The ranches need investment in water, fences, barns, roads and corrals to care for the land and the animals. It has been said that before electric fences, a cattle rancher might spend 40% of their work time maintaining and building fences.
Fencing
The original fences on Freestone Ranch are probably more the 50 years old. On Bay Hill, they may be a bit younger. We have experimented with various types of fence over the years. Our latest design is a simple two wire electric fence for dividing pastures. New calves occasionally slip through but it’s very reliable for the bigger animals. We built 22,000′ feet of two wire electric fence at Bay Hill Ranch in the first two years.
Water
Cattle need water in every pasture you use for rotational grazing. With both Freestone Ranch and Bay Hill Ranch, the cattle drank water direct from creeks and ponds on the ranch before we started managing them. We have installed miles of water lines and many water troughs so we can exclude the cattle from creeks, rotate them through different pastures and provide them clean fresh water. On Freestone Ranch, we have installed water tanks and 12,000′ of water lines over the years. On Bay Hill Ranch we installed 6,500′ of water lines a tank and a pumping system to get water from the main pond to the top of the hill in the first two years there.
Barns
We have built an equipment barn and a hay barn at Freestone Ranch. Building barns ourselves makes them affordable for the ranch and helps us learn new skills.
Hay Barn
The hay barn provides a place to store hay and keep it at it’s highest quality through the wet winters.
Equipment Barn
The equipment barn gives us a place to store the tools and materials needed to improve and maintain the ranches.
