Starting over, Fencing recommendations

[Bigfoot]

Game changer on keeping fences tight. Company should hire me as a spokesman.

 

[Aaron]

People who have no money - do hi-tensile electric. People who can afford it, put in barbed wire.

 

[fenceman]

6 wire. Or even better 7. Barbwire cost 4 cents a foot . a 6 or 7 wire you can space the wires close enough a cow cant graze through it.
My only problem with woven wire is 1 or 2 of the small gauge interior wires break and now you've got a pretty good sized hole.

 

[Bigfoot]

6 wire. Or even better 7. Barbwire cost 4 cents a foot . a 6 or 7 wire you can space the wires close enough a cow cant graze through it.
My only problem with woven wire is 1 or 2 of the small gauge interior wires break and now you've got a pretty good sized hole.

He'd know.

 

[skyhightree1]

6 wire. Or even better 7. Barbwire cost 4 cents a foot . a 6 or 7 wire you can space the wires close enough a cow cant graze through it.
My only problem with woven wire is 1 or 2 of the small gauge interior wires break and now you've got a pretty good sized hole.

If nothing green on the other side they wont graze through the fence either... ;-) I run mine 4 strand with one hot in the middle.

 

[fenceman]

6 wire. Or even better 7. Barbwire cost 4 cents a foot . a 6 or 7 wire you can space the wires close enough a cow cant graze through it.
My only problem with woven wire is 1 or 2 of the small gauge interior wires break and now you've got a pretty good sized hole.

If nothing green on the other side they wont graze through the fence either... ;-) I run mine 4 strand with one hot in the middle.

Quote. My grandfather.... Best fence is green grass, clean water and a bull that'll keep em pluged up. ;-)

 

[skyhightree1]

6 wire. Or even better 7. Barbwire cost 4 cents a foot . a 6 or 7 wire you can space the wires close enough a cow cant graze through it.
My only problem with woven wire is 1 or 2 of the small gauge interior wires break and now you've got a pretty good sized hole.

If nothing green on the other side they wont graze through the fence either... ;-) I run mine 4 strand with one hot in the middle.

Quote. My grandfather.... Best fence is green grass, clean water and a bull that'll keep em pluged up. ;-)

 

[littletom]

5 strand barbwire is good the last fence we put up we added a hot smooth wire with it, I really like this! If going through a lot of woods high tensile is good when you know trees will be on it. High tensile is also nice when removing cars. Last year we a 8 strand high tensile catch a 18 wheeler broke 8 post but not a single wire.

 

[ddd75]

where are you at in ky?



What I do.. and I think its the best


-Woven wire around the property line w/ 1 barb wire on top. I think the STAY TUFF brand of fencing is excellent. I put GOAT woven wire around my perimeter since it was just a litttle more money then the CATTLE version. 13 horizontal strands. 205.00 / roll - 330'

-Interior -- Hi-Tensile electric. 5 strands spaced 18", 24", 30", 40", 50" -- 30 and 40" strands are HOT. This allows you to be able to mow under the fences, and the grass won't pull them down.

I put up all wood posts -- Woven wire @ 15' spacing and Hi-T @ 25'.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

My opinion go with barbed wire unless you are going to be around to babysit an electric fence. Five strands of red brand 12.5 ga, t post every third step, good salt treated round post for braces and an extra wood post every little bit. If you are doing the work yourself this will run a little under $2 a foot. I put up 6,000 ft of this since last fall paying two guys to help me. My cost has ran right around $2.40 a foot.

 

[Supa Dexta]

In terms of long term work required - HT is the sure winner. Even with all the snow we get, tons of trees.. etc I go thru in the spring, tap a few posts that the frost may have heaved, and tighten the slack out of the wire. Cows never look at it, and I don't spend more than a couple mornings or something in the spring going over fences and doing the above, maybe change the odd post, and a handful of insulators. No cuts, no cursing, no trouble. The only barb left on this farm runs through an old section of deep woods, that the cows may see once every couple years, they never go back there. Honestly I don't even know if there's a fence still standing in there.

 

[M.Magis]

I too prefer 5 strands of barbed, though wouldn't see a problem with 6 either. I've used both 12.5 gauge and 15 gauge HT, but seem to prefer the 15 gauge HT. Maybe it's the deer constantly hitting it, but the HT stays much tighter for much longer. The 12.5 gauge looks better initially, but it's short lived. It doesn't hurt that the 15 is half the price. I space my posts out further, about 5 steps (except for braces of course). So far this has been a good combination of decent fence even the calves don't go through, and fairly economical.

