The importance of fencing your farm dams

Mark and Jacqui Schmidt were one of last years’ recipients of the Gallagher Landcare Electric Fencing Grant. Their farm in Yackandandah, VIC, needed dam fencing to create a buffer zone for water filtration that allows their livestock to consume clean water, convert feed, and improve their performance overall.

In March 2023, they hosted an information day on fencing farm dams, in conjunction with their local Landcare group, ANU Sustainable Farms, and Gallagher Australia.

The information day was documented by Tim Thompson, who interviewed Mark and Jacqui, and key speakers at the event.

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Mark and Jacqui have used a combination of Gallagher fencing products to fence the waterways on their property. They had used electric fencing before, so were familiar with the benefits.

In an area with lots of trees and where their cattle were grazing, they used Insulated Line Posts (ISPs) and braid around their dam. As a semi-permanent solution, this allows them to easily fix the fence if a branch falls on it, or if one of their animals decides to challenge the fence.

They were able to install the fencing themselves, and with the ISP’s holding fast in the ground, the fence hasn’t moved despite heavy rainfall in the area. Mark and Jacqui were able to build this fence around existing fencing, maintaining their existing paddock sizes without changing any of their infrastructure.

Fencing dams is a cost-effective and easy way to increase livestock productivity and biodiversity on-farm.

Gallagher Business Development Manager for Fence, Graeme Mulligan, spoke at the event to the merits of electric fencing. He is particularly knowledgeable of the benefits of fencing farm dams; his fathers’ farm saw an immediate weight gain increase in his sheep by fencing their dam and improving the quality of their drinking water.

The benefits of increasing the quality of water on-farm are huge.

Often there is a resistance to fence around dams, as it reduces the available grazing area for livestock, however, up to 17% of your land mass can be fenced for the purposes of a dam filtering zone without losing any on-farm productivity. Healthy water = healthy livestock.

ANU Sustainable Farms is an organisation branching from the ANU that for over 20 years has been focused on biodiversity research. Their research collaborates with farmers face-to-face, resulting in powerful and applicable findings.

Recently, they’ve been doing a lot of work around farm dams, how water quality impacts biodiversity and foliage recovery, and how best to manage farm dams to increase livestock productivity.

Thanks to the Yackandandah Landcare Group who organised the event, bringing together a team of organisations doing great work in the farm dam fencing space, researching the benefits of water conservation, and sharing the results.

It’s exciting to see the real-life benefits of the Gallagher Landcare Electric Fencing Grant. Applications for this year’s grants have now closed but keep an eye out for further information on next year’s grants on our website.

You can watch the full video below: