Fencing traps with 16' wire cattle panels?

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Stocker Steve

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I am planning to put up a bunch of 16' wire panels I picked up at auction. I have seen them tied to T posts, stapled to wood posts, and backed up with multiple fence boards... What design would you recommend for use with stocker calves and bred heifers?
 
Wood post every 8' on confinement and some sort of hot wire on top to hold do the wallering down from potential escape artists.
 
i did panels and 4 boards going across.. but i also had a lot of lumber from a barn i tore down.
 
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Here's how I built mine. I used 20 ft. treated 2x6x20 #1 treated boards on post 6 1/2 ft apart. This is in the catch areas. Working pens and load out are metal pipe and sucker rod.
Before I got it built I had the panels tied to t-post which worked ok as long as adjoining bulls didn't have access to the pen. It's going to boil down to how much pressure they are going to put on it. Course I had one crazy calf that tried to go through the new pens once....bounced off the panel but left a nice dent.
 
My temporary panels are similar vett except I used 3 inch 14 gauge tube steel top bottom. 3' by 1 1/2" tube steel ends and mid. They pin together. 20 foot lengths. Two people can handle them but it is much easier to set it up with a front end loader. You have to have a loader for the medina, squeeze, and head gate anyway.

If I built them again, I would go less robust than 3 inch tube steel. Just for weight and handling reasons.
 
I've used some. They were on good sized wood posts on 8' spacing, with one board at top, one near the bottom, and one about waist high.
 
These will be pens for back grounding calves or breeding heifers. Not working pens.

Seems like the wire panels are not much use if you are still putting 3 or 4 boards across each panel?
 
I put my t post every 4 ft, and an 8 ft tall cedar or b'odark stay between posts. Put up as a temporary sorting pen, been using it for nearly 2 years successfully now. Stays are nearly free.
 
If they wont be putting pressure on the fence, tpost will hold them just fine. I have a 4 wire wing fence going into a cow lot that's probably 40 years old. Got to where calves would sometimes crawl through when I was penning cows. Didn't have time to rework the fence so I tied the cattle panels up against. That was 6 years ago. Just this past winter I added some tpost because a number of the cedar post were breaking off.

Before I built the fence in the picture, I had tpost every 4 ft holding the panels. That worked fine till I had bulls across from each other. So tpost and the panels will probably work just fine.

I guess it really depends on how pretty you want it to be and how long you want the pretty to last. ;)
 
Stocker Steve":2fcnyf1d said:
RanchMan90":2fcnyf1d said:
I put my t post every 4 ft, and an 8 ft tall cedar or b'odark stay between posts.

did you overlap at seams?
how did you attach panels to T posts?
Used 16 gauge tie wire to tie them in. T post clips would work too. I overlapped them 1 square, I think it adds some strength. Adding to my feed pens in this manner also.
 
My cow pens are made of cow panel and drill stem.
I ended up hanging portable corral panels in the pressure spots.
One of the problems I ran into with calves injuries trying to run through the panel. That stopped with the panels I attributed it to they didn't think they could run through it.
 
Stocker Steve":s2titz6y said:
These will be pens for back grounding calves or breeding heifers. Not working pens.

Seems like the wire panels are not much use if you are still putting 3 or 4 boards across each panel?

I have them in my catch area stapled to 8" wood posts every 8'. 2 strands barbed wire across the top. Works fine as long as they aren't a rowdy bunch. Kinda like you, didn't see much sense putting up all that lumber and panels. I decided one or the other. Been using them that way for last 7 years without one Houdini so far. My cows are a tame bunch, but the calfs can be rambunctious. I believe you will be fine.
 
I built mine with a wood post every 16 ft with a 7 ft T post in the middle, then I put a strand of barbed wire on top. This has worked well for me.
 
I built a pen out of them. RR tie at joining point of two panels with a wood post in the middle. A 2x10 in the middle for some visibility and another over the top of the wire to halt any jumpers. I had cows, calves, bred heifers, bulls.... everything in there over the years. Never a bit of trouble.
 

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