FARM FENCING?! how far apart should my posts be, and what size post?

[Colored Egg Farmer]

You never know... We got fenceing and don't know a thing on how to do it or the way it should be

lol

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
That would be a good idea except for 5 miles or so is cow-farming land, and most of the farmers have the worst fencing I've ever seen, and the only comperable applications are the horse riding school up the road, again terrible fencing, literally on the ground, and a thoroughbred racing farm a few towns away, but here is the opposite side of the scale, a farm that has spent millions on their beautiful (and i mean BEAUTIFUL) fencing.

 

[greyfields]

Maybe you'll need to expand your radius.

A lot of people get uptight about what kind of breeds of livestock they raise. I always tell them "Find what your neighbor raises, then raise the same thing." They probably know something you don't, or at the very least you'll have some first hand knowledge at your fingertips... or breeding stock...

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Haha, yeah we're going to get some goats, I'm so excited! We've always had horses, and never the space to keep them ourselves, or anything else for that matter (We had a neighbour who kept chickens, but was quickly ousted from the neighbourhood). Plus, we have a whole load of dogs, since we breed dogs. Anyway, we just got back from dinner and were really surprised to find out that my dad had decided to fund the fencing! Which is excellent, so now we can actually go and buy NICE posts, and the stuff we REALLY want rather than what we just NEED. So... we're going to buy the 5" posts, depending on whether or not we do 8' or 10', we're going to ask the seller, who happens to be the cow farmer/corn farmer who lives behind us, and all around us aha, what length he uses. Though, I know for right now, that 8' is probably all we can do since we live right on the very edge of the Canadian Shield (We live up in Stirling-Rawdon Township, north of Belleville). So much to do in such a little amount of time, we open for boarders first week of August, plus we get our first lot of chicks on July 16th, and still have to fix the Coop, and put together/ design our brooder (has to be lasting and sturdy, not to mention easy to clean cause its gonna last for a longgggggggg time), plus we have a litter of labradoodle puppies due the first week of June, and it's just hecktick, especially since we move out of our house in the suburbs last week of June!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Woudn't it depend on what type of fence your putting up? We jsut completed horse fence. We did 5" cedar posts not more than 10' apart running three strands of elelctric rope, with a top rail of the vinyl roll. Corner posts were 10" cedar posts. We sent our "blue print"-- to a horse fencing company and they cam back with what we needed. We ordered from them, but we installed our selves (saves alota dough) We fenced ~three acres for under $3000, and it is done well. We used horsemens fence for the all-season paddock. I highly recommend a post pounder--saved alot of labour. We haven't even needed to turn on our elelctirc fence, as the horses already know from experience to respect the fence.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

THANKS GUYS FOR THE ADVICE!

We went to Lutes Cedar today, and BOY are they helpful, anyway we are ordering 130 5" by 8Ft posts, the guy who owns the place puts up fences all the time, and said that sinking them 3FT is good enough, leaving us with a 5FT fence. We are also getting 6" by 10FT posts for corners and gates, and then something like 300 3" by 10FT half-log rails, which don't need to be painted since the bark is left on. He said that 10FT spacing is PERFECTLY fine, and will last ages if properly cared for (we're maintanence freaks!). Can't wait to get the fencing started!

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
Did you order from System Fencing?.... cause they definitely ripped you off, they price outrageously, we bought most of our electric fencing supplies from our local co-op for anywhere from a 1/4 the price - 1/2 the price of what they were selling it for. NOT TO MENTION, their fence posts are marked up something like 200%! They wanted to charge me $18.00 FOR A 5" X 8FT POST, INSANE! Esp. since I am buying mine for $7.25 straight from the supplier hehe, cheeky.

We're putting up 3 rail cedar fencing (half-log system, rather than milled... it's cheaper and lasts longer for the rails), with a strand of electric polyrope along the top rail, and eventually a strand of electric poly rope on the knee rail. All our horses we have come onto the property are introduced to the electric fence by nose (it's a solar system, and therefore is not a HUGE shock, ... we're not shocking to kill like some of the horse stables i've been to around my area

) and they tend to stay away forever after that. Our almost 7 acres of paddocks is going to cost about $3000.00 give or take to fence, and we're hiring a local to bring his post digger on his tractor to dig our holes, then we're cementing in the perimeter posts for extra strength.

Have to buy gates next, and stock tanks (those nifty rubbermaid ones!), and salt block bowls, and salt blocks, and a garden tractor, and wood to build the stalls in the barn, plus paint the barn... so much work!

 

[Shadowj]

Okay its been 10 years since the discussion on the proper fence spacing and what would or wouldn't work. Now id like to know what did work.
I live in Northern NYS 20 miles south of Canada where temperature swings from summer of 80-90 to minus 35 in winter.
Id like to put up fence on 20 acres and put a few beef cattle in it. I know they can be rough on fence and walk through some if not done properly.
Any suggestions ?
Im hoping that even an old post ill get a hit back.
Thanks