fence post spacing

gonna build a 5 0r 6 strand high tencile fence for cattle in the near future just wondering how far apart you guys put your post i will be using locust for my post some split some round mostly 4 to 6 inch diameters. thanks RICK

I go every 12 feet with wire stays between each pole, 5 strands high tensile barbed, maybe overkill but i hate when they get out...

in my part of the world we space steel tee post every 20 ft and a stay in between.for wood post every 10 ft

For high tencile electric,it looks like they go quite a ways. I don't have any electric fences though. I fenced and cross fenced two 40s 7 years ago,5 strand barbed perimiter,4 strand cross fence,I went 18 feet with steel posts,but I had to put stays in between. If I had it to do over,I'd have gone 12 feet. But like I said,if it's electric,every one I've seen around here looks like they are at least twice as far apart as mine are,with wooden posts.

It is difficult to say, I've seen them 12' to 20'. Average seems to be 1 post per rod or 16.5 feet. Some have 3 strand but most use 4 strand. All t post, alternating t & wood, wood every 3d, 4th, or 5th. 2 or 3 wood posts with cross braces every 1/8 mile or so to make short stretches for tighenting wire.

Depends upon your cattle: bulls, cows, cows with small calves, steers, or some crazy black angus steers.

Depends on what is on the other side: a state highway with lots of traffic, county road, another pasture, wife's flowers, cattle that may intermix with yours, etc.

An extra hot wire or two depending upon the size of your cattle is cheap insurance.

Do you burn your pasture? Less wood to burn the better although you can stay on top of it and keep your posts from all burning.

I built some high tensil fence when I got out of HS 15' on line fence 20' or 25' on cross fence with a tightener ever 1000' or 1200' depending on the run.

For HT hot wires I use T-post and space'n depends on the ground and what it's used for. For the wean'n pin and working pin (turn off juice when use'n working pin!!) I space post about ever 16' to 20'. On perimeter fence I space'm about 40' to 50' on flat ground. On hills and ridges I place them close enough to keep the bottom wire off the ground and the rest 8" to 12" apart. On some real rough ground I have post 5' apart to get over mounds or down in draws.

What you have to keep in mind is that with HT, the line post just have to hold the wires up and apart. The corner post, braces, and tighteners hold the tension. The spring action of the HT and the volts do the work. One of the advantages of HT is cost, alot of the savings come from not having to put a post every 16'.

One word of advice, and this is just my opinion, shop around and be sure to get 175k psi wire and not 200k. If you want to see if you can find some people to give you 10' of each and try to tie each to an insulator and splice each and see for your self before you drop $100 for a bundle of wire you won't like. Also becarefull when shop'n for insulators. Be sure what ever you buy won't break down in sunlight. I have had some cheap ones ger britle and break after 3 years. Also for line post insulators I like the pin lock ones.

Good luck.

Dave

Hi rick,

Keep in mind that I'm not even a amature fence builder but just telling you what I've been reading.

One idea behind 50ft T post spacing is when the animal runs thru the fence, and they will, at 50ft spacing then the wire will pop back up thus be another psychologlical barrier for the ones that didn't get out.

True or not true I can't tell you.

T_Bone

High-tensile with posts that size...50 ft. is what the catalogs recommend. I put up some high tensile a couple weeks ago and man is that slick.

On my dad's ranch it was 5 steps. Not just 5 steps the same every time but within an inch or two of his five steps or you dug it up and did it over. If you looked down the fence line and saw more than one post you dug it up and planted it over. Later in life it was dig a hole throw the post and some dirt in and it was good.