0:00Hi guys. In this video, we're going to be talking about ways to manage large pests and ways to keep them out of your

0:06crops. So, we have 27 years of experience in this. So, what is the

0:13wisdom from Farmer John on managing large pests? Well, I can just tell you what we've done, what's worked and what hasn't. Um,

0:23I think I would start by talking about fencing a little bit cuz obviously fencing is the best solution for dealing

0:33with keeping animals out. But fencing has its own downside. Anytime you start

0:40dealing with permanent fencing, then you get into the whole maintenance side of things. And if you're not spraying Roundup around your fence line,

0:53um you're left with a lot of work. And so, you know, theoretically, you can keep out any pest with the proper fence,

1:03but do you want the work of maintaining that fence?

1:08Yeah. And I'm thinking specifically of the smaller animals like rabbits and and uh possums and that kind of thing. Yeah,

1:19you know, you can you can use chicken wire and bury it in the ground and keep out, you know, even gophers and stuff

1:27like that, but how do you keep the grass and everything from growing up in that?

1:34Yeah. And I mean, it's just a tremendous amount of work. So, I really really encourage people to think that through

1:43before they make big permanent investments.

1:49Um, you know, when it comes to deer, I I was researching a few years back on this

1:56and they said the only thing that's guaranteed to keep deer out is a 10-ft high brick wall.

2:07And obviously that's not a a a really I mean at least for for us that's not an

2:15option. That would be a very expensive option. So anything else is not going to be 100% deer proof but you kind of have

2:24to figure out um that sweet spot which works without being incredibly expensive.

2:32Yeah. So what I can tell you we did for years and years and it worked amazingly

2:40is we the the system kind of evolved but we used just to standard 8ft topost.

2:50This is not an 8ft Tpost but um just pounding them in the ground every

2:57approximately 25 ft. So, not a lot of posts. You know, for a 30 by 100 ft

3:06um plot, we would use 12 posts, five down either side and then one in the

3:14middle on the top and bottom. So, just pound in your posts and then you just use the the simple um

3:23electric fence insulators and clip it on the top. Ah.

3:32like that.

3:34And then here you hold that. So when you're driving the tost in, you're driving them basically to where these are level with the top of the the soil,

3:42right? Yeah. So it ends up being, you know,

3:46it's only between 6 and 1/2 and 7 ft tall at the most when when it's in the ground.

3:55Yeah. Um but then we use this product.

4:00It's available a lot of places. Um but it's the the trade name is well the

4:08company is 10x T E N A X and the product is called Centiflex.

4:16C I N T O Flex. Centiflex. Um,

4:23I think there's a couple different heights and there's different weights,

4:28but I just want to encourage you. There is stuff out there that's super lightweight

4:36that you know deer go through without even knowing they've gone through it pretty much. So, this is a heavier duty

4:44and and if you have a lot of deer pressure, they even have thicker stuff than this.

4:51But basically, do you want to roll it out just a little bit? Yeah, we can roll it out. So,

4:59this has been in the in the storage pile. We don't we don't use this stuff anymore. We just haven't

5:06gotten rid of it. But, um, you know, you can just roll it out on the ground around your field. And then you just

5:16hook the top. And I I always go up a ways with it. Just hook it on here.

5:25And then Well, maybe that's a little bit too much. Well, the post isn't in the

5:31ground, but Yeah, that's true. The idea is when you clip it on the top, you'll have a foot or two that can kind of

5:39flare out on the ground. Yeah. So, it's kind of like this cuz deer actually if they're really desperate, they will try to go under.

5:51Um, and this kind of helps that from happening.

5:57We've we've never had deer get into a plot that we had closed up with this.

6:02Now, you know, if you leave an opening or whatever, they will find it,

6:07but it seems to they they have a hard time um seeing it. You know, some places call

6:15it invisible deer fence and so they can't judge how high it is.

6:20You know, I have heard some people say they've had deer jump over it. We never had that happen, but we use this for years and year. I mean, 20 plus years.

6:31Um, and it worked great.

6:34And then, you know, when it comes to maintenance,

6:38you just pull your fence up and clip it up here temporarily and do your mowing

6:45and weed eating around the base. So, it really is fairly low maintenance. And what only one clip per post.

6:54One clip per post.

6:55That's all we ever did. Except where you you get in and usually, you know, you've put two on there. Yeah.

7:02And then your your gate is just lifting the fence up.

7:06Yeah. No fancy complicated gate. Just overlap it and have a second clip and then you just open it and walk in.

7:14Very simple, but very effective.

