Topband: cattle-proofing

[Tom McAlee]

Like N4UH pointed out, the problem is that cows enjoy rubbing themselves on 
anything and everything.  And, they are very curious creatures.  If you put 
up something new in the pasture, they will be there to check it out as soon 
as you leave.

With a 1500+ lb cows rubbing on posts sunk 2 or 3' into the ground, it 
doesn't take long before the posts starts to tilt.

The pasture around my property has the occassional tree, but the spans are 
too far for them alone to be adquate support for a beverage.  So, here's 
what I did...

I use a bi-directional 2-wire beverage (using K1FZ's transformers).  The 
wires are spaced 10" apart.  I made my own forms out of PVC cut into 12" 
lengths with a hole drilled 1" from each end for the wires to go through.  I 
space these every 30' or so to keep the spacing of the wires.

Where there is a tree, I screwed in a fence post insulator on each side of 
the tree (about 9' off the ground) and run the wires through those.  For 
areas where the span between trees is too much, I take one of my PVC forms 
and put an eye bolt through it.  I use dacron rope and run it through the 
eye bolt.  Each end of the rope goes to the closest trees I can find on 
either side to help support the beverage.  Those trees can be pretty far 
away, as you can put the rope as high up in the tree as you need.

Using this technique, I've been able to span 200' runs in the pasture and 
give plenty of clearance for the cows below without having to worry about 
them damaging posts.  In my experience, it doesn't seem the cows have any 
interest in a wire that runs 2 or 3' above their heads; they walk under it 
like they don't even know its there.

Tom, NI1N