T Fence Posts

Hi folks, just joined.

I have about 4 acres on my property I would like to properly fence off for goats.  I am planning 6 foot t posts.  I am wondering where people are sourcing fence posts online in bulk and getting the best prices. At my local Tractor Supply they are about $4.50 per. Also wondering the same for goat fencing as I will need quite a bit.

Thanks!

I generally find better deals from local feed stores.

In my area there is a gate manufacturer that makes gates and sells t posts, fencing, etc. They are much cheaper than tractor supply. Gates are almost half the cost. Last time i saw t posts they were $3.25. It's a commodity so comparing mine from 3 months ago vs your price today has no benefit other than timing on when you buy it can have a factor.

Hi Bart,
Fencing is a significant investment to say the least. Depending on your land parcel, fencing sections might be an option to spread the money outlay out over some time. On the farm here, a combination of old split RR ties, cedar posts ( from clearing land), salvaged treated posts, and Tposts were used. If you order posts remember to add the shipping and handling costs to the price in order to have an accurate figure for comparison shopping. Around here, it is just as well to buy from the local farm supply stores-- it's really a matter of whom you would like to support with your business. Good luck with your fencing!

Thanks for the quick replies.

I should also add, the my property is largely fenced already with some delapidated barbed wire fencing for cows the previous owner had out there.  Some of the existing posts are OK, some are not so much.  I think the posts are 4' posts which maybe I can make work with some taller goat fencing and just re-do posts where needed to save money.  

I guess the question I should have asked first is, what is the minimum safe height to contain goats? I was leaning towards at least 4.5' of fence height, but maybe I can get away with only 4'. This way I can probably re-use a lot of the existing posts, even if I have to pull and reset them.

Thanks again!

If you can swing a decent sized lump purchase, the local feed store or fencing suppliers may give you a better price; 100 posts was the nice round number that made them pay attention around here, though this was the much more expensive 10ft heavy duty t-posts..

I fenced for my goats with woven goat wire-- regular field wire will hang them if they have horns. Used 5'posts, set 9' apart. Would recommend 2 electric strands inside of that: at the top, and mid-way to deter them walking down the fence.

Barbara Martin wrote:I fenced for my goats with woven goat wire-- regular field wire will hang them if they have horns. Used 5'posts, set 9' apart. Would recommend 2 electric strands inside of that: at the top, and mid-way to deter them walking down the fence.

Yeah, I plan to use Red Brand goat fencing all around.  Is an electric fence really necessary? Thanks.

I strongly recommend it. You can power it with a solar charger.

Goats like to put their front hooves on the top line of non-electric fences, and rub themselves against the whole fence as well, over time a fence can sag or get weak, which is why many people put a strand of electric at the top.

I'm in Australia, so our fence post prices might work a bit differently, but generally we get a slightly better price buying by the pack of 10, and an even better price buying 100 at a time.

Our intention is to have multi-species in our pasture so we're using the Red Brand field fencing that starts at the bottom with the small openings and as it gets higher, the squares get bigger. It's 47 inches tall. Quibbling about 2-3 inches in that range with goats is kinda funny because they can get out of a fence that's 5' tall just as easy. In my mind, we reduce our chances of goats wanting to get out by having better food for them inside the fence than outside. That philosophy is not 100% foolproof, but it's a good starting point. We are driving 6' T-posts in to 49" height. We install five T-posts and then one wooden 4" post packed really well. We use a standard H-brace for corners and gates with wire and ratchet for tightening. I put a silly video together to show our posts in one line before we stretched some fencing on them. One strand of hot wire is a good deterrent. We're going to see if we can do without it at first. I already have the charger, so if we need to add that single line, it won't be too onerous to do.


We're not experts, but we're learning a lot from this project.

Forgot to add ... we buy a lot of posts at auctions where I can usually get them on average at $2.50 to $3.00.  I also have bought quite a few 5" wood posts at auction. You'll see the half-painted ones in the video. I like finding bargains.

Dan Grubbs wrote:Quibbling about 2-3 inches in that range with goats is kinda funny because they can get out of a fence that's 5' tall just as easy.

