Fence height?

[FriedgesCharolais]

Just bought a new place and have to put a new pasture fence up. Curious how tall the top wire on your fence is? How tall are the wood posts? What kind of fence you would use if you could do it all over again, stick with barb wire or go to high tensile?

Thanks

 

[OH Breeder]

I have barb for large spans of pasture. Woods etc. Lots close to the barns I put panel fence up. When we go to separate calves, I have had them try to run through barb. Panel fence they just bounce back. We use 6" treated wood post every second one and 2 steel post. We used 60" panel with a strand of barb at the top and electric in the middle. 5 strands of barb wire.
I tried tension fence. Got tired of having to tighten it every spring. Calves would go through it when spooked and deer. Maybe I didn't know how to put it up correct. I like what we have now. Dream fence would be welded pipe all the way around the pastures.

 

[GoWyo]

Boundary fences with potential to have neighboring bulls against it, I use at least 5-wire barbed with top wire 46-48" and bottom wire 18" off the ground with wires evenly spaced in between.  If bulls get to talking trash across it and leaning on it, then a strand of hot wire on top and maybe another in the middle -- still experimenting with this one.

Interior fences are 3-wire high tensile electric with bottom wire at 22" and top wire at 46" and middle wire at 32".  My posts are 60 feet apart.  These are just for my own pasture rotations with a single herd moving through the pastures and it has worked well so far with just a Parmak 12 solar charger on it.  Interior pastures are 40-80 acres.  They will run through them if on a stampede, so it is important to avoid that happening.  I like these fences because they are quick and fairly cheap to build and with the bottom wire being 22" off the ground the tumble weeds seldom catch on them.  They are really stretchy, so if wildlife hit them at speed they seem to just bounce back or through without damage to the fence.

For weaning we started using the nose tabs and then they go to a corral after a week, so we don't pressure a fence with fence line weaning.

 

[cbcr]

On long stretches of fence we use barbed wire.  Usually use 6 strands which makes it more difficult for them to try to poke their heads thru.  As the old saying goes grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. put the top wire at 52 inches and the bottom around 12 - 14 inches then evenly space the rest.

 

[blackdirt cowboy]

+1 cbcr. That's what we do. With an 8 foot cedar every 30'. Two steel posts between that, then a cedar deuce between everything. We end up with a post every 5 feet. Makes a pretty tight fence.

 

[neocattleman]

i don't remember our fence height but we use a 5 strand high tensile with the 2nd and 4th strands hot and we love it, never have had to work on it just spray the weeds and briers from growing through it. we have used barbed wire and have found that the high tensile works better on keeping them in the pasture. for splitting the interior of the pasture we just use plastic step in posts and 2 strands of poly wire just make sure the poly wire is hot otherwise they just walk through it.

 

[diamonddls]

Use 5 strand Barb wire at 50" at the top and 12" on the bottom. Feed pens are mostly 2x6 with wind board gradually changing out to pipe for less maintenance but it is more costly. Use the h.d. Pipe panels to build catch corrals in fall. Working pens are pipe 72" as we see all types of cattle with the feedlot it just helps prevent jumping and injury having the higher fence in high pressure areas.