Fencing

[Anonymous-0]

I want to fence my 5 acre tract, to establish boundaries, using steel T post and wire mesh. Soil is very rocky, similar to a gravel road.
Where is the best place to purchase steel T post?
What is suggested spacing of post?
Thanks for your suggestions

 

[greygoat]

We just fenced 60 acres of never plowed prairie
here in Western Wisconsin for a State Natural
Area. The plot was surveyed and corners marked.
We planted 8x8, 8 foot treated corner posts 4
feet in the ground, and streached wire to give us
a guide line. We used 6 foot steel posts set 12
feet apart, to measure we just put 2 posts end to
end. we drove them in 2 feet. We used 3 strands of
wire evenly spaced. This fence, however was not
to keep animals in, but to keep Snow mobiles and
ATV"s, motorcycles out. The area is open to
walkers, and has over 200 species of plants and
flowers. It is known as the Holland Sand Prairie,
is open to the public, and on Wisconsin"s list of
State Natural Areas. It"s right next to our land,
in LaCrosse County.

 

[GordoSD]

If you mean "woven wire" instead of "mesh", Then I'd use two steel posts, and then one 6 inch wood, post, two more steel and one wood and so on. Set at 10 feet. Best if you can use pointed wood posts and drive them in. You can add top wire of barbed, twisted smooth or electric depending on what you a re trying to keep in.

Gordo

 

[MSS3020]

I did wove with two high tensil wire running 6 inches apart on the top. I used t post at 7' apart plus had to go around a curve and used 5 T's at 7' apart with 6 inch woods every 5 tees for the curve. works well. been up now for 6 years. I went closer together cause I have a tree line close by and when it snows and blows the drifting can be on the fence so closer helps with sagging..good luck

 

[Dell (WA)]

Jim........ya gotta use pressure treated HEAVY WOOD corner posts (6"-min) that are "braced and cross-braced" in form of "X". Then 4"-round pressure treated driven wooden posts every 50-ft starting from both corner posts and working toward the center. The center meet-up must be less than 10-ft. I use a home-made 3-ft chunk of 8"-well pipe to drive the pointed wooden posts. Driven posts are so much stouter than dug and tamped post holes. Then using a 10-ft 2x4 as spacer, plant yer metal T-posts with 3"-pipe driver following a stretched string tied to yer wooden posts for guiding. Now un-roll and stretch and hang yer field fencing; using staples on wooden posts and wire-clippies on "T"-posts. ...or... use barb'd warr.

Would it surprize you to learn the best place to buy fencing supplies is NOT the big box hardware store but yer local farmers supply emporium. ......Dell

 

[TimMiller]

We get our fencing materials from ace hardware. They are cheaper than tractor supply. We use all wood posts 6-8' for the brace posts 4" for the crossbrace (tractor supply posts work good here because they are sanded so it makes it easier, and that is why they cost more) And then we use posts about every 7 feet down. Wire mesh does not hold up, if you want to go with a wire grid type fence, i'd go with no climb horse fencing. Its made out of thicker material. We had some of the cheap grid stuff, and the cows tore it up very quickly. Also what the cows didnt tear up the goat bent up from rubbing up and down it. I personally like barbwire much better. It lasts, and its much easier to put up.

 

[Pair-a-dice farm]

I don"t know where you are but I get my tee posts from the local Coop. I space them about 12". For corner posts I use cross ties if I can find good used ones, other wise I cut my own red cedar for posts. A good red ceder will last longer than most treated posts. I"ve got some that are over 30 years old. I set my posts with crushed limestone and gravel. It lets water leech out and sets up almost like concrete. I put a good wooden post every 100ft or so to help support the tee posts. My ground is so rocky that driving wooden posts is not an option. I"ve had trouble driving tee posts.

