Sept. 21 webinar corrals legal issues of fences and livestock

 By Mary Hightower

U of A System Division of Agriculture

Sept. 13, 2022 

Fast facts

• Fence law front and center in Sept. 21 webinar
• No cost to attend; online registration available
• Webinar is 11 a.m. Central/Noon Eastern

AMARILLO, Texas — A fence is more than just posts and strands of wire; it’s the foundation of a whole class of laws about property, range and stray animals and the rights and responsibilities of ranchers.

The laws will be front and center Sept. 21 during a webinar hosted by the National Agricultural Law Center, titled “Fence Laws: Corralling Legal Issues and Livestock.” There is no cost to attend, and registration is available online. The hourlong webinar begins at 11 a.m. Central.

“What happens when a cow gets loose? Who foots the bill for maintaining fences between properties?” said Rusty Rumley, senior staff attorney with the National Agricultural Law Center.

“Fence laws aren’t particularly glamorous, but they are integral to the livestock industry.”

The webinar features Rumley and Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, agricultural law specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

“Questions about fence law are one of the most common phone calls I get in my role as an extension specialist in Texas,” she said. “It is also one of the areas I have found there to be the most misunderstanding of the law.”

Cody Burkham, executive vice president of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, said

“it is imperative that landowners and livestock producers know and understand all applicable fence laws.

“This knowledge ensures that everyone involved knows their rights and responsibilities to their neighbors and livestock,” Burkham said. “I look forward to the National Ag Law Center covering this intricate but important topic."

For information about the National Agricultural Law Center, visit https://nationalaglawcenter.org/  or follow @Nataglaw on Twitter.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

About the National Agricultural Law Center

The National Agricultural Law Center serves as the nation’s leading source of agricultural and food law research and information. The Center works with producers, state and federal policymakers, Congressional staffers, attorneys, land grant universities, and many others to provide objective, nonpartisan agricultural and food law research and information to the nation’s agricultural community.

The Center is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and works in close partnership with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library.