Fencing and the corral

Perhaps the funnest part of this endeavor so far has been designing the fencing and corral for Ozarks Natural Beef. We have seen our share of headaches but after all the planning it sure is rewarding to watch it take shape. The basic design was purchased from a rancher in Australia with some modifications taken from Temple Grandin's corral design book. The corral has an outer and inner wheel that can hold 100 head. The outer ring is connected to a crowding pen with two panels that rotate 360 degrees. The crowding pen then dumps into a squeeze chute with separate channels for potloads and stock trailers.

The outer and inner circles have a 2 inch rock base to prevent stress on the cattle from excessive mud. The crowding pen and squeeze chute areas are concrete with deep grooves to avoid slipping.

Our 120 acres is surrounded by 5 wire high tensile electric fence with 1 1/4 inch Powerflex fence posts. The pasture is divided into 3 paddocks with single wire electric fence. Along the two fence lines that divide the pasture in thirds, there are six water stations - three on each fence line. These water stations measure 20 x 20 feet with a geotextile base and a 6 inch base of 2" rock on top. In the middle is an 8 foot tractor tire with the sides cut out and a cement base. Each of these tractor tire waterers will hold around 500 gallons of water. Each is equipped with a float and hooked to an underground water line that was trenched alongside the fence line. We have cemented four corner posts around each water station to allow our temporary fence to be connected to it. This gives the cattle 360 degree access around each water station as we parcel off portions of each grazing area.

With six water stations in the 120 acres we are able to provide water at all times within 1000 feet of every cow. Additionally, the flexibility we have in watering allows us to parcel off the 120 acres in up to 38 grazing paddocks measuring from 1.5 to 4.5 acres with temporary fencing.