A little help needed for deer fence

[Kiwibloke]

Hi,
I have a life sentence block in nz. Got deer issues (eating our fruit trees etc) so are putting up a deer fence, around 350 metres.

The section is 90% native bush with around the house cleared and in grass/fruit trees etc.

I'm currently clearing a path by hand through the native bush in preparation of installing the deer fence. I'm using 2.7m intermediate posts and 3m strainers with 1.9m welded mesh fence.

My tools are axe/shovel/pick/saw/hammer etc... and a manual post driver for the intermediate posts. No chain saw or tractor.

The terrain has some straight flat bits, but mostly its uneven ground, some down gullies, up steep hills, sometimes needing to curve around large trees.

My question is around straining. Ive read for each change in height and direction you need a strainer. I've purchased 10 strainers, 81 intermediate posts and 300 metres of mesh. I dont really want to use strainers for each change as it will be loads of work and cost. So for the bits where I need to change directions in say 4 metres lengths, i was just going to use intermediate posts. Or am I wrong in this and it needs to be all strainers? Also, would I need to put stays onto 4 metre lengths if they are strainers? I'm going to tigthen the fence using two claw hammers.

The strainers on the corners for the longer 50 metre runs ill put a foot on them and strainers.

Yes I'm a glutton for punishment

Thanks in advance
Miles

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Depends how much you change direct if it's a 90 then you don't have much choice than a strong post and strut, for lesser angles a strong post without a strutt will do

 

[Christoph1945]

I was going to suggest moving to Oz! But then you may have mice, rabbits, dingos, cats and roos to keep you occupied.

Are you allowed to shoot and eat any of the dear?

 

[Devil's advocate]

I was going to suggest moving to Oz! But then you may have mice, rabbits, dingos, cats and roos to keep you occupied.

Are you allowed to shoot and eat any of the dear?

You forgot the camels & wild pigs.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Should be fine with decent heavy posts for slight changes in direction with short runs in between, save strainers for where you have more major bends or longer runs in between.

A few wild deer are a lot different to the pressure a large mob of farmed deer can put on a fence and so you can afford to be sensible about straining tension - the top of the net only needs to be tight and not cranked to 170kgs of strain, but you can put more on the bottom maybe?

Stays are more necessary as your corner gets tighter, I foot any strainers that I stay (nail some offcuts or 3x2 onto the bottom before you ram dirt in) as they can quite easily jack up out of the ground once stays are fitted. Like a kickstand on a motorbike.

If you do have good parts of boundary fencing then an economical option can be "toprigger" ie getting a banding tool and using stainless straps to put a treated 4x2 to an existing fenceline, a lot of that done down south here in the 80s

Personally I say don't go too overkill just to keep wild ones out, deer farmers fences have to put up with some huge pressure at times compared to one or two. All that's really needed is something they can't easily bounce over.

 

[Kiwibloke]

I was going to suggest moving to Oz! But then you may have mice, rabbits, dingos, cats and roos to keep you occupied.

Are you allowed to shoot and eat any of the dear?

That was first option but hunter I had pop and have a look said would be pretty hard to get them, bush is pretty rough with lots of vines etc and main reason was neighbours wouldn’t give permission to go onto their place, I have houses within 100 metres of our place on either side

 

[Kiwibloke]

Should be fine with decent heavy posts for slight changes in direction with short runs in between, save strainers for where you have more major bends or longer runs in between.

A few wild deer are a lot different to the pressure a large mob of farmed deer can put on a fence and so you can afford to be sensible about straining tension - the top of the net only needs to be tight and not cranked to 170kgs of strain, but you can put more on the bottom maybe?

Stays are more necessary as your corner gets tighter, I foot any strainers that I stay (nail some offcuts or 3x2 onto the bottom before you ram dirt in) as they can quite easily jack up out of the ground once stays are fitted. Like a kickstand on a motorbike.

If you do have good parts of boundary fencing then an economical option can be "toprigger" ie getting a banding tool and using stainless straps to put a treated 4x2 to an existing fenceline, a lot of that done down south here in the 80s

Personally I say don't go too overkill just to keep wild ones out, deer farmers fences have to put up with some huge pressure at times compared to one or two. All that's really needed is something they can't easily bounce over.

Thanks that’s really helpful.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks that’s really helpful.

No worries! In an ideal world we have pots of money to throw at things and bottomless soil to dig in ruddy great posts that last 150 years.

In reality on a lifestyle block it all comes out of the bank account and we have been on a tight/no budget for long enough to work out what you can do on a shoestring that might just work - and can report a lot of these "topped up" sheep fences have stood the test of time.
Especially on boundaries where the existing sheep fences have been built well, there is seldom enough challenge to warrant a budget blowout (and those who did convert to deer farming that way quickly folded)

 

[Kiwi Pete]

One consideration may be to put in a deer trap with a drop gate, so you can catch and eat a few local deer that prowl your perimeter.
There are some quite ingenious ways to rig a trap and each one you get is one less, plus free venison is great.

