This was formerly on my Dexter Cattle page, but I am cleaning my website and making it easier to navigate and understand. So I have moved it to a post for those who are curious.
My Starting Point
The year before I got my cattle I had bought the equipment to bale square bales. I originally had tried to get someone else to bale my property on shares with no luck. I decided if people were too lazy to make some money I would do it myself.
Eight hundred bales later I paid off all my additional equipment that first year and was a semi-experienced baler. The next year I started to pickup small fields and bale them on shares. My plan was to run as many cattle as possible on my land and having all their feed come from off farm is essentially an increase in the size of my property.
I sold the excess hay and kept what I would need for my own cattle. I was in a good position to buy and having just went full time self employed I was ready to add cattle. I don’t know of a better investment than cattle, only land compares. Worst case scenario cattle will keep you fed that’s something gold or silver might not be able to do.
Even though I had decided on Dexter cattle my first three cattle were an oddball assortment. A Jersey steer, an Angus heifer and a Holstein heifer. They were my teachers and I learned a lot.
For my limited land there was no question that the best method for me would be an intensive rotational grazing system. I wanted to raise my cattle as naturally as possible on a grass diet. I wanted milk and good quality meat with as few expenses as possible.
My Setup
I have tried three different electric fence posts before deciding the Sunguard II step in fiberglass fence post with built in clips was the best for me. The runner up was the black poly fence posts. I like the Sunguard posts because of the clip design. The black poly posts seem to be weaker and the clip design is a pain. After taking down a big paddock my finger tips would be sore from pulling the clips back to remove the wire from the posts. I could just pull the wire out, but it likes to catch the small stainless wires when I
do that. The Sungaurd posts also have two clips on each spot, one on the front and another on the back. In case one clip is broken you have a backup.
One drawback to the step in posts is dry weather. When you go through a dry spell the ground can be so hard you cannot use the step in posts, and for that reason I keep some metal rebar posts that can be hammered into hard ground. It is a slower process than the step in post, but if you need to go to another paddock and the ground is hard it is an option.
I use a Parmak Magnum 12v fence charger and have a backup just in case. There are fancier fence chargers out there but this one does just fine and has 
never let me down.
I originally thought that solid aluminum wire would be the most durable choice for electric fence wire. With some experience I have changed my mind about that. The aluminum wire is able to carry more electricity but fails in many ways when used in a rotating paddock system. It is harder to roll up, it likes to kink and it will often break when you undo the kink. It is also harder to splice then the other styles. I have since decided the fiberglass line with stainless wire strands works better for me. Now I just need to decide which is the best variety and brand of that wire.
For water I cut a 55 gallon drum in half and put a valve in it to automatically fill it. I put a spigot towards the bottom so I can just drain it to move when I switch to another paddock. I run 1/4 Poly hose to the valve. If I had more cattle this wouldn’t supply enough water, but I am not there yet. I originally had the spigot on the outside, but the cattle would step on it, so I moved it to the inside of the tank. I cut a piece of pipe in half and screwed it around the float valve as a shield to prevent the cattle from hurting the valve. (I now use a 275 gallon IBC tote to transport water and several 300 gallon tanks in my setup as well as built in water drinks on the farm)
