Educating the next generation of farmers

Malcolm Blackford from Tornado caught up with Shrewsbury based fencing contractor Sam Hamer of Hamer Fencing Ltd who has just completed 7,500m of livestock fencing, which is part of a 30,000m project at the College.

Sam said ‘With Reaseheath developing the next generation of farmers, it seemed only right we should be using the latest technologies and materials when fencing on the farm. With this in mind, for the majority of the fencing project we are using Tornado Torus Lambsafe installed on Tornado Clipex with the new Tornado Pro-Strain metal straining system, as well as traditional timber posts in some sections”.

We asked Sam what he thought of the new Pro-Strain System. ‘It was far easier and quicker to install than timber and given its longevity is definitely something I would like to work with in the future. I was slightly concerned how steel posts would look in an agricultural setting, but I was pleasantly surprised how it blends in with the background. I particularly like the different size breast plates available, the ground conditions vary throughout the farm and I was able to select larger plates when working in softer ground conditions. The adjustable struts also work really well, with 200mm of adjustment it enables you to avoid obstacles like tree roots when installing the strut pegs. Pro-strain gives you the ability to pre-load tension onto the straining posts, which you just can’t do with timber”.   

Whilst on site some of the students were participating in an estate management course, Sam went over the principles and importance of installing fences to the correct standard and showed the students how to tie and join wire. Several of the students picked this up very quickly and may well become our next generation of fencing contractors.