Yeah, I've seen goats jump and when I read goats are contain by 4' fences I find it kinda funny too, but then again, I see lots of people's yards with goats around here and most of them have fences 4-5' as well.  So my goal is a solid 5'.

Dan Grubbs wrote:One strand of hot wire is a good deterrent. We're going to see if we can do without it at first. I already have the charger, so if we need to add that single line, it won't be too onerous to do.

I would like to avoid using an electrified fence if I can.  But if I need to I suppose it's not a difficult thing to add.  One thought comes to mind though. Do electric fences pose ANY kind of fire hazard at all? I live in CA where the summers get pretty damn dry and with the terrible fires I don't want to do anything that even has a small chance of sparking a wildfire...

Thanks.

Absolutely, any electric line can start a fire. Just ask the electric companies out there....

Barbara Martin wrote:Absolutely, any electric line can start a fire. Just ask the electric companies out there....

Yeah, exactly, I have read online that the fire hazard is "minimal" but I ain't taking any chances...

I use 6 foot wooden posts with 48 inch field fence, and never had any problems containing sheep or goats.

Wooden posts are handy because all you need is staples to hang the wire, and no special hardware for each post. That saves a lot of money. And with high tensile field fence, you can put your posts on 16 foot spacing, saving quite a bit of money on posts.

And with straight field fence, once it is put up, it is up for years without having to maintain an electrical fence along with it. It really is: put it up and forget it.

In the end field fence is the cheapest fence to put up because it lasts for years and years without having to be fussed with.

I had to use pressure treated fence posts due to government requirements, but it has been up for 11 years now, and is not even close to needing replacement. I figure I can get 30 years out of my fence.

To fence four acres should not be that bad. It roughly is 10 rolls of wire and 200 fence posts. You should have less than $2000 in the fence, and divided over a 30 year life span, it has a cost of only $66 a year.

Travis, thanks for the input.  How hard was it to drive those wooden posts?  Out here the ground is HARD.  Even driving T-posts takes considerable effort. I think those wood posts would be a real MFer to get into the dirt here...

Bart Wolf wrote:Travis, thanks for the input.  How hard was it to drive those wooden posts?  Out here the ground is HARD.  Even driving T-posts takes considerable effort. I think those wood posts would be a real MFer to get into the dirt here...

I do fencing work in the Spring if I can, right after the frost goes out. I do use sharpened post, but putting a bucket of dirt in my tractor bucket, I can pound them into the ground without swinging a sledge hammer. I just start them with a lining bar to hold them upright until I can pound them into the ground.

I have a post hole driller, but my backhoe typically works better. I ue those two things when the ground gets hard.

Yeah I do not have a tractor or backhoe....so I am relying on my own muscles at the moment...and I would rather not pay an outside company to do the work.  It's a good workout for sure!!

I fully understand, and deeply respect you for that!!

We are selling our homestead here, and that is one of the things we tell the people that come here to look at the house: the hard work has been done.

Clearing the land
Building the house
Building the barn
Putting up the fencing (22 acres)
Piles of compost
Building access roads

We are even letting the sheep and a years worth of hay (50 round bales) go with the place just so people have a fresh start. All they got to do is plant the garden and orchard. But I am not sure people appeciate how much work all that takes, and how long it takes to finish.

We get a few people interested in homesteading every week, but no buyer yet.

Yeah, selling a piece of property like that will take the right kind of buyer. My wife and I have been looking for anything with 3+ acres for the last 5 years, with the criteria that it not only has a house, but has high speed internet (we both work in IT). It took a while but we found our spot in California. Internet is not stellar, but it it is good enough to work.  Our grand plans involve goats, chickens and a really nice garden. Maybe a cow down the road. For now though, it is all in the planning and clean-up phase. I filled a 40 yard dumpster with 3.6 tons of trash, by hand mind you, in the first month we were here.  So much crap just left on the property that needed to go.  Then I got the workshop together so I can actually DO WORK on the house and property.  Oh, and the house has a pool, which was 100% swamp when we moved in, tadpoles and all.  It is now 100% sparkling clean with all new filter, pump, light, etc.  That was a job in an of itself, but it really helps on the 100 degree days!  Next in line is getting the fencing straight for containing goats and then I will build a chicken palace and fence it off as well.  All in good time. I just wish I was still in my 20s...hell, even my 30s would be nice.  But alas, I'm in my 40s... :/

Yeah, so am I. I am 45 and my wife is 39 (no, I mean she really is 39).

