OT Fencing questions/advice

Looking for some input.....

I'm going to put in a HT woven wire fence. The total perimeter is about 3200'. There will be 8 - 10 corners depending on how I zig-zag around wet spots and other obsticles. The longest runs are around 700' to 800' with some short runs of around 100' feet thrown in.

I'm in Northern Minnesota which means wet muchy clay, wet peat swamp, and lots of snow.

I'm wondering about post size, depth, and spacing.

I'm thinking 8" x 12' treated, round corner posts, 6' down, on the corners with long runs in both directions. On these corners I'd use double H braces made of 6" x 6" x 10' treated square posts, 4' down. The braces would be treated 4" x 4" x 8'.

Note: 6 x 6 x 10 posts are cheaper than 6" round. For all other sizes round is cheaper.

On corners with smaller runs I'd size everything down but the H braces: 6 x 6 corners, untreated cedar single H brace posts and braces.

Everything but the big corners would be down 4'.

Any thoughts, advice, suggestions, etc would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks in advance.

We have build miles of high tension fence. We use 8 foot corner posts with 2 brace panels. We never have any problems with corner posts pulling over except one spot where it is that soft that there is standing water. Personally, I think corner posts 12" long is way over kill. The only way I could think that is possibly needed is in a swamp. Depending how much rock you have you might not be able to get a 12' post in the ground the whole way.

I fenced off 1/2 mile bordering a creek. Some places real boggy. I used 10 foot steel posts and drove them down 5 feet; Have held up 10 years without a problem. Corner posts I set four feet didn't hold. Dug holes for them. Next time I'll use 8 foot pointed posts and not dig holes. Just drive in the corner and mid posts. 8 fotters will work if you use drive in pointed.Push em in with a payloader.

Gordo

In swampy areas I use telephone poles or a large diameter black locust post that is at least 8 inch diameter and down 4 feet for the H brace. I back fill with gravel and make the horizontal stay at least 10 foot or longer. I have some in standing water and muck and they don't move. I think the important thing is how to tie them in with the brace wire. I see real heavy fences braces bend over because they were not braced well and then much smaller diameter braces hold up much better. Sounds like you have more then enough strength in the posts. I have read that for every 6" deeper then 3 feet deep you double the strength of the post.

HIgh Tensile fence will cost a lot less plus cattle will tread down net fence or get their heads stuck in the net and pull the fence off the posts.Net fence is good to keep calves in but thats about it.

What will all of that cost?

That is a lot of fence.

Total cost is going to be a lot but it's worth spending the money up front to avoid headaches later and have fence that will last 30 years.

No cattle for now. We are pasturing pigs. We want a good strong fence to keep them in and predators out. We live on a busy highway that has already claimed several dogs, cats, and ducks. As for predators, you name it we have it. I've taken care of everything from coons to bobcats, and coyotes in and aournd the barn; we also have wolves, bears, and cougars! A farmer a few miles away had a cougar in his barn last summer.

We will have two strands of electric, one on top and one off set.

One other factor is our frost line. We get frost up to six or even seven feet down and it often does not all come out until into June. Local loggers working in the deep bogs have reported hitting frost in July. All that frost can cause a lot of ground heaving around posts that are not down below the line.

Thanks for all the input.

i build 11 mls of 5'pagewire fence ,using powerpole stubs and railway ties 4 1/2 ft deep for the single wire brace corners with 4x4x10 horizontal braces 15 yrs ago.all of it is still square and tight.
i fenced straight trough the wet and swampy spots,i just used longer fence posts there, altough now they start leaning a bit here and there

12 foot post 6 foot down???????????????
NOT in south Missouri

I have another fence question so I just thought I'd update this old post. Yes, a year later and still working on the fence. Several delays put things off last summer and early this year but we're back at it now. I have just about half the line posts in. We're auguring and tamping each post. I know pushing is faster but I don't have anything capable of the job.

All the corners are in and most braces as well. We used the big 12" posts on the main corners and 9" on other, short run corners. All H braces are 4" x 8'. All corners and braces are round treated. They are braced with cable and gripples. They look great and appear to be capable of holding back a freight train. I don't think they'll be pulling out or heaving.

Line posts are cedar 16' apart.

To my question. I have several spost where it is just to wet for posts and I can't go around. The shortest span I can get between the posts is just under 40' in these places. There is a small creek in the middle but for the most part it is just muck, saturated peat. I think, if I could, I would be able to push a 12' post out of sight.

How would you all suggest I make these crossing?