Fence question - barb wire or cattle panels?

[NonTypicalCPA]

My pasture started out as a horse pasture and when my daughter came to her senses, with a big push from dad, it turned into my cattle pasture. I fenced my original pasture and dry lot with poly rope, three hot and one ground. It's hot and the cattle respect it. My only escapees are the days old calves as they learn the electric fence, and usually they go through the fence in the congested area of the dry lot.

I've been thinking of adding a physical barrier to my existing 4 strands of poly rope. I'm thinking either a few strands of barb wire or cattle panels. My existing posts are treated wood spaced at 30'. The barb wire would be the easiest and cheapest to run, with only needing to add fence stays, if even that. The cattle panels would require some additional posts at the mid-point of the existing posts, but would probably be safer for the calves. What is everyone's thoughts on this?

If the recommendation is to go with barb wire, can I run them on the outside of the posts, which would be the opposite side of the post from the poly rope. This would create about a 6" gap between the poly rope on the inside and the barb on the outside. Any chance a wayward calf could get "caught" in this gap?

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

Here is a picture showing my current fence in the background.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

Any braces involved? 30' is a stretch for barbed wire. A 6" gap between barbed wire and a hot wire could be a painful entrapment. Cattle panels and more posts will cost as much or more than starting over with a good net wire or proper barbed wire fence. What about stripping the bottom three lines of poly rope off, brace it good, add a post in between the existing line posts, and stretch some net wire under the hot line? You could even skip the add a post part if you wanted.

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

Not a closeup but you can see my bracing in this picture. Plenty strong to stretch any wire. I could run barb wire on the same side as the poly, just split the distance between the poly strands.

 

[JW IN VA]

Any braces involved? 30' is a stretch for barbed wire. A 6" gap between barbed wire and a hot wire could be a painful entrapment. Cattle panels and more posts will cost as much or more than starting over with a good net wire or proper barbed wire fence. What about stripping the bottom three lines of poly rope off, brace it good, add a post in between the existing line posts, and stretch some net wire under the hot line? You could even skip the add a post part if you wanted.

Or maybe run some hi tensile smooth strands in between the ropes with a steel t post between the posts there.Use insulators on the rope and clamp the wire onto the posts for a good ground. They will respect the hot wire better.Never tried it but seems right.

 

[M.Magis]

Newborn calves will still go through my tight barbed wire fences, even with 8" spacing. Staggering barbed and hot sounds like a really bad idea to me. I suspect its a matter of when, not if, a calf gets stuck.

 

[greybeard]

Or maybe run some hi tensile smooth strands in between the ropes with a steel t post between the posts there.Use insulators on the rope and clamp the wire onto the posts for a good ground. They will respect the hot wire better.Never tried it but seems right.

I kind of did that to keep calves in...I already had 5 strand barbed wire, but went back and between the each bottom 3 barb strands, I ran a strand of HT 12ga .....and TIGHT!
But, I already had plenty of tee posts between the braces.

 

[snoopdog]

Your bracing looks good , run the barbed on the same side and add a few t post , you'll have it licked .

 

[ddd75]

i would leav eit alone. those calves know where to go.

 

[sstterry]

Any braces involved? 30' is a stretch for barbed wire. A 6" gap between barbed wire and a hot wire could be a painful entrapment. Cattle panels and more posts will cost as much or more than starting over with a good net wire or proper barbed wire fence. What about stripping the bottom three lines of poly rope off, brace it good, add a post in between the existing line posts, and stretch some net wire under the hot line? You could even skip the add a post part if you wanted.

Or maybe run some hi tensile smooth strands in between the ropes with a steel t post between the posts there.Use insulators on the rope and clamp the wire onto the posts for a good ground. They will respect the hot wire better.Never tried it but seems right.

I agree, why not just some added High Tensil? Easy to install and does the job.

 

[NonTypicalCPA]

Looks like I'm going to try the hi tensil.