We recently fenced a large field and took some pictures along the way. Building a fence on a new field is a BIG project. There are lots of different steps and phases. Plus, it’s all done by hand so that means lots of sweat and dirt!
It was a big field and Matt and his Dad did the all the work by themselves. You’ll be able to tell that it took a few months to build because the seasons change in the photos.
You probably haven’t given much thought to building a fence before, but building and fixing fence is a never-ending activity on a farm. A good fence keeps the right animals in and the wrong things out.
If we have a bad fence, our cows can get out and they could hurt themselves. If we have a good, strong fence, our cows stay where they’re supposed to be and they’re safe.
Before – Building A Fence:
Here’s the field before building a fence. Isn’t it pretty?! Matt looks at this and sees a blank canvas.
Let the fun begin!
The first step is to design the fence’s perimeter and decide where the corner posts will go. Corner posts are large heavy posts that support the weight and tension of the fence. Similar to having a strong foundation on a home, the corner posts have to be right so that it’s a strong fence when it’s all done.
Here’s Matt setting the first corner post. See, it’s a big, heavy wood post. (heavy for me, not him!)
Here are more and more corner posts. For this field, Matt placed posts every time the fence made a turn or the terrain dipped. In general, large corner post were placed at least every 200 feet.
Next, are metal line posts. They’re spaced evenly between every wood corner post at 10 foot intervals.
More line posts…
Each line post is driven into the ground by hand with a post driver — that’s the gray tube you see in Matt’s hands.
Then, Matt stretched mesh wire around each line post and corner post.
Next, he added barb wire on top of the mesh wire.
All of the barbed wire is secured to each line post and corner post by hand. The full fence is secured by over 5,000 individual clips, each placed one at a time.
As you can see, it’s a really hot and dirty job!
Finished!
And when it’s all done, we let the cows in the newly fenced pasture. They love it!
Want to learn more about our cattle? Here’s how we raise our grass fed beef.
