STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann,

UNL Extension Educator, Webster County

April 23, 2011 Edition

Before I even start thinking about this week’s discussion, I have to comment on the “God Send” we got this past week. Most of our area got a very much needed reprieve from above. It is amazing what 2-4 inches of rain can do to quench the thirst of our land and the organisms that depend upon it. I think most everyone that lives in south central Nebraska and northern Kansas knows that we have been very dry. I was starting to think that we were on the verge of losing our wheat crop, not to disease or winter kill, but to lack of moisture. It also looked like grazing season was going to get a late start and we would be short on grass. It is amazing what a good drenching rain and a week will do. The wheat has “exploded”. Those pitiful looking wheat fields are coming back like gangbusters, as are the pastures.

I am not so naïve to not recognize that this could shut off again. But it sure feels good right now, but this rain and cool weather since, is starting to make some of our corn farmers a little nervous. Some had corn planted before this moisture event, and I kid those guys that maybe they need to run the planter back over the planted fields and deliver little “kernel coats” to keep the seed warm and viable. I am sure the soil temp is back into the “too cool” category. That being said I am always reminded that even when the early planted corn hits this kind of weather, and takes forever to emerge, it still seems to yield better than later planted corn. Either way you certainly see tractors and planters at the ready and farmers nervously keeping one eye on the calendar and the other on the sky or perhaps the thermometer.

This time of year not only brings planting season, but the time to work the cows and calves, going around pasture fences, and pretty much seeing to the business of the cow/calf operation. I remember from a very young age fencing chores, and quite honestly, I volunteered for that duty many times, because I really didn’t enjoy sitting on a tractor all that much. I spent a lot of time with fencing pliers, barbed wire, posthole diggers and lots of recycled – rusty and bent - fencing staples or “steeples” as my grandfather called them. Everyone in those days knew they had to keep up their fences. Times have changed and so has the principles of fencing and even the Nebraska Fence Laws. The old law had not changed much for decades but has evolved over the years and just one year ago Governor Dave Heineman signed LB 667 which clarified the pre-existing “new” 2007 fence law. I actually have had two queries this past couple of months on fences and the rules that apply, and with the “fencing” season upon us I think it good to take a look at these clarifications.
There are two basic types of fence laws in the U.S.: “fence-in” and “fence-out.” The difference between them lies in who ostensibly benefits from a fence. Nebraska is a “fence-in” state and law requires livestock producers to confine their livestock. Historically, neighbors have maintained division fences regardless if each are confining livestock or not. For more than a century, disputes over fencing were solved by a group of three people (county fence viewer committee) who would determine how specific adjoining landowners would share costs for maintaining a fence. In 2007, that process was replaced; landowners were to resolve disputes through lawsuits filed in county court or by mediation.
With the erosion of number of cattle in many areas of the state and of course the resulting loss of pastures, fences have been relegated to the category of a “pain in the southern region of the body”. I think this evolution was having an unfortunate affect on livestock producers and their neighbors. The value of LB 667 and the clarification is that it is designed to “relieve an undue burden on livestock producers when it comes to division fences”.


In practice, neighboring landowners who both owned livestock usually split maintenance costs evenly. The easiest and most common method was the “right-hand rule,” under which each landowner would maintain the fence “to the right” of a specified center point (landowner’s right as he faced the other). Challenges have arisen when one property owner does not have livestock and felt they were not required to contribute to the maintenance of a division fence, thus LB 667.
LB 677 establishes clear legislative intent in the changes in resolving fencing disputes at any level. It generally requires the person benefiting from a fence to bear the burden of building and maintaining, but clarifies that the responsibility will be borne in “just proportion” to the benefit received by the fence. For example, a division fence between cattle grazing property and a crop field is the responsibility of the livestock owner since he is required by law to confine his livestock. However, there is some benefit to the crop property owner helping to maintain the fence that protects his crop. In a dispute, the new legislation would allow the mediator to apply a just proportion to the maintenance of the division fence rather than it simply being construed that the livestock owner bears the entire burden.

In essence, the bill amended the 1943 and 2007 Nebraska’s fence law to require neighboring landowners to share equally the cost of building and maintaining a four-wire barbed wire fence between their properties. Landowners can opt-out entirely and have no fence at all, or can choose a different division of costs or a different type of fence. But if they cannot agree, informally or through mediation, then a court will order them to split the cost of a barbed wire fence 50-50.

I believe it was Robert Frost who wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.” This clarification of the Nebraska Fence Law may help in making that a reality. I keep thinking….would I still volunteer to go fix the fence. Don’t even ask!

The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: www.webster.unl.edu/home