7:17Uh and and what we did is we just fenced the plots we knew deer liked. things like strawberries, sweet potatoes,

7:28green beans, um beets,

7:34you know. So, so we were selective. We didn't, you know, at least for us, you know, they don't get into tomatoes much.

7:42They don't get into okra. Um yeah, they don't get into squashes.

7:48You know, again, I've heard people say if they're hungry enough, they'll they'll eat anything. So, anyway, what

7:56happened a few years back, we did have a situation where they were hungrier than normal, and they started eating stuff

8:05they don't normally eat, getting into our lettuce and stuff, and we didn't have enough fencing or Tpost to be

8:15fencing every plot. and we lost a lot of of crop that year. So, we decided we

8:22needed to come up with just something to fence in the whole farm area. And that's what you see behind us here.

8:32Again, I did a fair bit of research and this is a simple fivewire electric

8:40fence. you know, if if your pressure was really high, you could add a few more wires and um you can do your research.

8:50You can do um negative and positive wires alternating

8:58so that that it will be um there'll be a much greater chance of

9:06the animals being shocked if you need to. This is just got a standard ground um in one place.

9:17So this is great for This is going to keep deer out, but this is not going to keep rabbits and any small small rodents out.

9:24Exactly. So this I mean in in my opinion, deer is is the big one because deer can decimate a plot of green beans

9:32or something in one night. So deer is what we're really concerned most about.

9:39And and this is the trick. I guess we don't have one right here, but we've got little caps. Maybe we can get a picture

9:47of one later on that wrap. Uh this fence is not on.

9:56um that they've got metal um twisty tie kind of things that will

10:05wrap on here and then those caps have a cotton ball in them and you put a scent.

10:12What we got from Premier Fencing is an apple scent. Hm. But I've heard of

10:18people doing similar things with like um uh aluminum foil and peanut butter or something. You just want something

10:27that's conductive. And you're trying to actually lure the deer to the fence. And

10:34the goal is to get them to come and touch the fence, ideally with their nose, which is one of the most sensitive parts, and give them a good zap.

10:45And they stay away. Yeah.

10:49You know, you you train them to the fence cuz I mean, they could so easily go through this or jump over it, but

10:57when they're afraid of it, they don't come near it. Yeah.

11:00In fact, you know, don't tell the deer this, but this fence hasn't been on in quite a while. And I know we're gambling

11:09here cuz um sooner or later they're going to figure it out. The next generation's going to

11:16come along and figure out they can go through it. But so we got to get it back on. But the point is

11:26we haven't had a deer in here in a couple years. So that solved the problem. And it's nice because it goes all the way around the perimeter of the

11:35working area and kind of butts up to the barn. So you never have to go through the fence to get into the barn wash or

11:42into the tunnels. And then you have a couple of areas that are easy and most of the time just stay open up here by the barn for driving. You can close this off.

11:53We've got a gate here. Yeah.

11:56You know, just rope gate. Um and it's easy to maintain. That's the beauty. You know, you can mow under it and then you just have to weed it around each post,

12:06but as far as as um fences go, it's very low maintenance.

12:12How much would you say this fence cost you? Which you're you're fencing in what uh 5 acres.

12:22We had the Tposts, so we, you know, figuring in the Tpost would add to this,

12:30but just the the wire,

12:34the rope and the all the insulators and and the charger.

12:42It was around $1,200. Yeah.

12:45For 5 acres. Very That's cheap.

12:48Yeah. I mean to would have been a probably at least a couple thousand dollar.

12:51Yeah, that would have doubled or or more than doubled it probably.

12:56Yeah, but it is a a quite inexpensive way to fence a lot of space. Uh, one

13:03pointer with electric fences, uh, put it on a timer so that it's not on during the day because you're not gonna have

13:11pressure from deer during the day and you don't want to accidentally bump it or for kids, I know there's some sad

13:19stories of young kids uh, with electric fences. So, you don't want a fence,

13:25especially with a charger as big as you have to have to to charge this one. Can really do some some some cause some pain

13:32or do some damage. So, put it on a timer to where it comes on at night uh and then turns off in the morning. Yeah,

13:41Premier Fencing is a great source.

13:44There's obviously many others, but we've we've dealt with them. Um, Premier One,

13:51I guess it's called. Yeah. The other suggestions.

13:55Yeah. The other thing I would just say I think Elliot Coleman in his new organic grower had a great concept and we

14:03actually did this for a while and that is an invisible fence underground fence.

14:08You remember we ran a wire around our whole property, well at least the whole farm part

14:17and just had collars on the dogs. In my opinion, dogs is the key here. You want dogs to keep out all your little stuff,

14:27your rabbits and and so do your research. Know what your pests are and

14:34what kind of dogs are going to do good with that. You know, for

14:40rabbits, you've got your hounds and your terriers terrier kind of dogs. Um,

14:48yeah,

14:49dogs can be a great solution for animals. And, you know, now they've got the um

14:57satellite um what do you call it? Like a a GPS. Yeah. A GPS.

