Wooden Fence Posts

[lman]

Iman - The primary purpose of my barbed wire fence is to keep cattle out. Secondarily - it's to establish the perimeters of my property. Because I choose EverSharp barbed wire - it does a pretty good job of keeping people out also.

Sounds kind of like it's still open range around there.

 

[hosspuller]

For horses, I installed high tensile wire 26 years ago. You will hear horror stories from many people about how a horse got hurt. I will tell you a horse is an animal that's suicidal. A horse can get hurt on any fence. wood, pipe, mesh, barbed wire, etc. My experience with high tensile has been great. The only fence damage I've ever had was inflicted by a machine. (tractor or mower) Trees that fall on it, are cut off and the wire springs back up.

High tensile relies on being electrified... AND the horse being trained to avoid it. Actually, any fence has to be electrified for horses because they will rub on it and tear it down.

As a horse newbie, listen to experience. It'll save you money and heartache. If you want more details on building and maintenance... pm me.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

lol! The fence we removed was so old it had hand cut cedar posts. the barb wire was mostly rusted away. Many of the posts had fallen over from rot.

edit. If you go for the auger, make sure you have (or install) a PTO clutch. If you hit a big rock the auger stops. It is time consuming (shipping time) and frustrating changing a broken PTO shaft.

Just cut up a live stock panel and use the rods for shear pins. Been doing that as long as they been making panels. Never fixed any pto. Fenced hundreds of acres. Fencing 200 more after it cools off. T posts are here already.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Horses, I know …. Don’t say it… but my 16 year old daughter and wife seem to have won this battle. They are currently at a boarding facility @ $1100 per month, so they need to come home.

I've never paid more than 600 for a horse, much less that much to put him up.

 

[Yander]

Borrow or buy a manual post hole digger. Do about 5 as fast as you can. Then put it in the barn and buy an auger. Your perspective on the auger being overkill will be changed forever.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Do you got a picture?

A picture of what?

 

[Hersheyfarm]

You guys that use augers, do you concrete them in or tamp them?

my vote is to hire a local fencer to pound them in.

 

[Hersheyfarm]

Also I’m tired of wooden posts. When i redo I’m going steel. Let the woodpeckers bite into them…

 

[Tinhack]

They are currently at a boarding facility @ $1100 per month, so they need to come home.

Yikes! That would buy me a new home.

 

[hslogger]

In Western Oregon, a project like this would likely entail topsoil and then CLAY. If you buy an auger you will find that drilling holes with a tractor mount or skid steer mount by yourself is less than desired. You will want a spotter. If you drill all these holes, you wil need to clean them out if you don't put your post in right away.

You could drill your corners and use a combination of wood posts and steel posts at diferent spacing. Example wood post every hundred feet, steel post every ten feet. Much depends on what your fencing is going to be. Pounding posts with a dedicated pounder can go very quickly. QUICKLY. Pound them in and voila done. Running around filling and tamping a million wood posts is a DRAG, man. More power to you if that's the way you wanna go.

Out here we don't concrete posts.They rot. And speaking of wood posts, you will find a great array of prices. They reflect wood material and method of treatment. There's a reason a wood post can cost half or twice the money of the cheapest. That's from my experience of putting up farm fence since the seventies.