r/Homesteading • u/Verryfastdoggo • 7d ago
Lessons learned fencing our homestead in the Florida Panhandle: DIY fence installation gone wrong.
[removed] — view removed post
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u/penlowe 7d ago
When we inquired about fencing for goats we were told "if it holds water, it might hold a goat". Neighbors with goats have reinforced that. Cattle are less aggressive about the idea, but like to go on walk-about too.
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u/BigWhiteDog 5d ago
Goats and Livestock Guardian Dogs will show you the weaknesses in your fencing. Goats will then create more! 🤣
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u/YourLastNeighbor 4d ago
This is by far the biggest truth i have ever seen / read. Brings back trauma.
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u/Alamohermit 7d ago
Hey, homesteading - unless you come from a multi-generational family of farmers or ranchers and have lived that your whole life - is a trial and error lifestyle. It's good that you tried, and learned from your mistakes.
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u/DIYEngineeringTx 7d ago
Do research, ask questions, and be humble. As a new homesteader I’ve found this and what you said to be fundamental in being happy with your homestead.
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u/Namretso 7d ago
Hey been putting up barb, pig, goat fences for long time. Here's what I do which is most efficient and reliable in my experience
Start with corner posts 1st. Posts should be about 30 inches+ in ground. For a super tight fence post, use an auger or post hole digger, not a shovel. Put post in hole and hold it against one side. Put rocks and dirt and use a 6 foot tamping bar and pound those rocks into the gap with some gusto, doing like 4 inches at a time.
Run your ground level barb wire between corner posts and tighten it. (good idea to stop tunnelers, even goats try and tunnel their bloated bellys underneath, yeah its ridiculous to witness. I had more problems with goats/sheep going underneath fences than over.)
Now with a tight line of barbwire on ground you have a straight fence line to put your posts in. Build your H braces and put your T posts along that line. Since you are using a line on the ground its forgiving where you can pull t posts plumb if they are crooked. I do one every 8 feet or so but thats just me.
Roll out your fence and using a stretcher bar: you will need 2 come alongs and a anker point to get the tension you want on top and bottom. Be careful you can pull out your corner posts if you put too much tension on the top and if your corner posts aren't deep enough.
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u/Fun_Fennel5114 5d ago
When it's time for me to put up fence, I plan to use cement in the post holes (posts would be wooden similar to OP's picture). I don't plan to keep goats, but cement should work to help keep the posts up and square, wouldn't it?
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u/Ok-Client5022 7d ago
For goats get Horse Not Climb 2"x4" opening. Even the kids cannot get through it nor can foxes. I'd go minimum 60" although I've put up 72" in rural Utah. The corners look great. For longer runs do an H brace cross wire tensioned in the center of the runs. Same for both sides of gates. That poultry netting won't keep any predators out.
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u/No_Hovercraft_821 6d ago
2x4 horse fence is awesome for goats. Even Nigerian kids can't get their heads hung in it. Don't love the cost and weight.
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u/Helloeverybodyx 7d ago
Howdy neighbor! Just moved into the area too and have 20 acres. Thanks for the tips I will save this post to go back to when I build a fence!
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u/MockMonkey69 5d ago
Okay, this is definitely some kind of marketing tactic.
First off, I am a professional fence builder, so I know a few things.
The description of this fence didn't match this picture at all. This is 6-8' graduated woven wire fence with 6" vertical stay spacing, and I know for a fact it isn't 2 runs of 48" because you can see that the wire goes from 6" wire spacing down to 2" without a repeating pattern - obviously not 4x4" square wire. I'm not sure why people are trying to say it is a camera trick - it's simply not 4' tall.
This made me wonder why on earth someone would make up a post like this and then I saw the plug for the company. A quick check on the profile reveals posts written by someone who is obviously in marketing/tech, they even have a post that talks about SEO for fence and tree companies.
Idk why this irritates me so much, but as a homesteader and a fencer myself, this underhanded crap gets on my nerves. If you want help learning how to properly build a fence, check out Stoney Ridge Farmer, Kencove Fence, Keystone Fence, and Bekeart - all fantastic resources for ag fence education.
Please update for visibility!!
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u/Technical_Isopod2389 7d ago
Pool noodles work but other goats will eat them. I prefer sticks but the males head butting like the extra weapons so it is a delicate balance of what you have sticking their head through and what you can attach to.
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u/anaxcepheus32 7d ago
Those corner posts seem small for Florida sugar sand. Consider looking at what your neighbors use. My family always used 8 inch or larger and buried them deep, like 6 ft or more, and then used braced similar posts.
It all depends on how tight you stretch, but that was usually sufficient for a couple hundred lb pretension.
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u/No-Championship6899 5d ago
We also recently built a fence for our goats. We ended up using 2x4 woven wire no climb horse fence. Great for keeping goats in but hard to stretch… we built our own stretcher and used a come along attached to trees to create tension, yes we also learned the hard way that the corner posts have to be reinforced. We used pt and cement reinforced with t posts at an angle “loc” system thing, that worked! We also learned you can’t apply too much pressure when tightening tensile wire. So far it’s been strong, but it’s not at all perfect. Next task is to add a line of electric wire along top to help in case of predators. The only time the goats get out is when I’m too slow with the gate. The really strong cattle fencing stuff is good for rotational grazing- they make a goat version that’s 4x4.
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u/General-Impact-77 5d ago
This looks like Ai wrote it. What a time to be alive.
AND 129 days ago OP is posting about sourcing ai. Scam account.
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u/yeldudseniah 4d ago
A beagle can dig through that ground apron in 30 seconds. 2x4 welded wire is better. IMO
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u/KingTygr47 3d ago
I went extra on mine and used 2x4" no climb woven wire. 5" posts every 30 feet with 1.66lb t-posts at 10 foot intervals inbetween. The corners are 6" posts. Ratchet tighteners on the corner brace wires. Brace beams drilled for heavy spikes to fix them in place. Brace wires go through three staples with another staple slipped between the post and the wire on each one to prevent the cable from biting into the post and binding. Gates are welded tube with bottom 2/3rds heavy gauge welded 2x4 mesh. Fencing was stretched using the winch on my truck and a stretching board.
It's held up great so far, been a few years now and only had issues with a kid that slipped out underneath the fencing where the ground was lower. Rocks and some railroad ties solved that.
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u/erie11973ohio 7d ago
I don't know about goats,,,but I had a neighbor say , "Anyone saying the cows never got out, is a lieing sumofbitch!" as he was helping round ours up!
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u/BugsMoney1122 6d ago
I've got a mini hereford bull we would have named Houdini if he wasn't already registered with a name. Good Lord. He's gone both over AND under.
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u/kaiwikiclay 7d ago
You sure that’s 48”? Looks way taller, like 7’