I retired early, but I am not sure what to do with my life, or the rest of my farm. We thought about getting into small grains, but it might get expensive to get into.

But I think you were smart. 7.5 acres is just about right to manage. Most people want to buy gobs of land, and then it gets well away from them. The idea of land ownership is nice, but it is a huge responsibility. It is also really hard to finance, and not to mention paying 100% property taxes on land that is only 50% used.

For the house we are selling, due to how it is surveyed, we are selling 3.75 acres, but we got 12 acres we do not care about so someone who wants to buy the homestead, pays for 3.75 and gets 12 to use. It is all cleared and fenced in (48 inch field fence with wooden posts). Banks will find that particularly appealing because they know if they finance large acreage amounts, the owners get in over their heads with land acreage amounts, split it off and sell half of it, and the bank is left with a mortgage that is paid off early. They hate that. They just want to finance houselots. And the insurance companies are no better. If a homesteader gets too many acres, then  it is no longer $400 per year for homehowners insurance, but rather $1800 a year farm insurance. People understandably to not know that stuff.

The biggest mistake I see homesteaders make is, buying way too much land.

It is bragging rights for a year, and then it becomes a burden. But it is hard to explain to someone who is crowded in a city that they can do more with a few acres well managed then hundreds of acres ineffeciently. I fully admit I am the latter. I got a big farm, and its only the truth when I say I have about 100 acres that is just sitting there not being used. Its not forest, and its not being farmed...it is just...nothing? That is kind of silly.

But what do I know? I am just a dumb sheep farmer! :-)

Travis Johnson wrote:The biggest mistake I see homesteaders make is, buying way too much land.

Yeah, that's for sure. We look at a 14 acre property and right away, I told my wife, "the only way this will work is if I quit my job to take care of this land and you work to pay for everything" LOL I knew there was no way I could work 40 hours a week at a desk and then come home and tend to 14 acres of land that needed constant maintenance.  Now we have 7.5 and it is still challenging for me.  We are 3 months in and still adjusting. We both work from home which helps because I can take little breaks here and there and get stuff done.  But there is a constant need to do something ALWAYS.  I think once I get the land setup and house straightened out I will get to a manageable stasis.  The nice thing is, the house is small, and the "yard" area of the house is totally manageable, while the remaining land is more or less wild grasslands in the foothills that I don't really have to do anything with if I don't want to, and it is perfect to graze goats and cattle on when I get to that point.  

The only way I would want more land is if it was just natural land that existed as an additional buffer of privacy. But you're right for sure, this is something that can get you in way over your head.  I am in ok shape for an office guy, but I am in no way super physically fit, so tending to all the needs of this property has been kicking my ass. I have seriously lost 10 lbs of spare tire already...LOL  I will be trim like I was when I was 19 in no time!

I guess if I could MAYBE offer a sound piece of advice, it would be to just do ONE big thing per year. Sure, plenty of small things, but by concentrating upon doing one big thing per year, in ten years time you have ten big things done that has not overwhelmed you, and really caused burn-out. It may seem like a lack of ambition, but after 11 years, this farm does not look anything like it did, all from steadily plodding along.

That kind of is a second symptom of owning too much land, at least too quick; a homesteader feels almost presured to do more then thay can, and so they try to do too much, and why not; they have a lot of land to do potential things with. But what is the point of that work if you cannot enjoy what you are doing, or almost worst yet, cause relationship issues with the spouse? That is not good, you want to work together, enjoy life together.

That is why in my sheep farming classes, I mention a lot of ways to farm without a tractor, almost entirely due to costs, but also state that in some relationships, even though there may be compelling reasons not to go into debt (I call it lean farming), if a relationship with your husband/wife is harmed, by all means try as best you can to appease the one you love/farm with/care for. If it means a $18,000 tractor helps your relationship, and keeps them insterested in farming...that is money well spent!

