Field Fence

[Mike H]

One of my summer chores is to get to work replacing fences around my horse pastures. I'd appreciate any advice:
1. I'm planning to use high tension wire - 6 strand, electrified. I've done a few hundred foot runs of this already (repairing). Any better suggestions?
2. I figure I've got between 100 and 200 holes to dig. I haven't purchased the auger yet. I've read lots of previous post here but; heck, I know everybody will have more input! Except for the fact that the ground will be dry when I get at it, it's mostly sandy and shouldn't be hard to get through. I went cheap with a rotary cutter, I'm thinking I might want a better quality auger but . . .
3. Pulling posts - mostly old wood. Pull them up with the three point? Knock 'em over with the loader? Dig 'em up with the backhoe? What have you guys done?
4. I've probably got a mile's worth of old field fence, electric fence, and barb wire to get rid of. I'm thinking about just burying it. Thoughts?
5. Any other insights? Thanks.

 

[roysallis]

Mike,
Since I have had my tractor I have pulled up a lot of wood and metal fence posts. I wrap a 3/8" chain around my loader and then around the post several times to pull up the posts. The hooks on the end of my chain are too small to fit on the front edge of the loader, that's why I wrap it. I now have a wider hook. It is best if you have someone to help with this. My wife operated the tractor while I wrapped the chain around the post. After reading the thread about the choker chain it might be useful to use one of them on the post. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING THE LOADER TO PULL THE POST. BE SURE TO HAVE THE CHAIN ATTACHED TO THE MIDDLE OF THE LOADER AND APPROACH THE POST AT THE MIDDLE OF THE LOADER. BE SURE TO PUT THE TRACTOR IN PARK BEFORE ATTACHING THE CHAIN TO THE POST. RAISE THE LOADER VERY SLOWLY AN MAKE SURE YOU ARE OUT OF THE WAY. My son and I were pulling up a wooden gate post and I approached the post at an angle and did not have the chain around the middle of the loader. I went a little too fast raising the loader and before I knew it one of the rear wheels was about 2 feet off the ground. If you do not want to reuse the post you may want to pust them over with the loader. I did push over a few posts that were not reusable but found that sometimes they broke right at ground level. I was afraid that this could damage a tire so I still had to do some work to cover it or dig it up. This took more time than pullin up the posts. Whatever you do BE CAREFUL.

 

[roysallis]

About the old wire, I have taken down a lot of wire and I am planning to take it to a recycle center. This is good environmentally and also it won't be a problem in the future if you decide to do someting where you buried the wire.

 

[Thomas]

Mike,
I would use the front end loader to pull up your post,it just might be safer.

Have you consider renting a tactor for the day with a post hole digger or someone who does?

I came from the barb wire days,/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif and I would take the old fence to your locate metal landfill .

Sorry can't help you with the new fence issue,for my father now has open pastures,and I don't miss repairing fence line /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Be careful and be good to yourself./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Thomas..NH

 

[Den]

Mike, got to agree about the suggestion not to bury that barb wire and posts. I'm in the middle of a landscape job I contracted to do where I expected to make short work of removing a large mound of dirt located in a tree line in a remote section of the owner's property. To my chagrin, the only dirt was just a foot or two covering a massive jumble of wire and posts. What I thought would be a couple of hours on the tractor seat turned into a week's worth of mostly hand labor. I'm sure the property owner didn't know about this "buried treasure" and I'm hoping you won't leave any surprises for the next fellow that gets your land.

 

[W5FL]

You are getting good advise, but you won't like part of mine. I hate electric fences!

Wish I could afford the V type (bull wire) fence, but good 2x4 5 ft no climb horsewire is almost as good and costs about $95/100 ft. That is expensive, but it requires almost no maintenance and installs ok on T posts with an H evey 150 ft or so. Field fence is used a lot because it is a lot cheaper. 5 or 6 strands of barbless wire with stays usually works pretty well and doesn't cost much more than an electric fence and will keep most large livestock in. If you must have an electric wire to keep them in, use it only on the top strand way away from grass, weeds, kids, etc.

I have also had poor luck with barbed and barbless cheap import wire. The US wire does not stretch in cold weather like the import wire does.

Electric fences cause all kinds of interference to radio and tv signals, start fires, ground out and don't work reliable and are a maintenance nightmare. Don't even say weeds and electric fence in the same sentence (unless you say fire). They kill birds and other small animals.

Pull posts with your loader and a chain. Be careful and use a 3/8 chain. Put an implement on the 3 point while you are pulling posts for a counterweight.

Sell the old wire as scrap and buy a radio now that you will be able to hear it without the electric fence. Your neighbors will appreciate it that the funny lines across their TV every second or two is gone.

You can buy a cheap auger for the price of renting one 3 times. Good auger bits cost more and you will need a heavy duty one IF there are any rocks in that sand.

 

[MarkV]

I don't know enough about electric fences to give any advice but I can share a story. Many years ago my Mother and uncle were playing in a stream bed near the farm. When Mom climb up the bank she grab an electric fence that did not want to let go of her and her wet feet. My uncle ended up breaking her arm with a branch to get her free. As I said, I know little about modern electric fences and hope this couldn't happen with todays equipment.

 

[Mike H]

Thanks for the comments guys. Recycling the old wire's not a problem - I've actually got a transfer station only a mile down the road so I can do this. As for why buy an auger - I want one! You've got me rethinking the electrification part though - I probably really don't need it. My problem isn't that the horses try to escape, it just sometimes 'happens' when a section goes down. With new fence this shouldn't occur for years!

Story: the real problem with the horses escaping periodically is that the back side of my property butts up against a collection of houses that has built up around a lake. I'm on 15 acres and right behind me there are 50-100 small houses on much less total land. On a couple of occassions, the horses have toured this 'subdivision'. Scares me to death because I think cars, kids, liability, etc. But it is quite humorous to hear neighbors reflecting on how these huge animals were passing through my backyard, looking in my windows, eating my garden, etc. I've been lucky thus far - time to quit tempting fate.

 

[jyoutz]

Whatever you do don't use standard 11 gauge barbless wire (unless you want to do lots of fence repair). This stuff get's tore up by horses pretty quick. If you want to go barbless, then use regular high tensile (electric) wire. If you don't want to electrify it, then just put the strands closer together and use more strands. This stuff is cheap, easy to install, and UNBREAKABLE. I have used it in forestry applications to protect aspen regeneration areas from elk. Elk don't tear it up, and the wire hasen't even broken after a winter of large downfall timber on the fence. After cutting the trees, the wire just sprang back up. Incredible stuff. The only downside is that you need to construct some very strong corners to pull from, because this stuff can really pull. Get some good info from someone who has used this wire and learn their construction tips.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I'd like to throw something out, that being making sure your tetanus booster is up to date if there are animals around the barbed wire you're removing, and to watch that wire carefully, even new wire, it has a way of coming up at your face, I think it has a mind of it's own and is EVIL!.

Last time I had to deal with disposing of some I blipped it with the torch into smaller chunks. I saw a guy with a bundle of old wire going to the dump it had uncoiled and was hanging down in the road as he drove.