You've got a piece of land and a dream to keep some livestock, but your place doesn't have good fences ? not yet, anyway. Here's the lowdown on the three main types of livestock fencing: woven wire, barbed wire and high-tensile electric and nonelectric wire.

1. WOVEN WIRE ? Perfect for containing cattle, sheep, goats and horses, this fencing uses interconnecting horizontal and vertical wire to form a grid. It costs about $1,500/quarter mile and sometimes has a single strand of barbed wire on top.

Ongoing maintenance required: replacing and resetting staples, retensioning corners.
Pros: strong, secure and relatively attractive.
Cons: highest initial cost, most maintenance required.

2. BARBED WIRE ? This type of fencing consists of strands of wire laced with sharp barbs to create a 'prickly' fence line, and costs about $1,100/quarter mile.

Ongoing maintenance required: retensioning and mending breaks.
Pros: lighter and less expensive than woven wire, and a greater physical deterrent to cattle, which sometimes push down unbarbed fences.
Cons: aggressive appearance; can be dangerous for children, livestock and wildlife; not adequate for containing sheep and goats.

3. HIGH-TENSILE ELECTRIC AND NONELECTRIC WIRE ? This type of fencing is a series of smooth wires loosely fastened to posts that offer vertical support, but still permit the wires to slide back and forth so they can be kept tight. This fencing can be electrified or not. The electric kind is slightly less expensive (about $700/quarter mile) than nonelectric (about $1,000/quarter mile), because posts don't have to be spaced as close.

Ongoing maintenance required: retensioning wires, reinstalling wire anchors and retightening corner braces.
Pros: easy installation and maintenance; attractive appearance.
Cons: High tensile non-electric is only appropriate for horses and mules. The electric kind requires more maintenance (checking electric chargers and ground rods), but it has good containment performance for almost any kind of livestock.

Learn more about fence building in Steve Maxwell's 'Fencing for the Homestead' article in the Feb/March 2006 issue of Mother Earth News.