But I cannot exactly state what a "big" project is. It depends on each farm. You are smart though, you know what is ambitious, but yet able to get accomplished. Fill in the rest with some smaller stuff, and you will be alright. And do not forget to take time out for the wife. On my farm, picnics in "the back field" really do happen. Just be careful, I got a daughter from going into the back pasture with the wife instead of without fencing tools in hand! :-)

LOL, yeah, we are both in our mid 40s so the only babies we plan to have are kids and chicks. LOL  

The property is smack dab in the middle of wine country too, and as we are both foodies and wine-os, we get plenty of quality time together. XD  

And I agree on the one big thing per year. I don't plan on goats until summer 2020.  This year is getting the house fixed up and the property clean and functional.  Then we can move on to the garden and the goats next year.  All in good time, as they say.

And we also have in mind semi-early retirement. We got this property for a decent price. It wasn't a steal, but it was well within budget. So right now we have some choices as to how we play it.  If we can be done slaving for the man by 55 that would be ideal.  We don't have kids, never wanted them, so we don't have that added stress/expense/responsibility.  So we have a lot of flexibility for the moment.

By the way: I have really enjoyed our conversation, but hope I am encouraging, and state some sound advice without in any way taking away your enthusiasm. I have really tried not to do that.

I really wish you the best in your greatest adventure.

Travis Johnson wrote:By the way: I have really enjoyed our conversation, but hope I am encouraging, and state some sound advice without in any way taking away your enthusiasm. I have really tried not to do that.

I really wish you the best in your greatest adventure.

Heh, no, I am very enthusiastic about our future plans. I am only regretting not finding my way to this point at an earlier age so I could have enjoyed this lifestyle longer.  But like many of us, "my 20s were wasted" on immature decisions. Now I definitely feel that I have more focus and drive to really achieve something great here, I just hope my health holds up for at least another 20!! ;)  All my years of sitting in front of a PC did my body no favors.  I appreciate the advice.

I have enjoyed reading the conversation between the two of you, Bart and Travis.  We currently own 32 mostly wooded, very rocky, acres that has proved difficult to manage.  We are strongly considering selling it and buying my parent's 5 mostly open acres for many of the reasons Travis mentioned.  Even managing the gardens my mother has already established will take quite some time nevermind reestablishing fencing and building shelters for animals. I acually found a bit of ground today at our current place that I could easily pound a T-post into which is what led me to read this thread.  I need a few more T-posts for the current project.

We have a person interested in our place that is for sale, and when we told her that several more acres could come with it...or not...if so desired, she was pretty sure she would not want the extra acres. She was more concerned with having available hay; not so much hay she could hay herself, but just that there was feed close by so she would not have to wonder where to get winter feed. We had a pretty good hay year so we got over 50 bales just in case a buyer arrives with animals, and needs some hay for the winter. These are big round bales though too.

More of my goofy video editing where I'm working on that same fence line in my earlier video above. Stretching 300' of field fence with come-alongs and wrapping around end post and a clip of affixing it to T-posts.  Again, first time fence builder. so I'm learning a lot.

Bart Wolf wrote:Hi folks, just joined.

I have about 4 acres on my property I would like to properly fence off for goats.  I am planning 6 foot t posts.  I am wondering where people are sourcing fence posts online in bulk and getting the best prices. At my local Tractor Supply they are about $4.50 per. Also wondering the same for goat fencing as I will need quite a bit.

Thanks!

No such thing as getting fence posts shipped without paying for freight charges which will be a three digit figure.

Here's my cost for materials for 4 foot tall, 6 strand high tensile electric fence for approx 12 acres.

$1053.94 ~ Tractor supply ~ 5"x8' and 6"x8' posts, ht wire, underground wire
 $96.00 ~ MFA ~ 4"x7' posts
$114.81 ~ HomeDepot ~ Patriot Fence Charger
$243.05 ~ Kencove ~ Hardware & Tools
  $37.50 ~ 5 - 37 foot sucker rods for $7.50ea
  $28.31 ~ HogSlat.com ~ Dare Products Energy Limiter
  $140 ~ Tractor supply ~ Gate & Latch
  $111.53 ~ Tractor supply ~ 4" x 8' posts
_________________________________________
TOTAL $1825.87

4 foot goat fence would have cost over $3000 just for the wire(10 - 330' rolls) and then another $800 for the posts due to needing a lot more of them. Do a web search for high-tensile fence and do some reading/watch some videos to see what you think of it.

