Tips in Protecting Against Feral Animals

Feral animals can cause severe damage to your fencing as well as getting into your stock’s food supply. That’s why a sturdy, feral-proof fence that keeps them out and your stock safe, is essential.

Kangaroos, wild dogs, emus and rabbits can all play havoc with your fences and stock, so here are some feral fencing tips to keep them at bay.

Tips

1. Fence design – Prefabricated fence designs are strong, quick to erect and best suited to creating an effective barrier between feral animals and your stock and feed supply. Stocksafe-T^® Longlife Blue^® is a dedicated feral animal control fence, which comes in 90cm and 150cm heights and features a tight 15cm picket spacing. It also features a wire knot design that forms a very tight bond between the vertical picket wires and the horizontal line wires – making it difficult for a feral animal to push through. Alternatively, you could use 7 or 8 line Stocklock^® with 1.8mm barbed wire top and bottom, which has enjoyed success throughout Western Australia WA.

2. Barbed site wire and netting – Install a 1.8mm barbed wire approximately 50mm from ground level as your sight wire. The sharp barbs will help deter feral dogs and pigs and Kangaroos from digging or pushing under the fence. Another barbed wire at the top of the fence will also act as a deterrent if animals push up against the fence to test it. Alternatively, you can dig a trench along the base of the fence and bury netting to a depth of around 15cms to deter burrowing animals. Attach the remainder of the exposed netting to the bottom of the prefabricated fence. 30/4/1.4 Longlife netting is suitable here. This design only needs a top barbed wire.

3. Fence corners – Corners are high-pressure areas, so strengthening these up can help prevent feral animals from finding a weak spot and getting through. Kangaroos in particular can cause a lot of damage to your corners. By spacing your fence posts closer together and using a larger and stronger fence post like JIO™ MaxY^®, you’ll help to prevent this.

4. Wire tension – Ensure your wire is tensioned to the correct specifications as advised by Waratah. Wire that’s not tensioned correctly will simply not perform against feral animals. Gripple Plus^® wire joiners are an easy way to tension shorter strains of wire. On longer strains, use the Wizard^® wire strainer and Wedgelock^® clamp to safely tension the wire.