You'll get a big fat kiss on both cheeks if you can answer this question!

When you live in the countryside you sort of expect farm animals to stick their heads under/through fences and have a taste of what they can reach to be quite honest. To build fences tall/solid enough to keep cattle from encroaching would cost a fortune and while electric fencing would have helped on this occaasion it often breaks down and farmers round here don't tend to use it much.
I prefer to keep on good terms with my neighbours as you never know when you might need their help. My neighbouring farmer has always been quick to clear our road with his tractor if we have had a big fall of snow, ok for his benefit but he also clears further than he needs to for our benefit. If we had to wait for the council snowplough we'd have a long wait!
A big branch from 1 of our trees broke and bust the fence further up the hill and the farmer fixed it and didn't charge us a penny so it's very much take the rough with the smooth. We like to have good relations with our neighbours and accept when some of the farm animals are a bit naughty

 

Alternatively you could buy a bag of rabbit hay and feed the cows some sweet, top quality meadow hay, which is what I do when we have cows in the field next to back garden. It goes down rather well. Last year they were waiting for me to appear. Can't guarantee it will prevent noshing on your hedge though.

 

Bullocks will eat Pyracantha and berberis but it is just the new shoots (They do it here)

Is it two/threestrands of barbed wire or sheep wire with a single strand of barid wire?

More strands of barbed wire is needed so that they can't get there heads through as it looks like they may not get there heads over yet
The gap beween the barbed wire at the top of the fence would be better at 6 inch spacing and be very tight if wire is slack the animals will get there head beween the strands of wire
You could also put up a barb wire fence on your side about six inches in and the wire at different spacings to the farmers one may help

Or you could ask the farmer to get some better grass for them to eat
Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

also it wouldn't be the same bullocks so they may not know there is better things to eat
Also it's the farmers responsibity to fence his cattle from getting into your property (tis the law) not sure if that will mean sticking head through

Holy and mahona they wouldn't eat

 

Here's a suggestion from NZ, silu.....Have you got dogs?
Re: Cattle proof plants???
March 15, 2006 04:15PM Registered: 11 years ago
Posts: 817
Hope you're not eating right now 'cos this suggestion is pretty gross but it does work. A farmer friend used to mix dog poo with water in a bucket till it was all liquid and then he'd paint the trees with it, trust me, the cattle never gave those trees a second glance even when grazing in the 'tree' paddock.

 

You obviously know a bit about farming @Jiffy! Yes well spotted the fencing is really only suitable for sheep rather than cattle, the field is now rented from my neighbour who doesn't have cattle so the fencing was never intended to be cattle proof now srickly speaking probably should be. It's was odd that the cows and calves didn't pay any attention to what was over the fence but the bullocks did. Also it was late in the season so no doubt the grass wasn't as good so they spied my "offerings".
I think I'm going to try the Elder test and see if the cattle find that appealing. If they do then perhaps I will just have to accept that I am better keeping the back of the bed low, below the reach of stretched necks. There is an ancient dry stone wall between us and the fence but it is in a pretty sorry state and I am far too old to start rebuilding it as some of the stones are muckle great boulders!
Agree that a farmer has to ensure that his animals don't get onto The Queen's highway etc but heads through fences I am not so sure about. Our horse sticks his head through another similar fence and "prunes" our Beech hedge! he also eats (carefully) Gorse come to think of it and the tops of field thistles too so even being megga prickly doesn't always deter.
I have lots and lots of Helebores in various parts of the garden and my collection has increased recently thanks to @JWK! I am tempted to put them all along the fence line to flower now but stay pretty much evergreen and then plant taller herbaceous infront of them to flower in the summer when the Helebores are not doing much. I think I will try a section like that and see what it looks like.

 

OMG I had been enjoying my Sunday breakfast! No we don't have dogs atm but do have cats and neighbour down the road has 2 huge dogs. However......... this is a little extreme perhapsand I'm not sure i would enjoy walking along the path by said border if I attempted this remedy!

 

Noisette's post got me thinking, Bordeaux mixture was originally put together in a grape farmer's shed as a deterrent to stop folk nicking his grapes where they grew at the side of the road. He just picked a few things that he thought would make them taste bad, copper sulphate and lime.

It did stop folk nicking the grapes, but he also noticed the vines he sprayed didn't get mildew like the rest of them.

 

You could ask the farmer to put up more barb wire (but i think he/she may want you to pay for it ) or go halfs on more wire

If cattle get the liking to your greens and they can't reach any more with they're tongues they will push harder against the fence and they may get in this is what you must stop

If i get a kiss on both cheeks no sloppy ones please!

 

The bullocks may have been short of some minerals but found them in your hedge

and nieghbouring farmer fields and gardens

 

Just be carefull of the worms in the dog poo, if cattle or sheep eat grass with the larve on it it will then go through the animal and go to the brain, which is knowen as worm on the brain, it's worst in sheep than cattle only use poo from dogs that have been wormed

 

I've just been given by my neighbour the telephone number of the farmer who rents next door/has the Aberdeen Angus. He's quite young so just might be slightly more amenable than the old knarled ones around these parts whose faces would split if they smiled!
I'll give him a bell and see what he says to the matter. He needs to put back some of the fencing pins which pinged off when the bullocks decended. I will certainly suggest @Jiffy that if he can get another couple of strands of barbed wire added to the section where the bed is then happy to go halvers with him and after all the fence is 1/2 ours.....unfortunately! I'll try to be as tactful as possible and hopefully my powers of persuasion will work. Still need to find something to replace the Artemesia as extra strands should stop the cattle getting their heads through the fence but not over the top of it obviously. I did actually think they just might break the fence when the incident happened as they were barging each other out of the way to get to the goodies

...cheek how dare you even imagine i could give such things.
I will try and do some homework on The Bordeaux Mixture idea @Zigs thanks.The bed has quite a few Lupins in it and they can get powery mildew so they would appreciate a dusting. I wouldn't want to spray anything which might be really harmful to the cattle as they don't know how annoying they have been but if the young farmer is being less than helpful I might mutter something about spraying stuff which might not do them much good, a touch of blackmail does wonders on occasions I have discovered over the years.

 

If the fence is half yours, then is it not the case that his livestock has damaged your half of the fence too?

 

Shouldn't hurt the moo moo's @silu as they won't like the taste of it but you'd have to re apply it after all that glacial meltwater washes it off.

Might be better off with an electric fence