Thursday, May 13, 2010

Barbed Wire Thoughts

Barbed wire is a common sight along the dirt roads in New England and beyond. It is nasty stuff that does its job keeping cows inside the field they are supposed to reside in. Cows don't have long and fluffy coats to protect them from the nasty pointed prongs that really are weapons along a piece of wire.

Upon closer inspection, can you see the spider web that has been woven through the wire? Boy, I think some handspinners and yarn factories could spin a pretty amazing yarn if they looked into the technology of making barbed wire, don't you?



Barbed wire won't keep a flock of sheep in. Sheep have just enough wool cover to slipping through a barbed wired fence an easy thing to do. For our sheep we use 4 foot woven wire or electrified netting. But, as with everything in farming, the sheep somehow escape. This morning our neighbor called to say that some of our lambs were on her lawn. We're still scratching our head about where they escaped from.

I'm always amazed that one or two floating strands of wire will keep 2000 pound cows in.


There's an interesting museum and website devoted to barbed wire. It's called The Devil's Rope Museum and you can check it out here.

8 comments:

Sara said...

It wasn't until I was a teenager and saw other farms did I realize there are other less barbaric fences. I've gotten many of cut from going thru barbed wire fence. Even got thrown from my horse into a fence. Nasty stuff.

Stefanie said...

How is barbed wire put up? With special gloves? Didn't know sheep could slip through them; learned something new this morning!

Virginia G said...

From my days living on a farm (though I was not the farmer. Just a tenant), I can tell you that barbed wire doesn't do much to deter a determined cow. Or bull for that matter.

Damn cow busted through some barbed wire in the middle of the night so that she could calf ON OUR FRONT PORCH.

It was loud. And extremely messy.

Marthann's Musings said...

Love reading about your life. I grew up in the country, so am no stranger to barbed wire. Your sheep are so cute and your knitting amazing.

inadvertent farmer said...

I have found that barbed wire is wonderful for keeping llamas and sheep in...now the camel has no respect for the barbed wire. No he requires high voltage, lol! Kim

kate said...

I love the patterns of Barbed wire. Lots of it here in CAlif. I run on trails in hills, and often have to crawl under/thru the fences. thanks for the link to museum.

Susan Luni said...

In defense of cows, most of them are pretty docile. They can go through the fences and jump cattle guards, but they usually don't. Sometimes we found that a cow we bought was a "jumper" or just of a mind to go where she wanted to go. Unfortunately, once she got there, the others would follow. We always sold the jumpers as soon as we could.
Your sheep have different personalities too, don't they?

Wire Fencing said...

Nice article, love to read.
Thank's for sharing with us

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