I've made a few pig and deer traps here not far apart, the remnants from the deer (or goats) make great bait for the pigs. Our mates in the UK will be horrified but we could have a serious problem here otherwise. Have taken 400 goats and 100 pigs off here in the past year.

 

[Kiwibloke]

One consideration may be to put in a deer trap with a drop gate, so you can catch and eat a few local deer that prowl your perimeter.
There are some quite ingenious ways to rig a trap and each one you get is one less, plus free venison is great.

I've made a few pig and deer traps here not far apart, the remnants from the deer (or goats) make great bait for the pigs. Our mates in the UK will be horrified but we could have a serious problem here otherwise. Have taken 400 goats and 100 pigs off here in the past year.

Yeah did consider that but couldn’t find something which wasn’t expensive to buy. That said I’ve spent more of posts/wire than what it would have costed in hindsight. Bonus though is it will hopefully stop wekas come onto the deck and pooping all over. Did you know of any plans for one as I struggled to find something on line?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Cheapest one is probably to use a guillotine-style setup that only needs to be as wide as a deer if you have open space above. A cyclone cattle gate is plenty tough enough and then it just slides inside a couple of tracks bolted to posts. If you have an "inside bend" in your fenceline that can serve as a funnel then that's a spot for it. (Y)

Make a bit of a triangle enclosure with your leftovers from fencing to hold your captured deer and then just rig a bait. My design is to put a length of closeline at about ground-level between some stakes at the back of the trap that is tight, and then rig up some deer food to it.

Small swedes work well - when the deer pull on the tops it trips the pin every time. I use fishing line and treble hooks as it's so easy to attach things like vegetables and fruit that way.

Oh, and don't forget to put a door/ gate in or you won't get your deer out unless you pack it out

 

[Kiwibloke]

Cheapest one is probably to use a guillotine-style setup that only needs to be as wide as a deer if you have open space above. A cyclone cattle gate is plenty tough enough and then it just slides inside a couple of tracks bolted to posts. If you have an "inside bend" in your fenceline that can serve as a funnel then that's a spot for it. (Y)

Make a bit of a triangle enclosure with your leftovers from fencing to hold your captured deer and then just rig a bait. My design is to put a length of closeline at about ground-level between some stakes at the back of the trap that is tight, and then rig up some deer food to it.

Small swedes work well - when the deer pull on the tops it trips the pin every time. I use fishing line and treble hooks as it's so easy to attach things like vegetables and fruit that way.

Oh, and don't forget to put a door/ gate in or you won't get your deer out unless you pack it out

Thanks will keep that in mind and sounds a good solution. I’ll add to the list of projects I have

 

[Dry Rot]

Is electric fencing not an option? I am surprised it hasn't been mentioned as the site appears to be near houses.

 

[Kiwibloke]

That was the prior plan, but as is going through native bush I’ll likely have to check it daily for shorts. Mesh fence i can setup and forget about. More effort though

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks will keep that in mind and sounds a good solution. I’ll add to the list of projects I have

A mate down the Catlins has a great one, two long fencelines running through his bush block that doubles as a lane between a back road and his home farm. All you do is look in from the top of a hill with binos, and if there are deer in there then you shoot down the road and shut the gate.

Is electric fencing not an option? I am surprised it hasn't been mentioned as the site appears to be near houses.

Not the best for our Sika and Reds, they bound over the top with absolute delight and short it out every 20 minutes.

Farmed deer yes (after training), but wild ones that don't know anything about electric fences have zero respect for wires as they've never been stopped by a wire fence.
See fence - jump fence, that seems to be the game.

Really best with mesh because of the maintenance factor
In saying that, we had 1800 hinds bowl about 300m of good deer fencing flat to the ground pigeons in a haybarn spooked them and that led to some maintenance !!

 

[Villein]

What fence post options do they have in NZ?

UK bog standard treated ones are crap only last 5 yrs.

 

[Kiwibloke]

What fence post options do they have in NZ?

UK bog standard treated ones are crap only last 5 yrs

ones im using are H4 treated pine. Ive used similar in a few situations and they seem to last pretty well so far. you meant to get 20-25 years i think from them.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

ones im using are H4 treated pine. Ive used similar in a few situations and they seem to last pretty well so far. you meant to get 20-25 years i think from them.

Easily!

The only posts I ever see being replaced have snapped thanks to silage crews or car crashes, and the big deer 'boom' here was while I was younger than my boys are. So I would expect 50+ years in most conditions

Only thing to bear in mind is that skinny posts are generally the brittle tip of a pine tree and the bigger you go the stronger the wood is.
Goldpine are beaut high-density pine from plantations planted specifically for post production vs production-thinned timber.

(Like most things the faster they grow the shittier they are, and decent longlife posts have a premium price as they will be slower-grown and denser wood)