That one item, sucker rods, is 1 inch fiberglass rod that was previously used in the old type oil wells. Very cheap if you can find it in full lengths. I'm getting them for $7.50 for a 37 foot length and will bring a cordless saw to cut them in half for the trailer. It's the only thing I haven't purchased yet. Long galvanized cotter pins are used to attach the wire to them, through holes I'll drill.

My perimeter is 3250 foot which is what you need to figure out. A square is cheaper to fence than a long thin rectangle or a triangle. My property is actually 15 acres and it's a triangle but one point of the triangle is a sharper angle so I basically chopped it off to make my fence area more square-ish. Actually saved me a few hundred dollars.

Spring came early so I didn't get the fence done but I did make a pen for the dogs. Two of them are long haired, one is a Great Pyrenees. They touched the fence once and only once. 80 foot square pen with a 30 acre/100 mile charger on it. They got hit with 9000 volts. I expect that to drop to 6-7000 for the 12 acres but will use the pen to train the goats to electric fence.

Goats jump? I've seen a kid goat about the size of a medium sized dog, launch over a 4 foot fence because he was scared. He did bounce off of something 1 1/2 foot tall that was 8 foot away from the fence however. It was cool to watch actually.

Animals will escape for a few reasons. Scared, hungry, thirsty, horny.



I went with porcelain insulators for the corners and plastic for the line posts. I except to replace the plastic ones every 5-10 years but they're cheap. I don't like the tubing method shown above because I was in the electric sign business for 25 years and dealt with a lot of neon which runs off of the same high voltage as a fence charger. A fence charger is different however as the energy is in pulses rather than continuous. I've seen neon transformers jump an arc of 1/2" but I don't think the fence chargers will do that because the pulse is about half a second every few seconds. The tubing might be fine as long as the wire doesn't cut through it eventually.

With the exception of the plastic insulators, every component I used should last 30 years. The CCA pressure treated posts are rated for that and the HT wire is Class 3 galvanized and since it doesn't touch the ground, it should last that long too. Solid 1 inch fiberglass rod will last that long easily. Porcelain lasts forever. The plastic insulators go on with two screws and don't thread onto the wire so it's a matter of 15 seconds to replace one. I used fairly short screws so that if a tree falls on the fence, it should rip them off the posts rather than leaning the post over. Hopefully between my short screws and the HT fence tensioner having some travel. my corner posts won't get pulled out by a tree falling somewhere on the straight line. Trees falling on corner post assemblies are a different story and those are built the same as field fence. Corner post, plus two brace posts and then horizontal post between them and a diagonal brace wire.

My fence is going through forest and field fence would have been a leave catcher. I just took down the old dog pen, made of field fence, that's been up for a year and the bottom wire is already rusty from leaves begin against it and it touching the ground. I suppose I could have kept it off the ground a few inches but dogs like to dig. Since I'm going through woods for close to 1/4 mile, I think a single strand of smooth wire will be a LOT easier to deal with than a four foot roll of field fence. I did pull one strand on the longest run and it was easy peasy. I have a little tractor and built a spinning jenny for the wire so all I had to do was attach the wire to a corner post and drive to the next corner post. I just did that to get a nice straight line because bailing twine wasn't working out to well for 1175 feet. When I go to pull the wire for real, I'll have to pull it through 1 or 2 corners but I think I just did that by hand for the dog pen with the jenny sitting still and it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, that's my thinking.

Travis Johnson wrote:I fully understand, and deeply respect you for that!!

We are selling our homestead here, and that is one of the things we tell the people that come here to look at the house: the hard work has been done.

Clearing the land
Building the house
Building the barn
Putting up the fencing (22 acres)
Piles of compost
Building access roads

We are even letting the sheep and a years worth of hay (50 round bales) go with the place just so people have a fresh start. All they got to do is plant the garden and orchard. But I am not sure people appeciate how much work all that takes, and how long it takes to finish.

