# Fencing a Pasture--Cost?



## gatrapper (Mar 1, 2015)

Hey Y'all,

Fiance and I live on 8 acres which is all pasture. I have a section of pasture that is about an acre in size that I would like to fence to keep a cow or two that we would raise for meat.

I have never installed a barbed wire fence before, so I thought about having someone come and build the fence.

I can get old power poles for free and I heard that I need to put those in the corners.

How much do you think material would cost to fence an acre? Should I use barb wire or use a square wire fencing?


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## TAGoodwin (Mar 6, 2013)

There are web sights that will calculate the costs. Ck out the Red Brand Barbed wire sight.


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## Hiro (Feb 14, 2016)

I have given up on using anything but electric fences for pasture, even a one acre finishing area. My catch pens have panels, but our cows are rough on anything but charged fences.

The last small pasture I put up was for lambing. It is about 1.2 acres and has 6 HT wires. It is oddly shaped for the area that was available near the house, so a square or rectangle would be significantly cheaper. The gates and the corners on a square/rectangle are the only areas that need anything other than 4 inch wooden or t-posts.

Long story short, with a solar charger and the wire/posts and two mesh gates, it was about $450.00. Yours should be much less expensive, needing only 3 or 4 HT wires, instead of 6.


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## CIW (Oct 2, 2007)

Straight line, 5 strand barb on flat semi flat ground will cost about $7.32 per running foot for materials, including wood posts on 16 ft. centers, using good domestic (Red Brand) double barbed wire and staples. If you use imported wire to save a few bucks you will end up with a rusted mess in a few years.
Adding in more gates than 1 per 300 l.f. will up the cost. The more directions changes you have, will also effect the cost.
You are also going to need to purchase at least one stretcher and two would be better.
If you are going to use Telephone poles for the corners carry a 10 ft. piece of rope to tie the stretcher on the pole so it doesn't come off while you are stretching the wires. In fact its easier to tie to corners and stretch to the center in that circumstance.
The above cost doesn't include labor.
Disregard what that I said above.
I just looked back at the OP. You are going to need to use net on a paddock that small. I'd even think about five board fence. My corrals are over 3 acres and are all wood.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

I'm also a big believer in electric. Four strand hot, 14 gauge aluminum wire, 95% Tee-posts, 5% treated posts on 90 degree turns. These materials are simple to work with and extremely inexpensive when compared to a woven wire system. I've never had any problems that I couldn't solve quickly or cheaply. I also have 8 acres fenced with electric, and two 1/4 acre paddocks enclosed with cattle panels.....Topside


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## Empire (Jan 7, 2016)

I like electric. A 4 hot strand fence set up just like topside describes my lay out almost identically. 
I will say our dry weather has been a test this summer with making sure the animal grounds out fully. Our clay soil is so dry that the current isn't traveling thru to the soil effectively. Make sure to keep weeds down and check to make sure that the wire isn't grounding out to a post and most problems are simple fixes.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

If you decide to run electric make sure the negative side of your box is grounded adequately. I have 4 grounding rods driven into the soil and wired together. This same layout I described in post #5 was originally designed to encompass 20 acres and worked out perfectly for 11 years. Just recently downsized to 8 acres, and the best part is that I was able to reuse existing materials, that's the beauty of electric fencing. Topside


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

This.

http://www.redbrand.com/Products/HorseFence/Non-Climb.aspx

Barb on bottom, 2" from ground, non-climb 2" above. 2 more barb on top, 36" wire, 4' tall total. Will hold anything with one hot wire at shoulder height inside on 6" extended insulator, for the animal you are containing. Also keeps critters out you do not want in. Good corners, 2 wood posts and H brace at any line change of direction. Build a good fence once and you can change livestock as you want....James


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## WVhillbilly (Mar 11, 2016)

We use barbwire on our 90 acre farm and have never had a problem. We also have old telephone poles in the corners, but pawpaw built the fence long before I was around so I can't help much with the cost.


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