Agricultural Fence Installation Questions

[Rich Riddle]

Spring arrived and it's time to stop delaying the projects. We are installing an agricultural fence in the backyard of the house. It's quite a steep hill and past problems with hunters and interlopers made us decide to put up a no climb 48" fence which will also keep in the dogs but and meet the requirements for pool fences in this area. Using hedge for posts what would be the span between the posts? Are 8 - 10" corner posts the right way to go? Who would you have help install the fence? Fencing has already been ordered so a regular fencing company might not like that. It's about 1000' installation. Thanks for input.

[Jesse Busenitz]

Are you talking a 5 strand barbwire? If so I'd be doing it all myself, but that's because I've put in a few miles of that stuff before. On the corner braces we use a 10-12" post with a 10' span, but I think thats longer than most. I built a brace at the front of our drive way with 18" hedge post which should be there a looooong time!

[Tom M King]

Posts should be 8' centers. For Non-climb make a puller bar out of a couple of 2x4's and bolts that you can hook a come-along to for pulling the fence fairly tight It doesn't have to be extremely tight, but it's hard to get any wrinkles or folds out of it without the puller. When you tilt it up into place after rolling the whole roll out, be as careful as possible not to put any bends in it. The puller will help, but you can't get bent wires straightened out even with the puller. Three people is bare minimum, and best if those are people used to working.

Straighten out the fence staples the night before with a hammer and hard surface like an anvil. It goes way easier with parallel leg staples.

Set your corner posts as deep, and tight as possible.

Are you using a top board?

We used non-climb for our dog yards, and one fence is shared with the horse pasture. I didn't use a top board there because we didn't want to block the view, but there is a hot wire above to prevent the horses from leaning on the fence.

[Lon Crosby]

See if the local school has an FFA program (Future Farmers of America) and call the instructor and ask if they are interested in a project. Visit the local livestock feed dealer to check the bulletin board and ask the manager who they would recommend. Ask employees where you got the hedge posts who they would recommend. It is just a matter of asking. The critical factor in fencing is the bracing on the corner posts. Ask the county agricultural extension office for a pamphlet on installing ag fencing.

[Jim Becker]

Many fencing companies will be perfectly happy to do the post installation for you and they can do it considerably faster than most individuals because of both experience and "tools". Corner posts and bracing are very important and "more stout" isn't a bad thing. I agree with Tom that 8' intervals is best for no-climb, but I've seen it pushed to 10' in some situations where there's a top board. (typical for horses, etc.)

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

Having put in 1500 ft of this fence last Spring and several miles of horse fencing, I have done this a lot.

For no climb woven wire fences, you will want wooden or metal "H braces" at the corners (great explanations on the web and some ag sites, 4-6" diameter posts are fine) and a wooden line post every 100 ft or change in elevation. You can then use t-posts every 8-10 ft between the wooden posts.

I highly recommend the fence stretcher mentioned by Mr. King, but I use 2 come alongs--one at the top and one at the bottom.

Good luck