[Closed] What's the point of barbed wire?

Absolutely terrible film .

I'm sure that if you really try you can think of lots of uses for it .

Barbed wire is far from pointless...

Save it for the battlefield but I'm sure someone more well versed in livestock managment will have a better idea of it's benefits.There's a couple of footpaths near me where the barbed wire is exactly at the height of my 6 year old daughter's eyes.Whenever I'm riding and spot barbed wire I bizarrely worry about it ripping my coat rather than my flesh.

Wrap some around a stick to improvise a post apocalyptic zombie weapon.

good for rubbing an itchy hind on?

Make awesome tattoos

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I blame [s] Wiggle[/s] Joseph Glidden in 1873.

Sad but true, as soon as i saw the thread title, i was back at Calday Grange Grammar School recalling a History lesson on The American West. The useless info you remember from ~30 years ago! 😳

It's there as a deterrent, to indicate to humans that it's around some place they have no business going, and it's going to make life as awkward as possible. Razor wire is a little over the top for rural use. It will discourage livestock as well, they have thicker skins than 'umans, and electric fences are often more effective, but the point both are making is that what's on the other side of the fence is somewhere neither livestock or unauthorised people have a right to be.
Something I would have thought it wasn't really necessary to have to explain.
But then, I've spent my entire life where barbed wire surrounds fields, and didn't need it explaining other than 'you stay on [i]this[/i] side of the wire'.

It's really only for cattle, they work out what the barbs are for when they push against it. If you use plain wire they'll just put their head down and keep walking, and they are seriously powerful animals. Sheeps need sheep-netting obviously, and deers deer-netting. Horses are better with post and rail or electric tape. I've done a bit of erecting in my time. Hope this helps.
Oh and humans have pliers and bolt croppers.

Typed like a true townie.

Deer tend not to "leap" over fences or walls, so long as they aren't being chased they sort of flop over them using as little energy as possible. The family farm was next to a large conifer plantation with a resident herd of deer - it was quite obvious when they'd visited as there'd be a line of wall gaps leading to and from the woodland even in relatively low walls.

Quite often used to stop people walking on footpaths round here.

I think it's mostly to keep people out but slightly better visibility over plain wire might actually reduce injury to animals, as plain wire will just slice. Barbed wire won't do that, partly because of the twist.

Can't really help though, grew up on a farm with 50+ horses and the first thing we was strip out barbed wire and replace it with electric fence.

Might be necessary for cattle, come to think of it, they're thick as shit.

I assume sheep, cows, deer, even dogs don't have the brain power to work out what barbed wire is

Cattle and dogs are much smarter than you give them credit for. Cattle quickly learn to spot when an electric fence is turned off and will walk right through it. When it's turned on, they will stay clear. They understand barbed wire perfectly.

It's

there as a deterrent, to indicate to humans that it's around some place they have no business going

How are the gulags these days?

Use to see a big ram up the pentlands who had barbed wire wrapped around him. Tried to help him out but he was having none of it.

Saw him on many an occasion, didnt seem bothered in the slightest. Probably a good defence against the local wolf population...or openminded doggers

Depending on the type of wire it's incredibly effective at spooking and stopping horses. It's effectiveness against cavalry charges and the resulting loss of mobility arguably was one of the major contributing factors to the horror of the western front in WWI.

I can only assume it was caused by barbed wire as it leapt a fence.

You not very imaginative, then?

For putting in your underpants

Mostly used on the top to keep cattle in, as mentioned above, they'll just walk through plain gauge. They also like it for a good scratch.
Barb on the bottom is normally a badger line. Not always ideal for them to be mixing with cattle, but mostly in sheep areas because they create escape points for lambs where they push netting up and dig under.

A stock fence is designed to keep stock in, which don't regularly jump. If you want to keep deer in/out you need a 10' fence. No top barb required.

Barb is also able to be strained to a far higher tension than stock netting. Oddly, we find the really thin stuff better than the tick stuff.

Razor wire on the boundary of Center Parcs Sherwood is one of visual highlights of the ride into the pines.

I made a fence with the stuff last week.... it's for making holes in my jumper 😡

(the fence was to deter Jo Public so I left the barbed wire slack to make it harder to climb over, taught wire is easy)

You say that animal's dont have the intelligence, but my dog got 'stung' by an eleectric fence as a puppy and was scared of them for the rest of her life, so they do remember.

Can't see an issue with it (so long as fencing kept well maintained so there aren't loose lengths lying around which you see too often, but that applies to all wire)

My uncles dog got stung by electric fence to and was also scared for the rest of its life, but not scared of the fence but scared of the electric cows that had been standing right on the other side of fence.

Barbed wire completely revolutionised farming because it stops cattle from rubbing on the fence and breaking it down. End of.

there's an episode of the "99% invisible" podcast all about barbed wire.

Interesting. Worth looking up - titled "Devil's Rope"

Also used as telephone cable in areas of the US when people realised they'd connected the farms up already by putting the fences in.

Here it is, with a written article if you'd rather read:

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/devils-rope/

And if you're ever in McLean, Texas: http://www.barbwiremuseum.com/

Many years ago we were working in one of the fields that had turnips planted as feed for lambs prior to market. The lambs would be kept in place by electric netting that we'd move when they'd eaten the current(sic) area. At one point my dad said, "here, watch this" and pointed across the field.

My brother's sheepdog had noticed the lambs and was approaching the fence in stalking mode. He got closer and closer until inevitably his whiskers touched a couple of the strands of wire. There was a huge yelp and he shot across the field and sat shaking by the far wall wondering what the hell had zapped him!

I don't think he went near the fence again.