Livestock Fencing Laws

There have been disputes over livestock fences between landowners for as long as we have been trying to keep livestock fences between landowners.  The first fencing law in Missouri came in 1808, more than a decade before statehood. Since then, the Missouri legislature has created three separate acts regarding a livestock owner’s responsibilities to contain animals. These successive revisions to the law may not necessarily provide incremental clarification for affected livestock owners.

Today, some laws obligating neighboring landowners to pay for and maintain border fences to contain livestock may be satisfied by simple mutual oral agreement between the neighboring landowners while other situations may require statutorily defined intervening “fence viewers” chosen by a circuit judge to resolve disputes.

Further complicating a livestock owner’s good faith attempt to understand and follow a uniform set of fence laws in Missouri is the fact that there is not a uniform set of fence laws in Missouri. In fact, there are two completely different sets of statutes which dictate the rules regarding which neighbor must pay to build or maintain border fences, consequences for those who fail to pay their share, and regarding a livestock owner’s duty to keep their animals from trespassing on a neighbor’s property.

The statutes which will apply to a particular landowner differ, and depend solely upon which county the land is located. The voters in each county in Missouri have the right to select, in a special or general election, which set of fencing statutes, will apply in their county. If an election yields a successful vote in favor of adoption, the county is referred to as having selected the “local option” set of statutory fence laws. However, if the county has never placed the issue on a ballot, or if a ballot measure fails, that county will follow the default Missouri statutes.

Petitions to place such a measure on a ballot can be completed with as few as 100 signatures from landowners in that county. Generally, the rules regarding cost sharing for building border fences are similar in both statutory options with the primary differences surrounding when and how a neighboring landowner resisting paying for part of a new border fence is handled.

The implications of damages resulting from livestock trespass on neighboring land are also   similar in some respects under both the default and local option statutes. Upon the first offense, the livestock owner shall pay for any actual damages created by the trespassing animal. After any subsequent trespass the animal may be taken up and cared for by the land owner and reasonable costs for doing so must be paid by the neighboring livestock owner.

The primary difference between the two statutory systems is that in the default statutes these consequences for livestock trespass apply only when the livestock break over or through the border fence arriving on and damaging the neighboring landowners property, whereas in the local option, the consequences apply regardless of the path taken by the animal which arrives on the neighbors land. Contact your county clerk to find out if your county has adopted the local option.

(By Vern Pierce, PhD, JD, Associate Extension Professor of Ag Law, Business & Economics)