This summer we decided to take a major step (at least a major step for us) and get a Dexter cow and a steer. The thinking was we could get a start, albeit a small start, on a herd and have a steer to eat and learn how to cook grass finished beef with. Well, somehow those original two turned into thirteen in only a few months. With the growing numbers we needed to add pasture for them and we did, after a trip to Illinois that doubled the herd size something more substantial was needed.Thirteen Dexters on the farm led to a new pasture of about seven acres of good grass and clover. The cattle love being in there ... when they are in there! We have had a couple of breakouts lately and it wasn't because we did a poor fencing job or because the fencer couldn't keep them in. Nope, we are having a battle against the deer on the farm. Or, to put it more clearly, the deer are having a battle against the electric fence on our farm!
Since Dexters aren't known for their height our fences aren't real tall and a deer could easily hop right over without even thinking about it ... unless of course they didn't see the fence coming and they blew right through the fence bending posts, stretching wire, and knocking off insulators. It happened once, then it happened again, and well .... then it happened again! Only the first two times did the cows get out, but it is safe to say that the deer are winning this battle.
The fence being there is a new thing for the deer so maybe they will get used to it, but when we get started in full force in our rotational grazing the fence will be in a new place all of the time! Possibly it is a seasonal thing because the deer are really on the move now with the crops out and the hunters running around the woods. Of course there is always the chance that this will just be a battle that we will continually face since we live in "deer rich" Southern Iowa.
I guess we will learn over time if there is any effective tricks to help those deer see the fence before the decide to be play red rover!
