Fencing on hillside question

[thegriffiths]

Please forgive me if this question is out there. I am completely new to fencing on a hillside like I have here. I have been searching for help with this fencing situation online and dont see anything specific.

I live in WV and most of our farm is hillside. I am fencing in a 2 acre location that has a pretty steep slope. The hillside is pretty much the same angle as a forward slash symbol ( / ). Not all of it is this slope, but a long section on the west side is.

The issue is that I am unsure of the best way to put the posts in. I have put in fences on semi flat areas but not hillside. Since it is on a hillside that is so steep, is there a difference as to how you would put them in? Do they still need to be perfectly vertical? Or should the slant out from the hillside at an angle?

This is just a electric fence that will have about 6 wires.

Thanks for any help!

[OkieDavid]

I've seen it done with the posts at 90 degree to the ground and I've seen it done where the posts were driven in verticle/plumb. My only concern would be to ensure that when finished, my top wire is at or above whatever you establish as your minimum height.

[wogglebug]

There is no good way to run a fence across a steep slope. The normal way is to put that fence at either the top or bottom (preferably top) of the steep slope.
Picture your fence with posts at right-angles to the slope. That means the top of the fence isn't very far above the base of the posts, so an animal on the uphill side wouldn't have to jump very high to clear the fence. Conversely, if the posts are vertical, the uphill animal just backs away a little from the posts, uphill, and they are above the top of the posts.

For fences running up-and-down the hill, you need to provide for the height of your fencing material, or in your case, to maintain the spacing between your wires. This probably means taller posts, sunk vertically. Why? Because to do anything else means you are reducing the height of your fence, and again animals can more easily jump it (or at least are tempted to try, and you REALLY don't want animals to learn they can get past an electric fence with only a brief moment of hurt).

Another thing about fences running uphill is that, at any point where the slope is dished so that some posts are below the line between their neighbours, then the tension of the wire running from post A through post B to post C will pull post B out of the ground. You need some pretty substantial posts and some careful thought, and maybe a fair amount of concrete, to overcome that. Or maybe just run the wires straight on tall posts, and fill in the gaps below the wires as a separate exercise.

[highlands]

Like you we have steep slopes. You, like us, probably also have thin soil - shallow depth to ledge since that goes well with steep slopes. We mostly use trees for serious posts. Between them we use step in posts. We also do a lot of terracing. Both by fencing with the contours so the animals cause terracing and by mechanical means. Terraces help to catch top soil, catch water so it has a chance to soak in and prevent erosion. See:

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:...m.com+terraces

[o&itw]

If the slope is that steep... animals are going to seriously erode what ever soil is left. I am suprised there is much soil on a slope that steep anyway. Now if you are just enclosing it temporarily for brush goats or something... tie your insulators to trees with baling twine or scrap wire and you won't have to put a nail or screw into the tree. Of ourse, this is assuming it has trees.

Still if it is really as steep as a "/" then I don't think I would put animals on it at all. Fencing deer "out" on something like that would be almost impossible.

Good luck.

[coup]

you put em in straight up just like they was on level ground.........