Questions on working pens

[JSteim]

Hello - longtime reader of Cattle Today - first time poster.
I am in Central Texas and have been working at building up a small herd of Brangus cows with my son since 11/2013.

We are wanting to build a large(for us) pen and working facility adjacent to our barnyard out of continuous fence panels and set our Preifert Sweep/Alley/Chute/Palp Cage inside a portion of the pen to allow sorting/working.

Need to decide on what type of line posts, method of post installation and mounting for panels. The continuous panels we will use are 20' long 6 tube with 5 vertical stays. Planning on 10' centers for the posts sunk 3' in the ground.

Going back and forth between 8'x6"Treated wood posts or 8' metal pipe - either 2 3/8" or 2 7/8" or....?
In the past I have sunk line and corner posts for hi tensile electric fence with a 3pt PHD with 9" auger. I'd like to try some sort of post pounder for this go around as it looks like it would be faster, have better post placement and might give a tighter post in the ground.
There are all sorts of man portable pipe post drivers for sale and also 3pt hydraulic wood post pounders. I am wondering how well these would do on blackland soil which has a large clay content.

The joints of where the continuous panels meet look like they would be the flimsiest spot. Would you want to attach the joint centered on the line post or 6 inches off to the side of the joint?

Jeff

 

[bird dog]

I also live in your area. I have not heard of post pounders working very well in this type of soil. I would use pipe and concrete.

 

[jedstivers]

Don't know about your soil but use metal. No wood anywhere is the way we are doing it.
Here we can pound in post, lot of the year we can even drive them with a backhoe bucket.

 

[fenceman]

Pound them in. Thers no better way . just go a little deeper than if using a concrete pier. In centex blackland we usually try to go around 4 feet deep. That clay will run from concrete when it gets dry. We prefer a pneumatic driver, but it requires a large, around 185 cfm compressor. If you have a tractor and want to buy a driver a threepoint driver may be best for you. If you can gat good heavy wall 2 3/8 pipe its plenty heavy.and drives faster than 3 inch . talk to burk brown at browns feed in lampasas best buy on really good pipe. Tell him a&a sent you. Rember in clay the key is getting them really deep. Like jeb says sometimes whith enough moisture you can pound them with the bucket. Backhoe or even front end loader , fill it with dirt to get a little extra oomph. BE CAREFUL,

 

[fenceman]

Also in lampasas dubose pipe and gate about the best price anywhere on continuous fence panels. And portable panels. A little rough around the edges but good heavy construction

 

[Caustic Burno]

Started with wood in the dark ages best move I ever made was building one out of drill stem.
Got the plans online and modified it for for my size. I used to have some F-1 tigers that could test a
pen.




Found the plans here and modified it.
There is some pretty good ideas on the site.
http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/bc1000/bc1831.htm

 

[JSteim]

Fenceman - We just took on a lease place in Florence - small world. Spent all of yesterday patching up the old fence in order to put some of our heifers on pasture there.

I have already purchased the continuous panels - got them from a place in Oklahoma.

As soon as the winter wheat is harvested in May we will start on our pen/working facility. What model 3 pt pounder have you had good luck with?

 

[fenceman]

Shaver, i dont no anyone who rents them, you can rent a compressor and pneumatic driver almost anywhere. They work quite well. It takes a strong guy to lift the pneumatic driver of the post. If you have a front end loader you can us that and a chain to do the heavy lifting. Try almighty rentals in Georgetown. Have fun.

 

[JSteim]

Shaver is one of the post pounders I was looking at. Big price difference between the hd8 and the hd10. Which model have you used? Have you tired wood posts with it or just pipe post?

 

[BigYoung]

B thanks for linky to Pen Plans.

 

[fenceman]

Hd8 is all ive used and should be all you need in soil. Hd 10 has auger attachment thats interesting but i haven't used. Sounds like you already have an auger right. In rock we use a pneumatic rock drill to drill 2 inch pilot holes. I only drive pipe post. Years ago i was working as laborer on a ranch up at Whitney. We used a three point driver (dont know what. Brand.) to drive cedar post about 4 inch diameter. It was soil with some chunk rock. We would cut a point with a chainsaw. It worked ok till you hit a rock. Those post would break and come flying out the back very violently. Very dangerous. Thats my only experience driving wood post.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Worksaver is also a good post driver
Go with the 10 instead of the 8
I have drove post on ground that varies from black dirt to rocky red clay to clay with sloud limestone
The only thing I couldn't get thru was the solid limestone but have broke thru several thin lYers of limestone

I have bent 4" heavy wall pipe with a hyd 3 pt driver when hitting solid limestone