We get a few people interested in homesteading every week, but no buyer yet.

Hey Travis, how much would a round hay bale sell for?

Bart Wolf wrote:Yeah, selling a piece of property like that will take the right kind of buyer. My wife and I have been looking for anything with 3+ acres for the last 5 years, with the criteria that it not only has a house, but has high speed internet (we both work in IT). It took a while but we found our spot in California. Internet is not stellar, but it it is good enough to work.  Our grand plans involve goats, chickens and a really nice garden. Maybe a cow down the road. For now though, it is all in the planning and clean-up phase. I filled a 40 yard dumpster with 3.6 tons of trash, by hand mind you, in the first month we were here.  So much crap just left on the property that needed to go.  Then I got the workshop together so I can actually DO WORK on the house and property.  Oh, and the house has a pool, which was 100% swamp when we moved in, tadpoles and all.  It is now 100% sparkling clean with all new filter, pump, light, etc.  That was a job in an of itself, but it really helps on the 100 degree days!  Next in line is getting the fencing straight for containing goats and then I will build a chicken palace and fence it off as well.  All in good time. I just wish I was still in my 20s...hell, even my 30s would be nice.  But alas, I'm in my 40s... :/

Bart, I can relate!  We just bought our fixer upper farm and I'm in my mid-40s.  And like you I spent the first couple of months just cleaning up junk and getting things organized, along with creating 2 garden plots in an old horse pasture.    Next, I need to get some fencing built so I can keep deer and rabbits out of the garden plot, and goats and sheep in the other pasture.  Good luck with your adventure!

John Pollard wrote:

Bart Wolf wrote:Hi folks, just joined.

I have about 4 acres on my property I would like to properly fence off for goats.  I am planning 6 foot t posts.  I am wondering where people are sourcing fence posts online in bulk and getting the best prices. At my local Tractor Supply they are about $4.50 per. Also wondering the same for goat fencing as I will need quite a bit.

Thanks!

No such thing as getting fence posts shipped without paying for freight charges which will be a three digit figure.

Here's my cost for materials for 4 foot tall, 6 strand high tensile electric fence for approx 12 acres.

$1053.94 ~ Tractor supply ~ 5"x8' and 6"x8' posts, ht wire, underground wire
 $96.00 ~ MFA ~ 4"x7' posts
$114.81 ~ HomeDepot ~ Patriot Fence Charger
$243.05 ~ Kencove ~ Hardware & Tools
  $37.50 ~ 5 - 37 foot sucker rods for $7.50ea
  $28.31 ~ HogSlat.com ~ Dare Products Energy Limiter
  $140 ~ Tractor supply ~ Gate & Latch
  $111.53 ~ Tractor supply ~ 4" x 8' posts
_________________________________________
TOTAL $1825.87

4 foot goat fence would have cost over $3000 just for the wire(10 - 330' rolls) and then another $800 for the posts due to needing a lot more of them. Do a web search for high-tensile fence and do some reading/watch some videos to see what you think of it.

That one item, sucker rods, is 1 inch fiberglass rod that was previously used in the old type oil wells. Very cheap if you can find it in full lengths. I'm getting them for $7.50 for a 37 foot length and will bring a cordless saw to cut them in half for the trailer. It's the only thing I haven't purchased yet. Long galvanized cotter pins are used to attach the wire to them, through holes I'll drill.

My perimeter is 3250 foot which is what you need to figure out. A square is cheaper to fence than a long thin rectangle or a triangle. My property is actually 15 acres and it's a triangle but one point of the triangle is a sharper angle so I basically chopped it off to make my fence area more square-ish. Actually saved me a few hundred dollars.

Spring came early so I didn't get the fence done but I did make a pen for the dogs. Two of them are long haired, one is a Great Pyrenees. They touched the fence once and only once. 80 foot square pen with a 30 acre/100 mile charger on it. They got hit with 9000 volts. I expect that to drop to 6-7000 for the 12 acres but will use the pen to train the goats to electric fence.

Goats jump? I've seen a kid goat about the size of a medium sized dog, launch over a 4 foot fence because he was scared. He did bounce off of something 1 1/2 foot tall that was 8 foot away from the fence however. It was cool to watch actually.

