Fencing question

[simme]

Barb wire on top of woven does a few things. Makes the fence taller. Discourages animals from reaching over the fence and pushing down on the woven - helping to prevent damage to the woven. Some people put a short (36") woven fence up and then finish with barbed wire up to whatever height they want. Woven at bottom helps to contain smaller animals or critters and barbed at the top a little more aggressive for larger animals.
An electric wire at the top of woven can also help to discourage fence rubbing or jumping. An electric wire mid height of the woven mounted on standoffs will help prevent any contact with the woven. Goats particularly will put their front feet on the woven and climb up a few strands and may cause the fixed knot to slip on the vertical stay over time.
I guess the best fence is the one that works for you at the lowest cost depending on your cattle, pastures, location, and temptations.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

You couldn't pay me enough to put up woven wire anything UP here in snow country. 6 to 10 foot snow drifts will push my HT wire right to the ground and as soon as things melt it pops right back up. Woven wire gets pushed to the ground and doesn't every go back up like it once was.

I must have lazy cattle as I've never had them go thru 5 strands of HT wire even without juices for weeks on end.

I hadn't thought about how snow would impact woven wire. Falling trees, high water and elk can make an irreversible mess of it.

 

[callmefence]

Barb wire on top of woven does a few things. Makes the fence taller. Discourages animals from reaching over the fence and pushing down on the woven - helping to prevent damage to the woven. Some people put a short (36") woven fence up and then finish with barbed wire up to whatever height they want. Woven at bottom helps to contain smaller animals or critters and barbed at the top a little more aggressive for larger animals.
An electric wire at the top of woven can also help to discourage fence rubbing or jumping. An electric wire mid height of the woven mounted on standoffs will help prevent any contact with the woven. Goats particularly will put their front feet on the woven and climb up a few strands and may cause the fixed knot to slip on the vertical stay over time.
I guess the best fence is the one that works for you at the lowest cost depending on your cattle, pastures, location, and temptations.

Haven't seen much 36" net wire with the exception of 10/2 and 10/4/36. They're not common and wouldn't make much sense for cattle.
We use a bunch of 9/39/12 with 2 barbs. There's some 8/42/12 made as well. 36" is a new one to me.

 

[simme]

Haven't seen much 36" net wire with the exception of 10/2 and 10/4/36. They're not common and wouldn't make much sense for cattle.
We use a bunch of 9/39/12 with 2 barbs. There's some 8/42/12 made as well. 36" is a new one to me.

Guilty as charged. Intent was to refer to a woven that was about 3 feet topped with barbed. I did not take the time to look up exact dimensions.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Haven't seen much 36" net wire with the exception of 10/2 and 10/4/36. They're not common and wouldn't make much sense for cattle.
We use a bunch of 9/39/12 with 2 barbs. There's some 8/42/12 made as well. 36" is a new one to me.

Up here we all know 36" wire as hog fence. All the hogs used to be raised in pasture or dirt.
We use 47" woven wire with two barbs on top. Or five 4pt barbs.

 

[callmefence]

Up here we all know 36" wire as hog fence. All the hogs used to be raised in pasture or dirt.
We use 47" woven wire with two barbs on top. Or five 4pt barbs.

Is it actually 36"? Your usual graduated netwire machines don't work that way.

 

[SBMF 2015]

Is it actually 36"? Your usual graduated netwire machines don't work that way.

Might be 32" not 36"


Red Brand32"x330' 11ga Monarch Field Fence
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[greybeard]

Huh I don't have a single piece of barbed anything in all my fence and never have animals "float" over any of it.

I have, but not the way you and TR are talking about....

 

[coachg]

I recently rebuilt a fence next to a county road and I used web wire and one strand of barb wire on top . My baby calves walk through 6 strands of barb wire like it's not there . I feel a lot safer with the web wire !

 

[tex452]

Woven wire no question. I have no use for high tensile as boundary fence. Sooner or later the electricity will be off of it ( sometimes even when it isn't) and they walk right thru it. Woven fence is a fence all the time. Sure wouldn't trust it along a highway.

There will be plenty who don't agree and will tell you otherwise but this has been my experience.

I agree with this.

 

[Atimm693]

5 wires barbed for both sides of the interstate everywhere around here, local roads sometimes make do with 4 strands. steel t posts.

Same here. 5-6 strands of barb is pretty standard here. Some woven but not a lot, mostly on older farms where people likely had goats or hogs. In high pressure areas or spots where bulls tend to pace the fence, we'll put in a HT electric wire with 12" standoffs, fairly low.

Biggest trouble with barb is that calves can crawl through it pretty easily. Running 6 wires and keeping the bottom three pretty close together so they can't stick their head through helps quite a bit.

 

[Muletrack]

What is better or safer along a state highway? I am putting new fence up next to a state highway. looking at field fence such as tornado 13/28/12 or kencoves version of high tensil 12.5 woven wire. Or a 6 strand single wire electrified high tensile fence. both fences with 25 ft post spacing with wood posts and possibly a couple t posts in between the wood posts. which would be the better?

Up here we mostly like a good 4-5 wired barbed wire fence. I only use Bekaert 4-barb Gaucho wire. Woven wire is no good under snow, and we get our share of snow.

 

[GoWyo]

Up here we mostly like a good 4-5 wired barbed wire fence. I only use Bekaert 4-barb Gaucho wire. Woven wire is no good under snow, and we get our share of snow.

The Bakaert Cattleman Pro is more expensive, but way better wire than the Gaucho. It is hi-tensile 14 ga. I think they do make it in 2-pt and 4-pt. Can be hard to find though with the regular retailers.

 

[Muletrack]

I think Gaucho is like $59 at TSC right now. I like working with it, but have modified my unrolling system (just a pipe and an old disk blade) by putting a wagon wheel hub in the center. Not needed with Red Brand wire or OK, etc., but makes the center of the Gaucho unwind a lot easier.

 

[Atimm693]

Red brand is so soft that I don't really care to use it. One tree limb or excited cow and it'll stretch pretty easily, hard to keep tight for any length of time. Not sure if it was always that way or if they've changed something.

Gaucho has a lot going for it. We use the Herdsman version of it, stretches pretty well and the rolls aren't super heavy. It isn't quite as stiff as the real Gaucho so it works a little easier.