Fencing

[TheHunterKid90]

Looking for input on fencing.
Hubby and I have finally decided after 10 years we should probably put our 85 acres of pasture/hay field to use at our home and fence it in to bring a few of my broodmares and young horses home instead of boarding at my job.

My plan is cedar posts spaced 10’ apart with 2”x4” no climb woven wire. A visual 2x6” top board and a strand of hot wire on the very top with insulators on the tops of the cedar posts and one strand of hot wire half way up the fence inside also attached the the cedar post. My reasoning for the hot wire is basically cheap insurance to keep the horses from leaning on the fence etc.

Does anyone have experience or think I should go a different route with the fencing? I would rather invest now and have good safe fencing as opposed to doing it on the cheap and having loose horses or having to replace it quickly down the road. One of my oldies is 21 this year and blind so it’s especially important to me that she can’t get out.

I reached out to a fencing company and they quoted me nearly 20k for a 5 acre pasture. I nearly passed away so DIY it is.

Anyone have anything to add? Has anyone used a post pounder instead of an auger? I’m considering it. Thinking the sweat equity of using the auger vs the possibility of snapping a few posts - I think I will take my chances on snapping some posts!

[FitToBeTied]

We use RAMM Flex fence. It’s been installed on our farm for almost 20 years. It’s pretty to easy install. Pretty much zero maintenance. So a higher cost on the front end but cheaper, imho, in the long run. Also, we have never had a fence related injury to a horse on this farm and previous farm where we also used RAMM.

[Bluey]

We have a post pounder and put in 2 7/8" pipe as 8’ posts and another along the top, so no need of hot fence.
We did use 4 1/2" for some corners and plain 2 7/8" for others and concreted corners.
We had to use our second choice, the taller horse no climb 2" x 4" wire, set 5 1/2’’ high, because we could not get V-mesh at that time.

The post pounder worked great. We have other fences where we dug holes and concreted pipe posts and both methods seem to work fine in our clay and loam soils, may not so well if we were in sand.
We made a jig and welded our own gates, so were flexible on dimensions for gate opening.

We used two good sized angle irons bolted together with the mesh between them to pull wire tight with a regular come-along and is super tight and has stayed like that.

It really didn’t take long to build and the post pounder made it way easier.

[LCDR]

I assume you are choosing wood posts in order to support the 2x6 appearance rail. Why cedar posts vs pressure treated? Is there a significant difference in cost at your location?

I would consider adding 2 or 3 T posts between the 10 foot spaced wood posts. That will give you added support and stability for the wire.

Where I am, 5 acres (roughly a square, so about 2,000 feet of perimeter fence) would cost about $20K for three board fencing (2x6’s) with 6 inch diameter pressure treated posts every 8 feet, installed.

[clanter]

just are competing a 200 ft fence to separated a portion of the back pasture using 48 inch no climb woven wire on 4by4 treated posts set with bagged concrete spaced 10 feet with top rail of 2by6 treated then have added the 2 inch wide electric fence… cost was about $8 per foot without the cost of a 12 ft gate which is to be added (used a 4by6 treated post for the gate)

[luvmyhackney]

I’m redoing my fencing. Current plan is similar to yours with the no climb woven wire. I’m not doing the top board and electric, I’m using Centaurs hot rail product as my “board”.
I’m ok not replacing a wood board again in my life, plus I can space out the post a little more in certain areas, ie rocks, etc.

Link to product: https://centaurhorsefence.com/products/fencing/hot-rail-flexible-5-rail/

[2DogsFarm]

I went with 6" round treated posts set 12’ apart.
Fencing is coated tensile, top wire of 3 can carry a charge. Top rail is a 4" Centaur clone.
19yrs later, all I’ve had to do was retension the occasional line & last Fall I had a company reinforce (in concrete) 6 posts - of the 2 pastures, enclosing 2+ac - that were loose.
I never put a charger on, no horses have tested the fence beyond grazing through it.

If I could redo, I’d replace that top rail with electrobraid.
For cosmetic reasons only, the rail has some chipped spots & minor mossy discoloration.

My cost, that long ago, to have fencing put in by pros - posts pounded - was $10K.
So your quote, considering increased costs for materials alone, isn’t that bad.
There was NWIH I could have DIY’ed my fencing.
Older woman, alone on the farm,working 4D/W & boarding 2.
I wanted them home ASAP, so I could stop paying board.

[NancyM]

Our large pastures and hayfields are fenced with barbed wire. For an 85 acre field, that would be your best bet for fencing, unless your last name is Gates or Musk. Before anyone comes unglued about this…our neighbours have cows, and the barbed wire is necessary to keep the cows out. But some of the interior fencing was also done in barbed wire too, before we bought the property, and I must say that since we have been here, there have been few negative issues with it. The horses (mostly TB horses), have all met the fences, poked their noses once on a Barb, and actively stay away from the fences on purpose. It works just like an electric wire, except you don’t have to worry about shorting out, because those barbs are always there in case someone gets close to it. They don’t get close to it. They stay away from all the fences. It’s cheap, it’s quick, it’s easy. It’s good for fencing large areas, when there is not going to be other horses on the other side of the fence as an “attraction”. The worst fence related injury on a horse I’ve dealt with personally involved a five rail wooden fence, which was splintered into a million pieces by a cast horse. The horse was permanently damaged. What makes barbed wire work well is a) the aversion factor, combined with b) lots of space with huge pasture. Not suitable for small paddocks or pastures.
Post pounders are pretty easy to learn how to use, and if you have a large place, you will find that it is a handy appliance to own. But do take care, they can kill you if you get sloppy with them. Augers can kill you as well… Apparently clothing can get caught in an auger, and a particularly nasty death is the result, and this is a classic farm related death. We have a pounder, and use it as required…carefully.
We use the treated posts, and with using barbed wire, you can do a longer spacing between posts than some other options. A professional fencer can work very quickly to construct these fences. Beware if you buy treated posts…these days with dwindling timber supply, they are using garbage trees for posts, sometimes dead and partially rotten trees go for posts. If you get bad posts, they will snap when you pound them, so inspect each post before you buy them, or pound them. These poor quality posts will break even if you do manage to get them into the ground whole. Just crap.

