Insane fencing costs?

[maritown]

Have read all that you have posted and the answers. Greybeard is one of the most experienced here, and he makes some very valid points. All the braces and such to keep the fence upright, wire tight and gates functional are costly. Did it ever occur to you to get the perimeter fenced, then go back and put in the division fences later? Especially since you are not there and may find that you really wanted the gate here instead of over at the other end???? Stuff like that. Then there is also the whole...it's getting closer to winter and WINTER is spelled with capital letters in upstate NY. I am originally a New Englander, and know very well about the winters, snow, ice, long nights and short days, miserable cold temps, MUD SEASON, and all that. Also, what about water availability? Putting in underground water with frost proof faucets would be alot easier if there aren't ten different fences to have to work around.

Another thing, suppose you want one or two lots to be smaller to house a male animal and then you need to have a larger area to house a few females together? Then the fence is already permanent and you are finding it is not practical....
Also, look at the sketch that latestarter showed.... there is alot more sense in a center alley halfway and so the back 2 lots will share a common fenceline but you will save alot of extra fencing/posts/bracing etc..
What about having electrified netting as interior divider fences until you figure out what works the best. UNTIL you live with the weather and such for a little while, you might be just putting too much into it right off the bat.

Yes land and farms are ALOT CHEAPER up in NY state. The taxes are a B%@#H, and the winters are tough. I have family in NY so know firsthand.... The growing season is shorter and the winters are longer. It's beautiful up there as is Vermont and NH. But it is not for everyone. Since you are committed and planning the move soon I would be a bit hesitant to put that much into the fencing until you have dealt with the day to day. The 16' fence panels from TSC can be put up fairly easily with T-posts, and will do for temp pens, and since you will have a barn they can be used for alleyways to move animals to pastures. If your animals respect electric, I would use that for temp interior fencing until you get there and then are able to deal with it in person.

My son does some fencing for the different people we rent from, and I showed him a sketch of what you were proposing and he just said NO WAY; way too much work and bracing....it will cost them a small fortune. We have no skin in the game so are not trying to rip you off; just his off hand comment.

Hmm...all things to think about. Perhaps I will draw up new plans and see about getting quotes with those. Though I will say the price is not coming from braces, it's coming from being charged $8 and $18 a foot. So though your points are valid, I don't think it's the braces that are causing me trouble.

I don't want pastures less than an acre, and if I did I would put it in myself with panels and T-posts. We have 1/2 acre pastures for our bucks right now and I have spent the entire time wishing they had more.

Water isn't an issue- the plan with the aisle was designed to have the in ground water at the junction of four pastures. I also didn't want to rely on gates to get to the back acreage of the property- what if all pastures are full? I don't want to have to wrestle animals from gates just to drive through.

But again, all things to think about. I didn't think fencing 4 acres would be such a big deal!!

 

[maritown]

The big reason for the alley was because the property has essentially a bottle neck of about 5 acres cleared which then widens out to the remaining wooded 15. So to utilize the 5 cleared, I wanted to make the edges of the fencing just shy of being perimeter fences. The alley was so that there was access to the later 15 LOL.

Any ideas how to design around that?

 

[Mini Horses]

I have 15 acres, basically all cleared. Over time, all has been fenced and I DO HAVE an alley the entire length of the property. It is used as a driveway, as a way to move or separate animals and/or contain them if need be. I am glad I worked it this way. Easy to move upper to lower without worrying, load out hay, move equipment, feeder, etc.

At first I put one side, then added the other over time when $$ available. Water is run the entire length, underground & spigots up at various locations to fill troughs, generally where 4 corners are. I have a rectangle property also. It is a great method for movement -- seen at all the big horse farms! LOL

While there are 4 gates that mostly remain open in the alley, I do also keep a "spare" cattle panel or two in a couple locations in case I need to quickly section a smaller area. Works for me! I often place a few animals in the alley to help "mow" or use as a holding pen while I have to access pasture area without their help. About 1/2 way, I have and expended location where I can turn my truck if needed, within the alley.

 

[maritown]

I have 15 acres, basically all cleared. Over time, all has been fenced and I DO HAVE an alley the entire length of the property. It is used as a driveway, as a way to move or separate animals and/or contain them if need be. I am glad I worked it this way. Easy to move upper to lower without worrying, load out hay, move equipment, feeder, etc.

At first I put one side, then added the other over time when $$ available. Water is run the entire length, underground & spigots up at various locations to fill troughs, generally where 4 corners are. I have a rectangle property also. It is a great method for movement -- seen at all the big horse farms! LOL

While there are 4 gates that mostly remain open in the alley, I do also keep a "spare" cattle panel or two in a couple locations in case I need to quickly section a smaller area. Works for me! I often place a few animals in the alley to help "mow" or use as a holding pen while I have to access pasture area without their help. About 1/2 way, I have and expended location where I can turn my truck if needed, within the alley.

Glad to see this worked for someone! That is my idea as well; I think it is much more trouble to have the only through-way be through pastures. I grew up on horse farms so maybe that is a common factor LOL.