Animals will escape for a few reasons. Scared, hungry, thirsty, horny.



I went with porcelain insulators for the corners and plastic for the line posts. I except to replace the plastic ones every 5-10 years but they're cheap. I don't like the tubing method shown above because I was in the electric sign business for 25 years and dealt with a lot of neon which runs off of the same high voltage as a fence charger. A fence charger is different however as the energy is in pulses rather than continuous. I've seen neon transformers jump an arc of 1/2" but I don't think the fence chargers will do that because the pulse is about half a second every few seconds. The tubing might be fine as long as the wire doesn't cut through it eventually.

With the exception of the plastic insulators, every component I used should last 30 years. The CCA pressure treated posts are rated for that and the HT wire is Class 3 galvanized and since it doesn't touch the ground, it should last that long too. Solid 1 inch fiberglass rod will last that long easily. Porcelain lasts forever. The plastic insulators go on with two screws and don't thread onto the wire so it's a matter of 15 seconds to replace one. I used fairly short screws so that if a tree falls on the fence, it should rip them off the posts rather than leaning the post over. Hopefully between my short screws and the HT fence tensioner having some travel. my corner posts won't get pulled out by a tree falling somewhere on the straight line. Trees falling on corner post assemblies are a different story and those are built the same as field fence. Corner post, plus two brace posts and then horizontal post between them and a diagonal brace wire.

My fence is going through forest and field fence would have been a leave catcher. I just took down the old dog pen, made of field fence, that's been up for a year and the bottom wire is already rusty from leaves begin against it and it touching the ground. I suppose I could have kept it off the ground a few inches but dogs like to dig. Since I'm going through woods for close to 1/4 mile, I think a single strand of smooth wire will be a LOT easier to deal with than a four foot roll of field fence. I did pull one strand on the longest run and it was easy peasy. I have a little tractor and built a spinning jenny for the wire so all I had to do was attach the wire to a corner post and drive to the next corner post. I just did that to get a nice straight line because bailing twine wasn't working out to well for 1175 feet. When I go to pull the wire for real, I'll have to pull it through 1 or 2 corners but I think I just did that by hand for the dog pen with the jenny sitting still and it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, that's my thinking.

Thanks a lot for that description John.  I am planning on a high tension electric fence for my pasture to be as well.  The previous owner had used t-posts for his electric tape fencing he had for his horses.  So I plan on re-using these posts when building my fence.  The corner posts I plan on using wood posts reinforced with the corner brackets.  Do you think the best way to pound those t posts is with the tractor bucket as well?  I'm a little nervous about having my wife hold those posts under the bucket until the post gets started into the ground.

Joshua LeDuc wrote:

Travis Johnson wrote:I fully understand, and deeply respect you for that!!

We are selling our homestead here, and that is one of the things we tell the people that come here to look at the house: the hard work has been done.

Clearing the land
Building the house
Building the barn
Putting up the fencing (22 acres)
Piles of compost
Building access roads

We are even letting the sheep and a years worth of hay (50 round bales) go with the place just so people have a fresh start. All they got to do is plant the garden and orchard. But I am not sure people appeciate how much work all that takes, and how long it takes to finish.

We get a few people interested in homesteading every week, but no buyer yet.

Hey Travis, how much would a round hay bale sell for?

$35-45 per bale, depending on if it is in the summer, or in the winter.

Travis Johnson wrote:

Joshua LeDuc wrote:

Travis Johnson wrote:I fully understand, and deeply respect you for that!!

We are selling our homestead here, and that is one of the things we tell the people that come here to look at the house: the hard work has been done.

Clearing the land
Building the house
Building the barn
Putting up the fencing (22 acres)
Piles of compost
Building access roads

We are even letting the sheep and a years worth of hay (50 round bales) go with the place just so people have a fresh start. All they got to do is plant the garden and orchard. But I am not sure people appeciate how much work all that takes, and how long it takes to finish.

We get a few people interested in homesteading every week, but no buyer yet.

Hey Travis, how much would a round hay bale sell for?

$35-45 per bale, depending on if it is in the summer, or in the winter.

Gotcha.  Thanks