Ouch!!! 5.5' T-Posts are $4.09

kentuckysteader · #1 07/05/08, 07:34 PM

We just bought 200 T-Posts at Tractor Supply for a new electric goat fence that we are building. We paid $3.89 each. That is with 5% discount because we purchased 200 ...

T-Posts were selling for under $2.00 a little over a year ago ... Unbelievable ...

Scrounger · #2 07/05/08, 08:59 PM

I try to buy all I can at farm sales in the winter. It's getting harder because more people are doing the same. I lucked out this year, though, I had a neighbor GIVE me about 85 and another neighbor gave me over 100 "T" posts along with a couple hundred Hedge posts, poles and ties. Saved me about $3000 to $4000 in fence supplies (also got wire and other stuff....).

Beltane · #3 07/05/08, 09:02 PM

We found the same thing when we went to expand our fence. When we found out the cost, we spent the day following all the stone walls on the property to scavenge what we could. Not surprisingly, we found all we needed and more.

**ladycat** · #4 07/05/08, 09:03 PM

Yikes! More than double in a year!

ksfarmer · #5 07/05/08, 09:07 PM

$4.59 each for 6 footers at Orschelens a week ago.

barelahh · #6 07/05/08, 09:16 PM

Looks like i am going to be cutting hedge for posts. 1 tank of gas for saw, .75 cents can cut a lot of posts on one tank

Lizza · #7 07/05/08, 09:19 PM

Thanks goodness we don't have any fencing projects right now! I have to wonder if all of this stuff will ever come back down or this is it. I guess I just hope it doesn't keep going up! Evertime I think....it can't get any higher then this......next time I'm shopping it is higher!

whiterabbit454 · #8 07/05/08, 10:25 PM

we found alot of t-posts when we moved in but we will need awhole lot more i plan on raising some beef cattle and have a milk cow and an assortment of feathered creatures about the price i doubt that weve heard the end of it not by along shot i dont know just got done watching the news and it was basically doom and gloom
hope you get your fence up

ksfarmer · #9 07/06/08, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barelahh

Looks like i am going to be cutting hedge for posts. 1 tank of gas for saw, .75 cents can cut a lot of posts on one tank

Don't know what your saw is, but mine won't cut many hedge posts for .75 cents. Gotta cut the tree and trim first, then load in truck and haul. Pile up and burn the brush, paint the stumps,,,etc. Ain't cheap. Hedge posts sell for $7 to $10 bucks apiece around here, and no one seems to be getting rich cutting posts.

woodsrunner · #10 07/06/08, 11:55 AM

Many years ago a farmer I was working for wanted to put in a fence. A developer had bought some nearby land that was fenced. The farmer contacted him and the posts were his for the taking, but, we had to take the woven wire too. It didn't take too many posts to make up for the cost of the pair of high lift jacks that we used to pull the posts.

Rowdy · #11 07/06/08, 12:28 PM

Yeah, and cattle panels are $22 too!

Last year I had a second job building and backfilling oil rig locations. The oil company would use 6' T posts to put up some wire to keep cattle from falling into the pits, and then leave them for us to bury when we backfilled the pits after drilling. It didn't take very many locations before the T posts were going into the back of my truck instead of the bottom of a hole.

I've put up almost 2000 feet of fence since then, and still have about a hundred posts. Sadly, that will not be enough to finish fencing my place, so I'm sure I'll rue the day I left my second job when I have to go buy more posts.

Beeman · #12 07/06/08, 12:36 PM

That's cheap they're higher here, priced hog panels and they're $30 now.

Scrounger · #13 07/06/08, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

Don't know what your saw is, but mine won't cut many hedge posts for .75 cents. Gotta cut the tree and trim first, then load in truck and haul. Pile up and burn the brush, paint the stumps,,,etc. Ain't cheap. Hedge posts sell for $7 to $10 bucks apiece around here, and no one seems to be getting rich cutting posts.

Hedge Posts around here have really gone up in the last year or so. I was at an auction in March and 6" posts were bringing $25 - corners $35. Used posts were getting $10. Average price is about $17 for a corner, $10 for a line.

Around here, there ARE some who are getting rich off of hedge posts.....others have stacks laying around because nobody will buy from them.
Most are going to western Nebraska, Colorado, and other places where there are no Hedge trees. I've seen trailers from 700 miles away stacked to the gills leaving these auctions.

My neighbor and I went out a couple years ago and cut down one huge hedge tree. We got 55 good posts out of a single tree. There were also several "gate posts" (ones that are about 2 1/2" - 3" around - used for making wire gates). I still have several trees like it on my place.
The ones out of that tree I used in a fenceline that went within 25' of the tree, so I didn't have to haul them far.

In the entire fence line, I used about 120 Hedge posts that I cut off my land (plus a few extra...). It will cost more then 75¢ to cut posts, but it's still cheaper then buying them. I know it didn't cost NEAR the $900 to $1000 I would have spent to buy the posts - even then (now it would be closer to $2000).

Scrounger · #14 07/06/08, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beeman

That's cheap they're higher here, priced hog panels and they're $30 now.

I buy a lot of them at sales, too. I usually get the ones nobdy else wants. I bought 15 last year for $3 each. They only had minor damage. I also got lucky and a neighbor gave me a dozen hog panels and another 15 cattle panels. He was tearing down a farmstead for a field, and just didn't want them.....

I also buy "partial" ones for next to nothing.

Sometimes you can luck out and get to the store when they open a bundle. Usually the top one or two are bent, so nobody wants them. If you get lucky, they will discount them to you.

Jan in CO · #15 07/06/08, 05:54 PM

ANYTHING steel or metal is up. Been to the scrap yard lately? Explains why we've seen so many trucks loaded with scrap metal heading that way. Our neighbor just gave us some rolls of used fencing he's taking down, and hopefully will bring the posts, too. I really appreciated them! Jan in Co

barelahh · #16 07/07/08, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

Don't know what your saw is, but mine won't cut many hedge posts for .75 cents. Gotta cut the tree and trim first, then load in truck and haul. Pile up and burn the brush, paint the stumps,,,etc. Ain't cheap. Hedge posts sell for $7 to $10 bucks apiece around here, and no one seems to be getting rich cutting posts.

welll, not to bad cutting. Most of the stuff is already on the ground, thanks to all the cattle ranchers, just go in, cut them out, load up the stuff that aint fit for posts as firewood and haul home