 

[greybeard]

Though I will say the price is not coming from braces, it's coming from being charged $8 and $18 a foot. So though your points are valid, I don't think it's the braces that are causing me trouble.

$8/ft is extreme, but you have to realize, that the way any contractor, whether a house framer or a fence builder quotes a job is to consider all the (for a house) angles, pitches, stairs etc, and for a fence, the number of openings, corners, cross fences and bracing, then quotes a price per sq ft on a building,or price per linear foot on a fence based on what is entailed in the whole job---the more openings, individual pulls, corners, braces etc, the more the quote per linear ft is going to be...but again, $8/ft seems very high. If it were just a straight line fence, with very few gate openings and no corners, but of the same total length as the fence around and across your 4 ac, I very much suspect the price/ft would be lower.

As others have said, even with your stated limited experience, you or I could build your fence much cheaper doing it ourselves. Our labor is free, we won't have to pay liability insurance, just go buy the materials, some fencing tools and get after it, assuming we have the time to do so before we wanted to stock it.

Do not be surprised if your first product doesn't flow and work as you envisioned it to.
I re-did my cattle handling facility several times before I got it to work efficiently. Animals and how they act and react to opening and closing gates into another paddock will always surprise you. It's why I now have over 25 gates on my place instead of just the handful I began with, and I still need some more cross fences and a much longer funnel shaped alley leading into my cow pen.

I suggest, you make a better, more detailed drawing of your whole property, if possible using a survey plat or google earth and paste it into an image editor such as MS paint and add in where you want your 4 ac paddocks.
A rough one of my property I just did in 10 minutes in Paint, with white=crossfences, blue=gates, yellow=perimeter fences. It's not all of it, and I don't have every gate indicated, but close enough.

 

[farmerjan]

As Greybeard said, the price per foot is with all the braces, wire, gates etc figured in. There is alot of labor in the design. And I totally agree with the trying to go through a gate when all the animals want to follow right along and you don't want them in the next field. I understand better that the alley/driveway will also be access to the back piece of property....that makes a big difference and good reason to want to have it. I think that the idea of plotting it with google earth and all that might make you see it differently, or at least you will know for sure that what you are wanting is what you need. The alley way can be dual purpose also as mini horses said. We have a couple of lanes that we can open and direct cattle to certain places and such so they are very handy. Maybe you can get one side done and then do the other side next year or as you can do it.

 

[maritown]

As Greybeard said, the price per foot is with all the braces, wire, gates etc figured in. There is alot of labor in the design. And I totally agree with the trying to go through a gate when all the animals want to follow right along and you don't want them in the next field. I understand better that the alley/driveway will also be access to the back piece of property....that makes a big difference and good reason to want to have it. I think that the idea of plotting it with google earth and all that might make you see it differently, or at least you will know for sure that what you are wanting is what you need. The alley way can be dual purpose also as mini horses said. We have a couple of lanes that we can open and direct cattle to certain places and such so they are very handy. Maybe you can get one side done and then do the other side next year or as you can do it.

Funnily enough, the 25k quote was the only one who even had details on the project. The 18/ft quoted that without knowing size or layout. Others I'm calling are busy, or don't do ag fencing. Looks like we will be doing it ourselves

 

[Baymule]

Get one of these! Best $200 we spent!

https://www.harborfreight.com/gas-powered-earth-auger-63022.html

Read, read and read some more the fence forum. When thoroughly confused, ask questions. We made a lot of mistakes on our fence, but it is up and it works. Nothing will be perfect. We are proud of our fence. Just about the time we got done, we got really good at what we were doing. LOL

YOU CAN DO THIS!

 

[Baymule]

Be sure to deeply offset your front gate to allow truck and trailer room and allow a wide driveway at the road for swing room. You don't want to be parked out on the road, blocking traffic, while you open the gate, so set the gate deep enough to accommodate truck and trailer with room to spare. We set a 16' gate on the front. We put in two 20' culverts linked together for swing room. We use it because we live on a narrow county road. We have another 16' gate where we needed swing room, everything else is 12' gates. Anything less than 12', unless it is a walk through, is useless, especially for a tractor to go through. More is better. After my husband took out a gate post, I realized I could have used another 16' gate. Patched with T-posts for now, will get rehung with a 16' gate this winter. LOL

 

[maritown]

Hey all!

We ended up being able to hire our Amish neighbors to do the job so it is looking like it will be up before the official move! Yay!

So I am now in the process of buying materials. I decided to go ahead and cut down on the pasture size by half-to 1/2 acre pastures, so that we could get it up and then use these as kidding pastures in the future.

What size wood posts should I be looking at? We'll be using wood posts for all corners and gates, and t-posts anywhere in between. It looks like TS only carries up to 6in diameter...this seems kind of small to me, but they charge $15 a piece what do you all think, worth it? They have 4in for $8 a piece, but that seems so small to me.

What kind of posts do you all use? Experiences, wisdom!? Thank you all