  Yes she’s blonde.

• Battens: Four or five wooden battens are placed between intermediate posts to hold the wires the correct distance apart so stock cannot push through (see straining). They sit on top of the ground which makes them a bit wobbly – so they are not very good for helping you climb over the fence in a hurry to get away from that bull.  

• Waratah: Now while some of us might indeed enjoy having a Country and Western band out there dealing to our fence, these Waratah’s are not them.  These are metal posts with a Y-shaped cross-section that are driven into the ground and may be used instead of intermediate posts. They have holes drilled through one of the arms to hold the wires.  They do come in handy too if you can’t find your favourite golf club, cricket bat, hockey stick.

Fencing laws

Laws controlling fencing and the trespass of livestock were passed as early as 1842 and unlike many things that have got easier as time has marched on, have become more complicated.  In 1847 an ordinance stipulated that the costs of erecting and maintaining boundary fencing should be shared between neighbours.

Settlers soon resorted to the courts to settle tresspass and fencing disputes. Within a year of the first Canterbury colonists arriving in December 1850, a dispute over fencing was brought before the resident magistrate. Don’t let this put you off though – if an irate neighbour is worse than an irate bull – wait till you have to take on an irate council inspector.  Not even your best scones are going to settle that score!