Dexter Fencing Question

[BobDFL]

I'm in the process of putting up perimeter fence on my property, and I'm wondering:

What post spacing should I use for a Field Fence ( Woven ) wire fence?

My neighbors is anywhere from 11-13 feet, but they only have a couple of Nigerian dwarf goats and horses. The Cattle pasture ( a larger 600 acre ranch ) behind me has Barbed wire with 16 ft between posts.

I'm planning on only having 2-3 Dexter cows ( no bulls ), 3 larger meat goat does, and 3-4 Katahdin sheep ewes. No males in the bunch unless they are offspring headed for the freezer. These will be multiple 1 acre pastures made through cross fencing as well.

I was thinking of every 8 ft. with 6.5 ft 3.5 in. line posts, but if I can get away with farther spacing that could save me a ton of money on fence posts. I will probably add Electric to the fence later when there is more money.

Thanks,

Bob D. in FL.

[agmantoo]

10 ft spacing is surely close enough.

[Patt]

We have Dexters and we just fenced and spaced every 8 ft and put up welded wire fence. Dexters aren't going to knock down the fence though. We also have Highlands and they will try to tear it down under limited circumstances. (Bull trying to get to cow mainly) Agmantoo is right I'm sure you could space further apart. Horses are more likely to try and walk down the fence than cows. If your neighbor is OK with wider spacing you should be too.

[Slev]

I can think of ots of reasons to stick with a more "common" spacing of fence posts. But the one that stands out most is what happens in the future when you need to patch, or replace a section? by sticking with every 8' you could even bring in a cattle panel and tie it in. (..maybe if money is a concern for right now, go with double spacing of the posts and doubling around corners and mid points...?) then fill in as money and lucky finds at auctions permits.... but thats how I'd do it....

[Shinsan]

How about 10' spacing for the posts with a dropper in between?

[Carol K]

I can tell you what I did for my Dexters in their woven wire pasture. I put
T-posts every 8' in one pasture and every 12' in the other one, and wooden braced corners. That will be fine for cows, but not sure on goats etc. If your cows have horns I suggest you run electric poly wire maybe 8" from the ground all the way around, that will stop them pushing on the bottom of the fence to get the grass on the other side, as that ruins your fence.
Good luck with your project,

Carol

[john in la]

A perimeter fence needs to start at the corners. With out good strong corners; spacing of line post makes little difference.
Field fence is a good choice if you top it with a strand of barb wire.

For goats you need to keep the wire tight to the ground. In fact let the grass grow on the fence line to where it mats the fence down to the ground. Goats will go under a fence before they go over it.

A 10' spacing of T post on a line is normal around here. I do not feel that you need any more than this. You can go with a larger spacing if you were to use smaller post as something to hold the fence up like fence stays but you are asking for trouble with goats going under a fence.

All of this info is worthless with out knowing your animal per acre day. In other words you can fence 10 cows on 100 acres with 1 strand of barb wire but would need a 6' high steel cage to keep these same 10 cows on 1 acre with good green pasture next to it.

[woodspirit]

Why not use high tensile five or six strand with a twenty or thirty foot spacing?

[BobDFL]

Thanks y'all I went with 10' spacing and I'll be putting hotwire at 6" and then 2 more higher up on the inside of the fence to keep them off it.

My other concern was with DOGS. It seems we have some neighbors who let their dogs run free, and there have been some issues with other neighbors. The other issue is with the 600 acre cattle ranch behind me. My dog ( a 100 # Golden Retriever ) thinks all that he can see is his and they will shoot any dog on site on their property ( I don't blame them they have lost calves a number of times to packs of pitbulls ).

Again thanks everyone who responded it really helped.

Bob D. in FL.

[Slev]

Bob, you might want to send your rancher neighbor a Christmas card from your lab with his/her pic wearing a Christmas hat, or something, anything to get him to connect with your dog and maybe if your dog is ever on his property, he might call you rather than shoot your dog...... just a thought

[BobDFL]

Slev, that might not be a bad idea.

Couldn't hurt.

Bob D. in FL.

[suburbanite]

Would one of those radio-perimeter buzz-collars be in the budget? It's expensive to set up the perimeter but cheap to add more dog collars, so if you get more dogs it's more cost-effective.