I've got a pretty fair stretch of two wire, barb wire, fence. Steel posts about every 100 feet or so with a couple of twisty metal stays between posts. Wood posts for corners. This fence is an old hay field and is next to a road.
I've found if I don't let them get hungry, they don't try to get out of the fence. That seems to be the biggest secret brhind fencing here. if they have no reason to try and leave, they won't.
I run yearling stockers and my few cows behind these fences.
If anything crawls out, they get sold or trained on. Training consists of roping, tripping and choking or chasing and thumping on them until they don't have enough energy to run any more. Not very far with a fat yearling. :wink:
My father told of Grampa getting an ash tree limb, just big enough that he could carry and swinging it and beating on a critter that crawled fence, until the critter couldn't run anymore. He was horseback of course.
I prefer the pulled down hondo on my rope, but I kind of think the chasing does as much good as the beating.
I also cured a fence crawling cow with the grill guard of Dad's pickup, once, also. She never crawled fence again. And no, I didn't cripple or kill her. Just gentle nudges until she was standing and panting.
This might all sound kind of brutal, but you can't begin to hurt a cow as bad as another cow can, with her head, when she rams and bunts her. I've never hurt one yet, just sort of give them a good spanking.
I really prefer to sell the bad actors, as then I am culling the genetic disposition. And it's less work. But that doesn't really work on the steers I run and the owner doesn't want me to sell them as singles, so they get trained. Not too many any particular year. And come to think of it, they have always crawled out of a 3 or 4 wire fence. I don't remember ever having anything crawl thru' my two wire fences.
And no, it doesn't make them wild. when we pen yearlings in the fall to ship, we hardly ever get out of a walk, nor do the yearlings. Maybe they are too fat, to do more than walk!:wink:
But, it's amazing how well you can train cattle. :wink: