# Cattle Panels and Hills



## mtcougar832 (Jun 28, 2008)

Okay I have another question, and google didn't help on this one. And I might be looking at some goats next week :banana02:, so its time to act. 

My best location for goats has a steep but short downhill. (And all the "better" possible locations will have the hill.) How do I get a cattle panel to mold to the ground? How much gap is acceptable? I assume its a LOT of work to cut them?

I am hoping to run a few strands of electric (top and bottom, inside and outside). I am looking at a (hopefully) full-size milker and a doeling.

Oh and can I use my 2 horse trailer as a shelter for a few weeks?


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## HilltopDaisy (Feb 26, 2003)

You can cut a cattle panel very easily with bolt cutters. I use them all over the farm, held together with various clips.


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## HappyFarmer (Jun 17, 2006)

We used chainlink on our hill where we pasture the bucks. It molds very nicely to the terrain. More work, but no gaps, no heads stuck in the fence. We put poles every 5 feet so when they rub against the fence it doesn't weaken the fence.
HF


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

If you need to cut the panels yourself, and don't have the upper arm strength to use the bolt cutters, I've found that an angle grinder with a metal-cutting wheel works very nicely.

NeHi


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Cut easily with bolt cutters? Well, maybe if you are 6 ft tall and lift weights.

I'm 5'4" and female, and I don't lift weights.  The BIG bolt cutters work better than little ones, but it's still a struggle.

Depending on your terrain, overlap the ends of the panels a bit more on the dips and peaks. Plan where the panels go so that you have the overlapped ends where the most change in direction takes place.

I don't like cutting them also because if you move them later, you have lots of stupid small pieces.

You also might look into flexible net electric fence. That's what we use for most of our goat fence.

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=20197


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## Starsmom (Nov 7, 2004)

I have cut them very easily with a metal hack saw. Also a reciprocating saw works well and very quickly with the correct blade. We had one of our bucks get his head stuck in one of the holes in a cattle panel a few weeks ago. First time that ever happened. We tried to push him back and it just made things worse. It was a good thing he was laying on the ground and it was about a foot off the ground...could have been really bad. My son didn't want to use the reciprocating saw as he feared injury to the buck. He was quite calm and very content eating the grass on the other side of the panel, but I conceded and sent him off to get the hack saw. It took about 3 minutes to cut him out. Actually seemed to be less trouble than the electric saw, no muss, no fuss.


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## Olivia67 (Mar 6, 2008)

I just got the latest fencing catalog from Premier and will be buying some of their electronet fencing. It molds to hills and uneven ground, is easy to put up and take down, very lightweight (important for a woman like myself who has to do most things by myself) and most of all, the goats seem to respect it. It even shows a bear "testing" the fence and then walking away from a flock of chickens! I am very impressed and cannot wait to try it for myself. 

Olivia67


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## goatkid (Nov 20, 2005)

You can use your horse trailer for a shelter. My friend has two old ones she has made into permanant goat houses and also temporarily houses goats in her good trailer.


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## mtcougar832 (Jun 28, 2008)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Cut easily with bolt cutters? Well, maybe if you are 6 ft tall and lift weights.


ROFL.

I will probably do the rest of the hill section with electric for daytime - I just want a secure pen for nights. Thanks for all the tips. I will have to bribe DH into helping a little bit - maybe we can angle the pen and avoid mid-panel drops.


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## coso (Feb 24, 2004)

A cordless reciprocating saw with a metal blade rips through them easy enough. If it is just straight downhill, no worries. It's the little dips in a 16' span that kind of gets you .


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## mawalla (Oct 28, 2002)

This 5' tall gal has always used bolt cutters to cut cattle panels. I like the longer handled ones the best. What I don't like about cutting the panels is the sharp points that are left. I've filed them down or have zip tied split pieces of old water hose to them. However I bear many scars on my arms from those sharp points that I didn't file or cover.


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## HilltopDaisy (Feb 26, 2003)

mawalla said:


> This 5' tall gal has always used bolt cutters to cut cattle panels. I like the longer handled ones the best. What I don't like about cutting the panels is the sharp points that are left. I've filed them down or have zip tied split pieces of old water hose to them. However I bear many scars on my arms from those sharp points that I didn't file or cover.



I'm 5'4 and have never had a problem cutting cattle or goat panels with bolt cutters. I've never had a problem with pieces of panels because they have many uses, mostly as gates, or kid pens.

I want to share my experience with Premier1 electric net fence. At first (5 years ago), I couldn't say enough good things about it. BUT once one goat figured out that he could bust through, they all did. If it's used just to separate an already fenced field, for cross-fencing, so they can't actually "get out", I say great! Don't expect it to keep your goats out of the road, especially if you have one/any who test the fences. It's very upsetting to see a kid tangled in the fence, getting shocked. Also, I had a terrible time keeping the fence from tangling on itself after the first year. The "in between" stays bowed in half and nothing was easy. I cut out the posts and threw the net away.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

I just cut one with horns out of a piece of cattle panel. Used a cordless reciprocating saw.
We have the mesh fence around as well. It takes a little fiddling with the posts to get it to cover lots of dips but it does work well. If you keep the little ones away. Had one try to run through it and get tangled up. Pretty noisy business. This is our first year with it, so we'll have to see how it plays out.


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## mtcougar832 (Jun 28, 2008)

Is this what everyone means by reciprocating saw? We have one but DH calls it a saw-zal (thats how its pronounced LOL - I haven't seen it in print).

I'm just hoping to be able to do a big enough section for a decent pen - I have a few big log-ends for them to play on, would they like an old truck tire to play on? I don't have any boulders 

I'll set up some more room for daytime browsing with electric, even though I lean towards strands more than netting - assuming the net is poly-wire, which I haven't been impressed with. Are the temporary plastic posts any use for goats (I have some left from when I had a horse)?


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## DQ (Aug 4, 2006)

some gap on the bottom is ok. if you use wood posts it looks best because the width of the post covers some of the panels that are overlapping at an angle to each other. instead of thinking of making it curve over the land think of matching as closely as you can in straight lines....does thatmake any sense ???......so you might have a 4 inch gap under part of the panel and it might be buried a few inches on the others side. also, don't think in terms of cutting it to height, think in terms of cutting it to the length that most closely matches the length of the slope. you can trim the overlapping parts so that it looks better but then your panels are pretty much customized completely to that spot and more difficult to reuse in the future.


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