Deer Gates Stopped Fence Damage

Deer Gates Stopped Fence Damage FENCING Gates Eloise Twining saved herself a lot of fence fixing in the last 25 years with a simple idea - leaving narrow openings She calls the dozen openings in her woven wire fence “deer gates” With 1 500 acres of rough California country that changes 1 000 ft in elevation Twining said she found herself fixing the same places in the fence every six months Narrow blacktail deer trails led up to the broken spots Occasionally a deer jumped badly got a foot caught in the top wires and died leaving a dried out leg dangling in the fence “I figured if the deer are going to keep tearing the fence apart I might as well let them go through ” she explains She put wood or steel fence posts about 9 or 10 in apart and cut all but the top and bottom strands of the woven fence The cut wires were wrapped around the posts on each side of the 2 1/2-ft tall opening The width and height could be adjusted where deer are larger she notes but this solution has worked well for her cattle and horse pasture fences for decades reducing maintenance in problem spots by 90 percent “This wouldn’t work for very young calves or small animals like sheep but on a fence for bigger livestock and on a fence that’s being regularly beat up by deer it works great ” Twining says The simple solution has saved her plenty of work and headaches while keeping in cattle and the horses she boards Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Eloise Twining 2551 Henry St San Francisco Calif 94114 ph 415 613-1745; www twiningpastures com; eloise@twiningpastures com

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