15:04You don't even have to bury the the wire.

15:06Exactly. Cuz what happened with ours after time, we had it running through the woods and the deer tripped over it.

15:13We didn't have it buried well in the woods. And you know, you start getting breaks in the wire and then it's a lot to maintain.

15:20It it's a pain to try to figure out where those are and deal with it. So,

15:26you know, a GPS you just plot out your place, you know, and Elliot recommends,

15:32you know, you have your food on one side of the farm and the shelter on the other. So, you're encouraging the dogs

15:40to kind of patrol the farm.

15:43Yeah. So, I think a combination between maybe a simple electric fence like this

15:50and um something where you're going to have dogs patrolling for your smaller animals

15:58um is a good way to go. And then finally, last resort,

16:03um, you know, we do have a shotgun that if we start having big issues with with

16:11rabbits or whatever, we will um start patrolling at night, pair down the population a little bit. Yeah.

16:21And, you know, I don't I don't like to do that. I'm a pacifist,

16:27as you well know. Um, but I'm not going to let the animals eat our our livelihood. You can't.

16:37Yeah. And on deer, I know at least once or twice we've had um a deer that just was like a just a total

16:46uh just a nuisance. Like figured out how to get through the fence. Just would not you like you could almost just run up to it and try to chase it off and it

16:54wouldn't move. the dogs were got to the point where they're scared of it because deer can actually be pretty aggressive if they stand up even to a dog, you

17:01know. We had we had a dog that got ripped open from a deer.

17:05And so sometimes you you may have to just take one out. And even if it's not in hunting season, you you can get permission from your local game wardens

17:14to to shoot a deer out of hunting season. And we've had to do that a couple of times for just deer that just were just

17:21completely uh out of their mind. not not cooperating with the program.

17:26So, all right. Before we wrap, I think there was Did we talk about pricing on this uh fencing because that might be something people are interested in.

17:36Um I know we talked about all the other perks. It's easy up, easy down, you know, easy to to relatively easy to maintain. Uh but cost,

17:45you know, I I should have looked at that recently. It's been quite a few years since I bought any, so I can't really

17:53speak to current pricing, but I know last time we bought it, it was still less than a dollar a foot.

18:01Okay.

18:02Um, it comes in either 100 ft rolls or 330t rolls, last I knew. Yeah.

18:09And you know, I think the 330 foot roll was $280 or something. I'm sure it's gone up.

18:16Yeah. But still it's cheap as far as fencing goes.

18:22Yeah. And this one does work well for a lot of the small rodents and you know pests and stuff.

18:27Yeah. You know although they we have had things chew through it. Yeah.

18:35So it's not a total solution but you know it's good for raccoons. Okay.

18:43Um, well, there's two good options here.

18:46This one we used for 20some plus years and more recently gone to a full electric. And I think that in hindsight,

18:56would you have gone to this electric perimeter sooner? Probably. Yeah, I would definitely cuz you know,

19:03you've got the work of taking the fence up and down, moving the Tposts and stuff here. And I think a lot of this electric

19:09fence technology also has uh become more uh well it's been improved and become

19:16more affordable over the last 10 or 15 years probably. So um yeah look into electric fence fence perimeter.

19:25That's a great way to go. Um,

19:29and just think long and hard about any kind of woven wire fence where you're going to have to be maintaining it. And specifically down at the ground, um,

19:41managing the weeds.

19:42I was at a friend's farm not too long ago trying to deal with an

19:498 foot high woven wire fence that had they hadn't maintained for four or five years. the vines had grown up and

19:58actually pulled the fence over and so we were spending hours and hours trying to

20:04get these vines out of the fence and you know if you weed eated along a woven wire fence you just eat up your string

20:13so quickly so it's I don't think it's a good solution and I know this video is going long here but

20:23um you remember our experience at Elliot Coleman 's farm with the vos. Mhm.

20:30Um, you know, he had fenced in his whole farm with a permanent fence and he started having a huge vo infestation.

20:41And his theory, and it makes a lot of sense to me, was that he had fenced out the predators.

20:48Yeah. And so there was nothing dealing with the VO population and they were they were a bit of a Yeah. Hope

20:58you've gotten some useful information out of this. Um couple different techniques for handling deer largely and other small pests. So if you have any

21:07other questions, feel free to reach out and we'll consider answering it in a future video. Until next time, happy growing.

21:15[Music]