We bought this home 3 year ago; it was built in 2000.  Across the back fence is a property with animal rights.  They were here first.  My back yard is small - we are on less than 0.2 acre. When we bought the place, there was no shade.The only trees were tiny aspens she had planted along the back fence to look cute (across the fence from the main irrigation pipe for the subdivision- those came right out.  I don't want the city tearing up what little yard I have in 10 years because the aspen broke their pipe).

My back fence is woven wire, with 2 strands of barbed wire on the top. Over the fence are two longhorn steers. Usually the neighbor sends them to slaughter at 2 years old, before the horns have really developed much, & before the steer has really learned how to use them, but 2 years ago when they got the new calf, they sent the younger steer instead of the older one, because he had grown well & was mean - would just as soon gore you as look at you.I would have done the same thing. Unfortunately, that means the older steer is now over 3, & has learned to leverage with his horns.  I had triple lattices behind my fruit trees to protect them from the steers, & that had worked well for 2 years. Before that, they just reached over the fence & munched on my baby trees whenever.  Sometime last night or early this am before 7, the big steer used his horns to totally demolish the middle lattice behind the pie cheery tree & ate the back half-plus of it.  If you hold your arm upright, & flex your hand back with your fingers curled up, that is what my tree looks like.

The simplest solution would be to build a secondary fence 3-4 feet into the pasture to keep the steers away from the boundary fence, & that is what the neighbor on the far side of MY neighbor did to protect other back yards from his horses.  Unfortunately, my neighbor doesn't want to do that, & I can't legally make him, because he was here first & his animal rights trump my subdivision rights.  Add to the mix the fact that the neighbor is easily offended, & I need to stay on speaking terms with them. 

Before I put up the lattices, I considered just electrifying the fence, but it sits within 5 feet of the main pressurized irrigation pipe coming into our subdivision, running buried on his side of the fence, and is closer than 50 feet to an overhead electrical line.  There is no place in my backyard I could put in the ground that would not be within 50 feet of a water line or an electrical line, because the water pipe runs about 5 feet on the other side of my back fence.

When I am in the backyard, the steers generally stay away from the fence - they didn't used to, but I have a buggy whip, & I know how to use it. I don't hit them, of at least I haven't yet, but I know how to flick it close enough to make them move, & they don't like it.  So, as far as steers can be "trained", they know it is forbidden. I have also sprayed them with the hose from time to time, when they are trying to eat something through the fence.

Any ideas?

 Try coating your plant leaves with liquid pepper, the hottest pepper you can buy. I think a few times eating HOT leaves they will be smart enough to stop eating the leaves. Is it possible for you to put up a 6 foot stockade fence? My back yard is completely enclosed with a stockade fence and I LOVE it. Complete privacy...............

Wow You do have a dilemma. Steers can be dangerous. I would take pictures and then contact the owner of the steers and let him know what happened. If he refuses to look at the damage directly, then you can show him pictures. He needs to be aware that his animals are capable of going outside their zone to damage other people's property. Once he's aware, he may change his mind and put up an extra boundary. The electric fence idea sounds dangerous and would be my absolute last option. Would they respond to placing a couple of scarecrow figures around that area and move it around every so often? Is there anything any kind of natural repellent you could use? Or maybe you could throw something that attracts them farther into their yard to keep them away from the fence? Whatever you decide, keep us posted.

Toni B.:

I would take pictures and then contact the owner of the steers and let him know what happened. If he refuses to look at the damage directly, then you can show him pictures. He needs to be aware that his animals are capable of going outside their zone to damage other people's property. Once he's aware, he may change his mind and put up an extra boundary.

 

I can see the damage from my kitchen window, & it can also be seen from his living room window.  He is aware, but has no legal obligation & he knows it.  I should probably not have planted so close to the fence, but the trees cannot be moved now. They would not survive transplanting.  Since I cannot place a ground post within the safety limits, the electric fence is not even an option at all.

Toni B.:

Is there anything any kind of natural repellent you could use?

My oldest DD suggested I spray the back of the lattices with ammonia as a repellant.  I had some on hand, so that is what I did.  

Thanks for the suggestions - -  about the liquid hot pepper - I will try it as soon as I can get to the store. In the meantime, I sprayed the leaves that are within the steers reach with ammonia. He's going to eat them anyway, so they might as well die teaching himt o stay out of it.

 

 I went back out in the yard & walked the length of the fence.  The steers have bent the wire fencing & eaten the top half of my raspberries, which were nearly ripe, behind the shed. They have also eaten the back half of 2 lilac bushes, in addition to the cherry tree top.  Last year they ate the strawberry patch by leveraging their horns to get enough play in the fence to reach underneath with their tongues & chop them off. That is why the strawberry bed has been relocated.  If I put up a stockade panel behind each tree (4), the raspberries & the lilacs, I would need 6 panels, which would cost me over $600.  Buying replacement trees & planting them out of reach of the fence would cost about $120.  Since that is by far the cheapest option, that is probably what I will do next spring.  I just hate to give up 110-120 feet of planting space along that fence, with good sunlight & drainage, just because that stupid steer won't leave things alone.