 

[WA-Hal]

My experience with installing steel T posts has been that it is a whole lot easier to pound them in during the early Springtime, just after the ground thaws. With my heavy tube type post pounder, I often am able to get them into my rocky ground in 5 or less hits. At least around here, right now it would be a lot more effort to pound posts than it would be in the Spring. It might be a good time to set the corner posts though.

I generally space my T posts at 10 feet and usually have a good railroad tie that is well braced in the corners. Sometimes in my rocky soil (or lack thereof!) it is not possible to put in a post exactly on the 10 foot spacing. I usually try to find a spot with a little less spacing rather than extending the distance between posts. In one area of my property, there is a lot of exposed bedrock and the only way to get a post in there would be to rent a jackhammer and compressor and drill holes in the rock. Since that would be too expensive for me, I usually have used shorter T posts and built up rock piles around the posts. Some premix concrete around those problem posts helps too. In an area where there is just no way to properly set a post in the ground for a long distance, I have put 50 gallon barrels filled with rocks in the proper place to steady a T post wired to the barrel. It isn't pretty, but it makes a fence that cows cannot push over.

I always buy the heaviest weight T posts I can find. The prices fluctuate, so it pays to call around to find the best price in your area. If it matters to you that they all are the same color, it would be a good idea to buy all you need at one time--they might even give you a bit of a volume discount if you buy enough. My experience at buying posts at different times has been that they ALWAYS are different colors, even if I buy them from the same seller, but maybe that is just my luck.

I like the look of a nicely installed, tight T post fence with 4 or 5 strands of barb wire. Good luck, it sounds like a big project.

 

[bc]

Found a dime today and have some left to give my 2 cents worth.

For a boundary fence, a 3 strand barbed wire cattle fence may be your best and cheapest bet. Depends upon if any is pasture.

T posts, use heavy ones and long enough for what you are fencing in. 4' agl for cows and 5.5 to 6' agl for horses. Add 1.5 feet for the end in the ground. Around here a standard cattle fence has them every rod (16 or 16.5 feet). Keeps the cows in on all the ranches so good enough for me. I figure the ranchers know what they are doing. 6" to 8" corner posts at least 4' or more deep. Then the next brace post an inch smaller or the same size. 4" posts as a spacer post from the corner to the second, then X wire brace them with number 9 wire or the fence wire you are using. For a run up to a quarter mile, put a couple or three 6" posts in the middle with spacer posts and X wire those. This will help keep your wire tight over long runs. Same thing they do along the interstates.

I'd forget woven wire. Horses push it down. You can try to horse proof fence but other problems. You have to keep it 6" off the ground to trim weeds under it or the wire will eat up your trimmer string. A problem though if you want to keep the dogs in or out. If you just mow up to it and don't keep the weeds trimmed under woven wire, the weeds always grow up into it and pull it down. That little ridgeline of weeds then begins collecting blowing dirt and mulch from dead weeds to the point that in a few years, your fence will be covered by a ridge line of dirt and then it be buried and rusts at the bottom. I've run a string of barbed wire above woven wire to keep the horses from leaning over it but that doesn't stop them. The lean on the barbed wire and bend it down. Only way to keep horses out of woven wire is to run a electric fence wire at knee high & chest high extending out from the fence, and then as top wire. Another problem I've had is when a combine header, disk, springtooth, or sprayer boom gets to close and snags it, it will stretch, bend, and ruin a few hundred feet of fence and it's just about impossible to straighten and fix it, just replace it.

I'd forget wire mesh or woven wire fencing unless you just like the looks of a mesh fence and need to keep the dogs in. Depending upon what animals you have, use double strand barbed, double strand barbless (what I'm doing), or single strand high tensile wire. Some of the strands can be electrified as well and then with no animals touching them, they will last for years.

 

[ncBrad]

Hi Jim! I bought galvanized u-channel fence poasts from a supplier for a contract I did. The best price was from Eberl Iron Works in Buffalo, NY Their number was 716-854-7633.
This company does not make consumer-type products from what I have seen, it is commercial-industrial grade
Hope this helps, Brad