I've got 20 acres that I cut for hay twice a year, and my neighbor runs about a dozen beef cattle on the property adjacent to mine. Our properties share probably 400 feet of fence line.
Over the past months, his cows have broken through the fence three separate times and gotten into my hay field, the first time I just helped him round them up and we fixed the fence together, no big deal. Second time was more annoying because they'd been in there overnight and really trampled a section before I noticed and now it just happened again last week
The fence along that section is old barbed wire that's his responsibility based on the property surveys. I've mentioned a few times that it needs serious work but he keeps just patching the spots where they break through instead of replacing the whole run. I don't want to cause drama because we generally get along fine and I might need his help with equipment or whatever in the future
But I'm starting to lose hay production in that area and I'm worried about liability if one of his cows gets hurt on my property or causes damage and plus my second cutting is coming up in a few weeks and I don't want to deal with this again.
I've been thinking about how to handle this with least fuss as possible, should I just put up my own fence inside the property line and eat the cost? I'm trying to be a good neighbor but I also need to protect my hay operation.
Over the past months, his cows have broken through the fence three separate times and gotten into my hay field, the first time I just helped him round them up and we fixed the fence together, no big deal. Second time was more annoying because they'd been in there overnight and really trampled a section before I noticed and now it just happened again last week
The fence along that section is old barbed wire that's his responsibility based on the property surveys. I've mentioned a few times that it needs serious work but he keeps just patching the spots where they break through instead of replacing the whole run. I don't want to cause drama because we generally get along fine and I might need his help with equipment or whatever in the future
But I'm starting to lose hay production in that area and I'm worried about liability if one of his cows gets hurt on my property or causes damage and plus my second cutting is coming up in a few weeks and I don't want to deal with this again.
I've been thinking about how to handle this with least fuss as possible, should I just put up my own fence inside the property line and eat the cost? I'm trying to be a good neighbor but I also need to protect my hay operation.