[Bluey]

You can rent a skid loader with an auger and post driver, if you only need it for this time around, no need to buy it.

[LCDR]

I am confused. OP, are you perimeter fencing all of your 85 acres, or a 5 acre portion of the whole farm for the horses?

[TheHunterKid90]

That was my plan. Rent the skid steer and post pounder. I have a tractor and auger and after doing some dog fencing, I have no desire to do 160 posts with it.

I figure I can do the job with about $8,000 in supplies so it’s worth it to me to do it myself.

[TheHunterKid90]

You missed the part where I have a blind mare. I’d put her down first before I fenced her in barbed wire.

We own an 85 acre farm but at this time I’m only fencing in about 5 acres. It’s a small pasture by my house that has a live spring that runs to the edge of it. It’s an ideal space that provides a wind block on the back fence but a nice breeze at the top of the hill in the summer.

Picture of said old lady for tax.

[TheHunterKid90]

I’ve seen a horse impaled on a t post before. It’s a sight that will forever be stamped in my head.

I’ll clarify that these are a pressure treated cedar post.

[Jarpur]

We had broodmares when we moved here, and had to select fencing that would last, and that we could afford. Our perimeter fence is King Ranch wire (very heavily galvanized field fence) with pipe posts (new pipe, not used) and galvanized t-posts (with caps) spaced between the pipe posts, topped with strands of smooth wire. Installed by a couple of local ranching guys who fence on the side; they used a tractor-mounted auger, did a stellar job, and our fence looks like new after 25 years.

Has needed zero maintenance, other than repainting the pipe posts a couple of times, and there have been no injuries whatsoever. We ourselves added stand-offs for electric before turning the horses out, to keep them from getting close to the fence. I’d make the same choice if I had to do it again; it’s been a great investment.

We used cedar posts with Diamond V mesh and 2x6 top boards for the sacrifice paddock and the small corral behind the barn, where there is more pressure on the fencing - it was quite a bit more expensive.

70233_949-12-9_KRF_40R.pdf

A neighbor couple putting in their own fence more recently hired a local guy who specializes in digging the holes (with an auger) for fencing DIYers – he’s advertised on craigslist for years, and was reasonably priced. Neighbors were relieved to have someone else do this job; perhaps there is someone in your area with the same type of business.

[TheHunterKid90]

This is super intriguing that it can be electrified!
Maybe I would like that as my top board. I’m pretty set on the wire mesh for the bottom 4’……I like that it will keep most dogs etc out. Obviously they can still get in my pasture but the wire mesh is a stronger deterrent than 3 or 4 boards.

[Bluey]

Horse mesh woven wire is generally considered V-mesh or the one with 2" x 4" holes, as those are the most resistant to horse’s kicking thru, especially important if you have horses on both sides of a fence.

[TheHunterKid90]

Yes. My original intention was the v mesh but after calling several companies, I’ve been told it’s not available to order and hasn’t been in a few years.
So going with the 2x4.

[Bluey]

@TheHunterKid90

Yes. My original intention was the v mesh but after calling several companies, I’ve been told it’s not available to order and hasn’t been in a few years.
So going with the 2x4.

Right, we found Ramm fence had v-mesh but was way behind, months, so we went with the 2" x 4" square stuff, that seems to be working fine.

Our old easily 70+ years old V-mesh pens, that had stallions across from each other, on pipe posts and top, is still like new.

[luvmyhackney]

Yes, I’m doing wire on the bottom whether the 2x4 squares or woven wire is dependent on what is available. I rotate pastures between the horses and goats.

Using the electric hot rail as a topper lets me get by with 12’ in the fence line in areas. Perimeter will be 8’-9’ and any cross fencing will be 12’.

[B_and_B]

Is there a reason for the mesh? That is dogs, people, foals? My best bit of fencing (lets not look at some of the rest, they stay in because I keep them happy.) Is 12’ spaced pressure treated 4x4s with three or four strands of 1.5 inch electric tape. Highly visible, but fairly cheap. And with four lines pretty darn solid. I would love to go with mesh because that is my dry lot and small (.5 acre for three horses) and when hay gets blown under an electric fence you have Sad horses. But my free cash keeps going to a D*&^@! truck, so.
You might consider mesh on the sacrifice area, and then correctly spaced for mesh on the future posts, with electric tape for the rest of the five acres for the immediate future. You can always put the mesh on, after all. The cross fenced using electric.
My second best fence is a set of 7.5 foot T posts with three strands of electric tape. I know you don’t want T posts, but on a fence line that horses aren’t fighting over (i.e. perimeter) and using tall ones with caps, the risks are reduced.

(I reread, never mind, I’m guessing you have a dog issue, based on a later comment, so mesh is needed)