Constructing a woven wire field fence - PICS

[SheepGirl]

We got 90% of the posts up...then we took a break for dinner and the sun set :/ We have less than 20 posts to do, so it shouldn't take long to finish it in the morning. Then we will do the wire and then my uncle has to leave to head back home.

Pics tomorrow night or Monday

 

[Royd Wood]

Red Brand sheep and goat wire was on sale last week at TSC $229 for a 330ft roll. (Canada) its really good quality for your dollar
Done so much fencing here cost was like crazy but 6 years later it looks great and still new. The Red Brand wire looks like I put it up yesterday shiny - no rust and made in the USA
Aggie's right 6" posts for corners and gates will do and make sure you brace - my Galloways use em as itching posts and so far still straight.
We have the wire on the outside of posts and electric on the inside mainly to stop pigs rooting the fenceline and the cows scratching on it. For sheep then you need to run it tight to the ground otherwise they will get central between two posts and lift it.

 

[bonbean01]

Straw posted an excellent step by step with photos on putting up a fence...it is on his journal and also in the fencing section.

 

[SheepGirl]

We finished everything about a half hour ago, right as the rain started coming down I will update later with pics--we are going out to eat before my uncle leaves to go back home.

 

[secuono]

What is the point of you adding barbed wire???
Totally useless if you ask me.

If it's to keep animals from leaning on it, barbed wire is worthless. I know 6 horses total that lean over barbed wire like it's not there. I put hot wire on my fence so my two won't lean on it.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

What is the point of you adding barbed wire???
Totally useless if you ask me.

If it's to keep animals from leaning on it, barbed wire is worthless. I know 6 horses total that lean over barbed wire like it's not there. I put hot wire on my fence so my two won't lean on it.

x2 Barbed wire is pretty useless, imo. It doesn't keep them off it and it can be very dangerous to them. Lots of downside and no real upside. I too see horses just lean into it or reach right over it with their heads and necks. Hot wire works best because it can not do any damage but keeps them off and it is not dangerous.

 

[SheepGirl]

Okay, here is the long, extensive update...

My uncle came up Friday night with the family. We stayed up late talking about where the fence is going to go and gate location, etc. He gave us lots of good advice, esp since (what I learned) he has put up 100s of acres of fencing with my great uncle (so his uncle).

Saturday morning I had a meeting with the counselor at college to discuss my classes and everything, so my mom and uncle dropped me off and then they went to go pick up the post pounder. So my grandmother came to pick me up and then we ran to the grocery store. We headed home and they had only a couple posts up. They did manage to break a couple posts from hitting rocks lol.

Soo we were still clearing some brush right along the fence line where we marked it at to make the post pounder fit better.

We got the entire back done.

Making sure the post is level...

My mom had a change of plans, so we made the fence parallel with the back of the house and then it went straight out (sorry if that doesn't make sense lol, but instead of being a rectangle, it curves a bit).

This morning we started at about 8:30 or so. The had to finish pounding in the posts this morning on the front and on some of the side. So while they were pounding in posts, my grandfather, my cousin, my brother, and I rolled out the first roll of fencing and we stretched it by hand (with hammers). It actually worked really well and it made the fence really tight. We put the top of the 47" fencing at 50" so we can have a string of barbed wire at the bottom, so that way if the sheep try to push out, they'll prick their noses on it first and they won't try to do it again. That's what my uncle suggested, so we did that. We haven't put up the barbed wire yet. But here's the portion of the fence we hand-tightened.

So by the time we nailed in the fencing, they got done pounding in the posts and my uncle brought out his fence stretcher (he brought it along so we didn't have to buy it ). We managed to put up 3 rolls of wire in less than 2 hours--course it helped that my uncle had it stretched over 6 posts and then us 6 kids all nailed in a post, so 6 posts all got nailed in in the time it takes to nail in 1-2 posts.

Here's what we did with the fence stretcher:

And here are some pictures of the finished product...

Here's how we did the corners.

There was a HUGE trench/hole with boulders in it, so instead of putting a post on either side of it (like I suggested), my mom decided she just wanted to go around it.

You can see the amount of brush we cleared.

You can see how we un-rectangle'd it here.

Here's our gate. They accidentally put the post 2.5" too far away so now there's a big gap in between the post and the gate. But it's okay, because it's too narrow for any critters to fit through. Also the chain was too short.

 

[Catahoula]

Nice!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Wow you are good!!

 

[Symphony]

Nice job, its great to have so much good help.