 

[fenceman]

Barbwire should cost you about 4 cents per foot per strand.
Tpost every 10 feet shuold be about 40 cents per liner foot of fence.
A pipe stiffner post every hundred feet should add about 12 cents per foot............material cost on fence, 80 cents per foot.(always round up)

Plus braces. Welded pipe h brace with diagional deadman. 45 feet of pipe at 1.20 per foot. 52.00 dollars material in brace.

Properly built braces can be spaced 1/4 mile apart . no problem. But I'll use 1/8 miles.
Doing the math and rounding up. .96 cents per foot material cost.

H t electric 4 wire, t,post on 30 foot, lighting arrestors, grounds , tensioners. .40 cents per foot.
Still need the 2 braces. At 104 dollars. Total per foot cost.........55cents.
And you still need the charger.

Ht cheaper... so are longhorns and old sorry hay.
I'm going to add the biggest savings here is by spreading the post farther on the electric fence. You can do the same thing on the barbwire fence. And the price will go almost even.

 

[Littlejohn]

where are you at in ky?

I'm in Spencer / Shelby county, just out side of Louisville

 

[Littlejohn]

Barbwire should cost you about 4 cents per foot per strand.
Tpost every 10 feet shuold be about 40 cents per liner foot of fence.
A pipe stiffner post every hundred feet should add about 12 cents per foot............material cost on fence, 80 cents per foot.(always round up)

Plus braces. Welded pipe h brace with diagional deadman. 45 feet of pipe at 1.20 per foot. 52.00 dollars material in brace.

Properly built braces can be spaced 1/4 mile apart . no problem. But I'll use 1/8 miles.
Doing the math and rounding up. .96 cents per foot material cost.

H t electric 4 wire, t,post on 30 foot, lighting arrestors, grounds , tensioners. .40 cents per foot.
Still need the 2 braces. At 104 dollars. Total per foot cost.........55cents.
And you still need the charger.

This is a great break down on price per foot. Thanks

 

[Lucky_P]

Almost everything here is electrified HT wire - all but one 10 acre bull lot is just 2 strands; bull lot is 4. Most of it 20 years old, and looks as good as the day it went up.
No issues with the cows getting out - but I 'm also well off the road; if I had road frontage, I'd probably have something a bit 'tighter', at least along the road.
Ends/corners pretty important - but on long straight flat runs... post spacings are out around 100 ft.
Guess if the grid goes down, I could be in trouble... but until then, I ain't changing.

Aaron...I've got the money. I'm not putting up barbed wire.
Grew up with barbed wire - mostly through the woods or at the edge of the woods; road frontage...a constant battle with kudzu pulling the fence down. It was a never-ending battle keeping the fence fixed. LIke SD said, with HT...I can cruise the lines, remove any limbs/trees, wire pops right back into place... might spend half a day 2 or 3 times a year cruising fence, replacing an insulator once in a while when a deer hits the wire and breaks 'em. Can count on one hand the injuries I've sustained working with HT... barbed wire...can't even begin to count the scars...
That said, I've only got ~110 acres enclosed, cross-fenced into nineteen 5-acre paddocks and two 10-acre bull/sacrifice lots.

 

[ddd75]

i don't have any of my 5 strand HT electrified and have never had a cow get out.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

The more fence you have the more you got to keep up. 4 strands of bobwire where you don't have cows on joining you 5 where you do. Lower the fence the less deer will screw it up.

 

[fenceman]

The more fence you have the more you got to keep up. 4 strands of bobwire where you don't have cows on joining you 5 where you do. Lower the fence the less deer will screw it up.

The only part I could make sense out of is the part about the deer.
And I'm going to respectfully disagree. Lowering the fence will only increase deer traffic. And deer only tend to jump about the height of the fence. The best way to deal with deer is put the top wire at full height. Leave about 14 inches to next strand. The remaining wires can now be spaced even closer together. The top wire forces the deer to jump high. The gap prevents low jumpers from getting caught. Works very well..with barbwire.

 

[M.Magis]

I'll add that many of the problems I have with deer aren't the top wires. It's the lower three, from them running through the fence rather than jumping over.
It's been years since I've had a deer get caught in the top wires, but I like the idea of leaving the large gap between them.