FARM & RANCH

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors By

“Good fences make good neighbors” is a phrase coined by the late Robert Frost back in the early 1900’s. What I believe he meant by the poem was geared more towards Turf protection, which I still agree with to this day, but along with protecting one’s land, keeping one’s livestock in has become as equally important. Traveling to my ranch near Blackwell I have seen cattle and horses eating in the bar ditches both day and night on more occasions than I can count. Just last week I saw I giant bull that had been hit by a car and was dead on the side of the road and can only imagine the damage it caused to the vehicle and the person driving.

The Farming and Ranching community is made up of hardworking responsible individuals and one of the most under appreciated costs to the public, I believe, would be a good fence. While driving down the miles and miles of Texas highway, you pass thousands if not millions of T-posts and downed

MATTHEW STOVALL

barbed wire and most never give it a second look. This year alone I have put up more than three miles of new fence and my appreciation for the cost and labor involved has grown tenfold. A good 6 Strand barbed wire fence runs about $3.50-$4.00 per ft and with the high feed prices and low cattle prices, a lot of these fences will be mended and repaired to the point where there is more tie wire than actual fence in many cases.

I have the luxury of selling ranches for a living and have been on hundreds of ranches and to this day, I make sure and comment on a good fence when I see one. It is easy to see the new truck in the driveway fancy new building, but the fact that many of these fences cost way more than either of these things is unknown to most unless they have had to foot the bill. The care and commitment we put into our animals only makes sense that we would want to keep them secure on our property and although it can be a great sacrifice financially, it is a payoff that should last 30 years or more with the correct maintenance.

The constant battle between mother nature and Ranchers will forever be a love hate relationship but when it comes to the havoc mother nature reaps on fences, there is no love lost there. The old farmer that gets to drive fence line to repair damaged spots where the pigs tore through net wire or where a neighbor’s bull decided the grass was greener on his side will be a battle that is fought til the old man is no longer able. Nothing brings a more satisfying feeling when you can travel the boundaries of your ranch and see that it is secure and all is well until the next inspection. In my personal view, it brings you some time to reflect of all the work done over the years and time to realize in this changing world something as simple as “riding Fence” can help slow things down for a moment and realize it is all going to be ok.