You mean free-grazers versus land-owners? This is one of my favourites: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316356/

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I am going to start by fencing off the springs, then restoring the perimeter fence can become a long-term project.

You'll need a winch to get the wire taut. That said, barbed wired is a deterrent but it won't stop thirsty cattle from getting to water they have accessed in the past.

I'm in the process of fencing off potions of my backyard to form a child safe play area. A few lessons learned:

1) Post pounders are A LOT easier to use then sledge hammers. More so on those tall narrow "U" and T" posts. About 20 lbs seems to be the magic number for a manual pounder. Hearing protection required.

2) If you're planting more then a few posts, get a powered post driver. You'll still need a manual pounder for places you can't get a vehicle, but you won't kill youself planting 600-700 posts per mile.

If your dealing with rocky soil get a San Angelo bar. Commonly called called a digging bar. It has a chisel tip and a point. Works like a charm on rocks (breaking and levering out) It 16-17 lbs of steel. Just my .02.

A darn good tool. I first used one on a project repairing some historic dry masonry. We were dealing with rocks weighing 100 lbs.and up. I got a couple just to have handy. I expect they will be useful cleaning up after the next earthquake.

I'd just say to each neighbor, "Hey, how 'bout you give me one cow per year to butcher/freeze/cook, and you can graze the rest for free?" 260 acres ... man, that's a mess-o-fence to have to build. Maybe I'm just too lazy to build that much fence, but unless those cows were coming and jumping into my swimming pool, I'd just let them be. It would be different if you needed the land for grazing your own cattle, but that doesn't sound like the case here.