One of those jobs that you try and fit in, amongst the more urgent tasks, is fencing. Sometimes putting fences up and other times pulling them down.
For us as a cropping enterprise, many old fences represent a real challenge. They were designed for a situation which no longer fits the way we operate. When their paths were originally sighted, the distance left between fences and tress, for example, were judged on the width of machinery of the time. We just can’t fit our airseeder places that the old 16 run combine could. And weaving a 30m boomspray between fences and trees is always challenging.
However our greatest problem is the seed bank which grows along fence lines. It poses a real threat in terms of weed resistance and crop contamination. In addition, there is lost production from the area surrounding the fence. And in an age where agricultural contractors change by machine hours and fuel is expensive, operating machinery in small paddocks is costly. Too much time is spent turning around. While those things may sound small they quickly add up.
I have made a short video to show you how we remove fences and then there is a photo of the tractor taking away the old fencing wire for either reuse or recycling.
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However, when I see a post like this, i am very mindful that it was placed in its position using good old sweat. A post hole digger back then, was someone with a shovel. The posts had to be cut from a tree, holes drilled in it for the wire to go through. It had to be carried into position, lifted into the hole and the earth rammed in around the post to keep it straight. So below are some pictures of men on Loloma, preparing fence posts. They were taken in the same area where we are removing fences today. I have great admiration for our farming forefathers. |
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