Biosecurity Measures: A Message To The Farmers

Good day Steemians, I am glad to welcome you once again to my blog. very well, I’m happy I could impact some knowledge via my last post – “Grasses in our neighbourhood: Beyond being weeds” . A big thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoy today’s episode of Pasture. If you are yet to read my last post kindly click here , but do so after reading this.

I hope you are here with your farm boot, overall and implements? Because we are going to be doing some digging on one of bio-security measures for properties – farmlands and home. I feel more can be done to stop the killings between herdsmen and farmers and I think this is very essential too.

We can help our farmers. Ask me how?

By putting up “FENCES”. It might not necessarily be the budget consuming type made with bricks and cements, but I am sure this alternatives my help indicate and reduce trespassing not only by herdsmen but from thieves and many more.

Let’s kick off.

I’d start by defining “A FENCE”.

A fence is used to protect or confine livestock in a particular area. Of course, we would love to control our stocks or crops against evil eye. So, fencing is as much as important as sowing a seed itself.

^{Image of a fence by pxhere licensed by CC0 Public Domain}

While,
A Paddock is defined as an intensive feeding system in a confined area where all or the majority of feed, water and other materials are kept. So the difference between a fence and a paddock is that a fence is external (built to surround a farm) but a paddock is used to partition a farmland into various sections or into several grazing area.

^{Paddock wood cemetery by N Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence}

REASONS WHY FENCING/PADDOCKING IS IMPORTANT

• To avoid land compaction i.e when animals graze too much on a particular unit area of land too much it destroys the soil structure and grasses in such area. But when a fence is put up, such area can recover quickly and the regrowth rate will be better.

• To prevent overgrazing. When cattle’s love particular specie of plant, they keep grazing till it nothing is left. They don’t stop, so to ensure adequate regrowth of such grass partitioning the farm is essential.

• To avoid deterioration in soil structure

• To prevent consumption of noxious weeds. After grazing the best, animals might go for poisonous weeds which might lead to death.

• To ensure safety of lives and property

• To ward off predators and theft.

Types of Fences

Live fencing

This involves the use of trees. Trees which include browse plants like Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala and many more are planted around the farmland.

How to plant

• Select a suitable browse plant
• Cut at an interval of 3 nodes with length 0.5m (50cm)
• Ensure that at least two nodes are below the soil
• Slant the vegetative material to an angle of 45 degree.

This is to allow the plant grow upright when it starts to grow.

• The vegetative material should be 5 – 10cm deep in the soil
• With 0.5m interspace between each vegetative material.

To avoid the trees clustering when they are fully grown

^{Live fence by Jatropha Curcas licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic}

Advantages of Live fence

• It supports the ecology
• It serves as source of food for livestock
• It offers canopy to animals (protect animal from direct sunlight)
• Nitrogenous tree helps in fixing the soil bacteria
• Leaves of such browse plant can serve as green manure.

Disadvantages of Live fence

• For large hectares of land, can be labour intensive
• Weeds can be a major problem before they are well grown

You can read more about live fences here

Barbed wire and woven wire

This is the use of wires with sharp edges mostly twisted to form a cord. It is effective in a pasture where cattles or sheep are involved. It is used with woven wire to keep away predators and contain the animals respectively.

Advantages of Barbed wire fence

• It can be used anywhere i.e versatile
• Maintenance is not costly and the installation is quite affordable
• It is quick to install
• Very good at resisting predators

Disadvantages of Barbed wire fence

• (Woven wire) Animals can easily find their way around it.
• Can cause damage to animal’s skin

^{Barbed wire fence by George Hodan on Public Domain Pictures licensed by CC0 Public Domain}

Post and rail fence

This involves the use of wooden materials (timber) and rail.

Watch this video on how to make a post and rail fence

^{Source: Youtube - "How to make a post and rail fence". Published by DIY Doctor on Jul 7, 2011.}

Advantages of post and rail fence

• It can be upgraded by adding more types of material even wire
• The use of cedar is a smart choice

Disadvantages of post and rail fence

• Can be attacked by insect (might lead to destruction of the timber)
• It needs to be paint coated
• It is difficult to maintain and purchase

Post and rail can also be referred to as split rail fence

Electric wire fence

This contains insulators, steel wire usually light weight. Wires are usually interwoven to carry electric charge

^{Electric wire fence by Kevin Phillips on Public Domain Pictures licensed by CC0 Public Domain}

Advantages of Electric wire

• It is easy to move around
• It is cheap

Disadvantages of Electric wire

• It requires power source (electricity)
• It is not strong (Can collapse over time)

P.S A fence or paddock should be at least 4 ft tall

USE OF PADDOCK

• Used for deferred grazing
• For feed maintenance during dry season
• Can be considered ultimately when residual dry matter has declined across a farm

Advantages of Paddock

• Minimizes soil nutrient loss
• Preserve pasture density
• Preserve pasture composition
• Prevents overgrazing of one plant specie

Disadvantages of Paddock

• Cost of full ration of feeding is considered
  +Animal health issue is associated – spread of disease is high.

Differences between Fence and Paddock

A fence is built on the exterior part of a farm (as boundaries) to ensure safety from predators and passersby while paddock is built inside a farm (as partitioning into different structures.

Both Paddock and a fence can be built with the fencing types listed above, but do consider which is best based on your location, topography and cost of implementation.

CONCLUSION

Finally, since a fence can be made with several options excluding bricks, it is advisable for farmers or households to choose any suitable fencing type considering which one is most suitable for their cause.

Use of live fencing, post and rail, electric wire or barbed wire amongst others have proved effective over time.

Thank you for reading, I hope you gained an insight from this blogpost. Kindly drop a comment on how well this session was and don’t forget to “Do Agric, It Pays”.

References

Agricultural fences
Paddock
Mother Earth
YouTube

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