Perimeter fencing pasture

   / Perimeter fencing pasture #1  

drumminj

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2021
Messages
467
Location
Tennessee
Tractor
Kubota L4701
With the garden, greenhouse, and beehives now up and running on our property it’s time for the next project — building a barn and fencing in our pasture. Looking to get some guidance from folks on woven wire fence (I’ve read many of the older threads here but still have some questions).

The CFO sadly denied my request to buy a hydraulic post pounder, so I’ll be hiring out the work to fence our ~4 acre pasture. The plan is to raise sheep with a couple of standard donkeys as guard animals (and pets to be honest), but I want to build everything to work well for horses if we decide we want some in the future. The plan is to go with 5” round posts pounded into the ground (thicker corner posts - I forget the size), then run 4’ no-climb woven horse fence with three-board over it for aesthetics, using the top board to get us to about 4.5’ total height. We’ll run the wire and boards on the inside of the posts.

I’m in the middle of getting a quote from the fencing contractor who did our dog/yard fence, and have a few questions for the experienced folks here:

1) I’m trying to ensure we get class 3 galvanized wire. Doesn’t look like Red Brand sells that in a no-climb horse fence, but Bekaert and OK Brand seem to. Is there something else I should be looking at?

2) With horses, my understanding is you want to avoid 90 degree or sharper corners. How is this normally done with tensioned fence that needs bracing? Can you do two consecutive 45 degree “corners” instead?

3) We’ll want some curves in the fence line - see photo below. Bekaert’s install guide suggests swapping the fence to the other side of posts to keep it on the “outside” of a curve, but obviously we’d like to keep the wire and boards on the same side of the posts. For mild curves and posts 8’ apart will it work to keep the wire on the “inside” of the posts?

4) what about a larger “sweeping” 90 degree turn?

What else should I be concerned about making sure they do it correctly? Appreciate any thoughts or input.

Pasture.jpg
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #2  
i used red brand 48” non climb for the 10 acres across from my main property about 3-4 years ago. I used standard field fence for the main 20 acres of fencing and cross fencing. I like the look of the non climb better than the field fence, but money was real tight 20 years ago.

I will never include wood top piece on any fence. Ive seen horses chew that to pieces. I just run a top hot wire.

As to donkeys and sheep. My wife put a few sheep into pen with the donkey thinking the donkey would protect the sheep. Donkey ended up killing both sheep. The donkey was real friendly with people, but didnt like the way the sheep would climb on him while he was asleep. Wasnt into king of the mountain games.

I did 90° corners by placing all corners as 3 posts with bracing and cross supports. A post all by itself in a corner will pull out of the ground.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #3  
I push T-posts down with the loader bucket. It's much quicker with a helper.

Of course, the type of ground may require something more meaningful than a loader bucket.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture
  • Thread Starter
#4  
i used red brand 48” non climb for the 10 acres across from my main property about 3-4 years ago. I used standard field fence for the main 20 acres of fencing and cross fencing. I like the look of the non climb better than the field fence, but money was real tight 20 years ago.

I will never include wood top piece on any fence. Ive seen horses chew that to pieces. I just run a top hot wire.

As to donkeys and sheep. My wife put a few sheep into pen with the donkey thinking the donkey would protect the sheep. Donkey ended up killing both sheep. The donkey was real friendly with people, but didnt like the way the sheep would climb on him while he was asleep. Wasnt into king of the mountain games.

I did 90° corners by placing all corners as 3 posts with bracing and cross supports. A post all by itself in a corner will pull out of the ground.

Thanks for the feedback. Any rusting on the red brand so far?

I've read that donkeys can kill sheep, and the book I'm reading recommends getting sheep specifically bred/raised for being guard animals, and also it's better to get them when they're young/to bond with the flock. As much as I love dogs I don't want to get/deal with a LGD for a handful of sheep.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #5  
I'm 73 & fenced by myself. We're in Virginia. There are 100+ ways to fence but I did it like here with 1 exception. I used tractor & auger (Danuser w/9" auger&spare bit & cutters).
If you have that...no big deal.
I ran string line on property lines. Only help was my wife I had long pole & a good rifle/scope (yes...unloaded). Pole had a level on it. She would hold it & I'd guide her L&R...then stick in ground mark.
Then stakes & string. Start at corner, auger down 2-3ft with PT 9s. go out 10ft each way & auger & another PT9. Then a PT5 w/ galvanized dowel...everything straight&level (level ground)...then X'd heavy galv wire & ratchets.
Now I had starting point.
Then all fencing a PT9 every 50ft, four 7ft heavy T posts between every 10ft. Then red-top woven wire. I wired up a foot (we have horses...they're not going under 1 foot & bush hog can mow under. I wouldn't want even galvanized wire touching the ground.
Every transition I used 3 posts, even a small angle.
Now wire. I used two 2x4s holes drilled & carriage bolts, washers, nuts. Use fence for guide. Idea is clamped tight to wire fence now with come-a-longs & ratchets I pulled so tight you could play a tune on it. Galvanized staples hammered in.
Corner posts I poured in quikrete. Others a 7ft tamping iron. T posts pounded in w/ tamper (good exercise).
18ft gates were fine for me.
Very top used T post insulators & post insulators, white flat elec. ribbon with solar charger. A driven ground plus I connected ground to fence.
I've never fenced but figured it out.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #7  
Thanks for the feedback. Any rusting on the red brand so far?

I've read that donkeys can kill sheep, and the book I'm reading recommends getting sheep specifically bred/raised for being guard animals, and also it's better to get them when they're young/to bond with the flock. As much as I love dogs I don't want to get/deal with a LGD for a handful of sheep.
It still looks new
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #8  
As said above, horses will chew wooden boards. Also run a top strand of electric with woven wire or the horses will lean over the woven wire to get at the greener grass on the other side. A 1000 pound horse leaning on woven wire will cause all sorts of problems.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture #9  
It looks like you aren’t getting close to your boundary. If you are have you had a boundary survey done.
 
   / Perimeter fencing pasture
  • Thread Starter
#10  
It looks like you aren’t getting close to your boundary. If you are have you had a boundary survey done.

The tree lines aren't necessarily the property boundaries. I do know exactly where the property lines are (all recently surveyed and marked). Only one side (the top in the picture) of the pasture will run on a property line, and I'm purposefully putting the fence about 3' off the line due to TN laws on fencing as well as to leave us room to maintain the backside of the fence.
 

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