How to Build Water Gaps for Cattle

Water gaps prevent cattle or other livestock from leaving pastures through stream or river channels. A water gap must keep cattle in the pasture, allow water flow and withstand the force of floating debris. Always check water gaps after a flood or high water flow and remove logs and other materials that are lodged against it. Otherwise the material will act as a dam, causing upstream areas to flood. Weight of the debris can also collapse the water gap.

Instructions

1

Build braces in the fence line on both banks of the stream or river. Set two eight-inch diameter, 10-foot-long posts approximately four feet into the ground and eight feet apart. Attach a four-inch-by-four-inch timber between the two posts and position it six inches from the top of each post. Loop barbed wire around the top of one post and the bottom of the other post. Twist the two wires together in the middle with a 1/2-inch diameter pipe, six-inches long, until they are tight. Leave the pipe in the wire.

2

Stretch a smooth electric fence wire across the creek or river and attach it to the brace posts with insulators. Position the wire at a height on the posts that allows it to be level over the river channel.

3

Install an electric fence charger on one of the brace posts. Connect a water cutoff switch between the charger and electric fence wire.

4

Hang strips of poly wire one foot apart from the electric wire. Leave the ends about eight inches above the the stream or river water level. The poly wire will carry 12 volts of electrical current unless the water rises and touches the ends. When water touches the wire, the current will be shut off by the switch.