just wonderin what you guys think.. I am gonna build the new paddok out of 4' field fencing and am plannin to put the t-bars about 6-7' apart. should I go closer?
we went 10 feet... not over 12 feet......but.... if you want to go 6-7' apart....you can... :wink: :greengrin:
Because goats are notorious fence benders, mine like to rub along the fence...my t-posts are no more than 5 feet apart.
Just dont want em pushin the fence down and the field fencing is a bit less sturdy than the chain I have been usin, but chain for that area is a bit expensive and they cant graze through chain.
When you do put up the fencing, make sure you have it stretched as tight as you can get it between the posts, I did the welded wire fencing at first and found that if it is stretched enough they can't really push it out very far...and placing the posts at 4 feet help so they couldn't "walk and slide" cross a long space of fence without hitting a post..sort of prevented it from bowing out wards. I replaced my pens with the galvanized goat panels a few years ago because my buck was literally going thru the welded wire....he would break the welds with his head/horns and bend it enough to get out. Haven't had that problem yet though with the panels :greengrin:
I would always go closer rather then to far apart. I learned that lesson after redoing the fence for the third time.
When we put our fencing up we used about 10' spacing for our t-posts and got a fence stretcher which was definitely worth the money. From what I have seen though, no amount of closeness of posts is going to keep goats in or critters out without a hot wire across the top. We have a hot line on the top, and one in the middle of the interior and along the bottom of the exterior to keep critters (including our dogs) out. BTW before we put the hot wires up, I could actually climb over the fence without it giving way and we used woven wire field fence. Oh, and DON'T skimp on the fence clips they are the main support for the fence. I used 7 clips on a 9 wire fence, I skipped the bottom line and the 3rd from the bottom line.
I don't use fence clips. I use anchor wire and it works great. I cannot get fence clips to work right. I just tuck the ends of the twisted wire behind itself close to the t post.
When I bought the T-bars they gave me 200 fence clips. The only thing I dont have is a post driver and a stretcher, but the stretcher wont work due to where the fence is going in at. most of it will be against brush. I will hook the end to the truck and use it as a stretcher for the final pull.
If you don't have the bars to use as a stretcher, you could use two 2x4s bolted together at intervals attached top and bottom to a come-along. It won't last as long but it should work. We also used our truck as an anchor point. The problem you can run into using just the truck instead of a come along is you can't move it in small increments. If you can beg/borrow a come along it will work better. It is very important to get that fence tight, any wiggle room will only get worse as time goes on. Also be careful when using your truck that you aren't pulling the fence down more than across the fence line, once its on crooked, its impossible to fix. With the clips, make sure you get them good and tight, they have specialty fencing pliers that make the job 100x easier, about $15 but worth every penny especially if you have any length of fence to put up.
is that a straight 300 ft, or are their corners? It makes a difference when it comes to stretching, I found that we could only really stretch about 100ft at a time between wood posts before it was just impossible to keep the fence where you want it. So, we attached it to the corner, pulled it tight to the first 100ft post, then clipped it to the t-posts, then moved to the next section of fence stapling it to the wood posts as we went. We fenced in a total of 3 acres that is triangular in shape-ish and several sub fences in between. It was a total of about 2000 linear feet I think.
Havent figured where the corners are goin. I had like an hour to look at the property in Pa and I am in Az I figure about 75' a side give or take.
Thats not too bad then, provided you either get special braces to make t-post corners, or use wood posts that are braced in the direction of the pull of the fence. Sounds like a lot of work to put in, but its pretty easy. 75 ft give or take is fine in my experience for a run of fence without too many problems.
Yes, you want the posts on the inside of the fence with the bumpy part towards the outside so that you have something to fasten the fence to. Also if you are going to put a hot line on the fence, make sure you get the plastic insulators that face the right direction, I got a bag once of ones meant for the outside, when I needed them for the inside... easy to confuse them as they all seem to look the same until you try to fasten them to the fence. Oh, and don't forget to plan how / where you will put your gate/s in and how they will be attached. We had to jury rig something at the last moment because of issues with the way standard gates attach to the posts.