When I put up the lattice panels, the thought was that if I could just keep the steers out of the trees until they grew past the height the steers could reach, say 4-5 years, then they could munch all the leaves they could reach on their side of the fence, no problem.  The tree would just keep growing above the "pruning" on the one side, & most of the fruit production would be on my side. With a wire basket picker, I could reach anything I needed to on the other side of the fence. Unfortunately, it appears that the $$ & time spent making the lattices was wasted.

zohnerfarms wrote the following post at Fri, Jul 3 2009 4:00 PM:    If I put up a stockade panel behind each tree (4), the raspberries & the lilacs, I would need 6 panels, which would cost me over $600.

 

Are you sure about the price of the stockade fence? I just bought my stockade sections a year ago, and they cost me roughly $42.00 each section. I bought the general 6 foot stockade sections. Living on an island usually costs us a much higher price for everything. When I was pricing the stockade fencing last year, I was seeing prices varing from around $30.00- $35.00 a section on Home Depot online. Home Depot wouldn't do me a bit of good as we don't even have one on this island, but it gave me a good starting point in prices..... maybe you should shop around, they may be cheaper than you think....

I am sorry this has happened to you . Our cows are never near any one else .

I cant believe the animals have to right to damage

probably just be there

 

ok here first the box to the electric fence should be in the garage where I have to turn it on every day when the cows need to graze so there is the connection useally there is a little connect of a wire to the main wire to send off a sparp on the animals which scares them shouldn't hurt them if it does then the fence should be replaced , go to sity hall or town hall find out your right and your property as a legal right of your own land if the steers break your fence to gain access to your yared the land owner on the other side has to pay for the fence and the damage to you yard.   last but least the boy steer should have been fixed you know get something cut off the vet should do that the farmer may know but sounds like he doesn't I don't know and the last part the horns depending on the cattle should be sawed down abit so no one gets hurt yes you can install the fence your self but get good advice on it yeah we learned the hard way but success after twenty years.

 I am rather familiar with electric fences.  We had one around the pasture where my horse was kept when I was growing up.  Regardless of where one puts the control or "fencer", during installation, a wire post is buried to conduct the excess current to the ground & is called the "ground".  It has to be placed at least 50 feet from any other electrical wires or water sources. If not, it will either electrify the water, so it shocks anyone or anything that touches it, or it will short out the electrical wires. Because I cannot place a "ground" 50 feet away from either of those, I cannot install an electric fence safely. One of the other, side issues, is that even if I could install one, I would have to string extra wires to prevent the steers from putting their heads through the top of the woven wire fence & the barbed wires above it.  If you shock a steer in front of his ears, he moved backwards.  If he has his head through the fence, & you shock him behind the ears, he moves forward - - usually right through the fence.  I was a 4-H animal leader for a while, & the only animals I have ever seen drag the 4-Her showing it, plus 3 leaders through the barn & into the parking lot were beef steers.  They are large & they are strong, & there are very few fences that can hold a frightened steer.

I have already been to city hall.  When we were looking for a home we wanted one with animal rights so we could have our horse on our property. So, unfortunately, I understand only too well that when a farmer has animal rights on his property & he was there first, he does NOT have to accomodate me AT ALL.There are many people who buy homes in a new country subdivision, then rag on the farmer who has been there for years about flies, or smells or animals getting out. If he was there first, then the newcomer bought the property knowing the hazards of the animals thereon.

The fence is not mine, it is his.  The lattices on my side of the fence were mine, but as I said, I need to remain on speaking terms with these people. Neither of the animals are bulls, both are steers & were castrated shortly after birth.  My neighbor will never blunt or shorten the horns, since he has a buyer for the horns when he sends the steer to slaughter.

However, I can leave the damaged lattice sitting there looking destroyed. Hopefully he will realize that it is time to put the older of the two steers into little white paper packages.

So far none of the other lattices have been broken.  Hopefully the ammonia I sprayed on the backs of them is doing the trick. If I can keep the trees from being munched on for 4-5 years, they will grown large enough to survive the "pruning".

Newfs:

When I was pricing the stockade fencing last year, I was seeing prices varing from around $30.00- $35.00 a section on Home Depot online.

 

Thanks for the suggestion - I had looked online at a fencing place. I don't know why I didn't think of Home Depot, since we have one not too far away, &  I buy lots of things there.  I must have just been too upset to think clearly.  I'll check their prices.