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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Agroterrorism

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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Agroterrorism
  • Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 19:04:14 -0600

David Inglis wrote:
> Are you saying it is a property owners legal obligation to
> keep other peoples livestock out rather than the livestock owners
> obligation to keep them at home?

Yes. We have the shared rule law that requires neighbors to each do 50% of
their property boundaries. You will see half way on each boundary the
typical "H" brace so that each neighbor does half ... usually the right hand
rule applies, but in reading the law it appears that the neighbors can
decide to work out which half.

By the same token, if a neighbor decides not to cooperate, the neighbor who
wants to fence can go ahead and install it or have it installed and bill the
other neighbor and if the neighbor fails to pay, can then go to small claims
court, etc.

Although it is not in the law, and I have had a lawyer/grazier pooh pooh it,
the fact is that some judges will also consider whether or not you had a
"legal" fence when it involves an accident from one of your livestock and a
vehicle.

This happened to a grazier friend of mine when some of his cattle got out of
a two wire electrified fence. The judge asked "was this a legal fence," and
the defendant said yes. The judge said something like, "This is Wisconsin
.... Wisconsin has cows ... cows can get out ... case dismissed."

If he did not have a legal fence, he would not have had such an easy time.
Most farmers in our region most definitely do not have legal fences in many
cases, and are taking some big liability risks in my view.

We have had a number of farmers, including graziers (including the guy who
had the cattle get out) tease us about our overly secure fences, but the
truth is they are just barely legal and in some cases, due to
misinterpreting the law, which is written, shall we say charitably, in a
most amateurish way. But basically for most practical fences that are not
electrified, we need four wires spaced one foot apart with the top wire at 4
feet and posts spaced no further than 15 feet with barbed wire and 20 feet
if using high tensile wire.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Direct marketed dairy beef and produce
(also dairy heifers and beef stockers)
Viroqua, WI







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