High Tensile or Barbed Wire Fence?

[@Suburbanstoneage]

I think I might be sold on high tensile fencing. There is not a lot of information on it, I really appreciated the details and the tips and tricks. Great vid, thank you!

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thank you for the comment, and very happy that the video was helpful to you!

[@denniswall4729]

That's a really nice fence. We have been pondering an electric fence in our feedlot, so many farmers nearby swear by a good electric fence and charger vs. barb wire. Therefore I will be researching high tensile only because of your informative video. Thanks, Dennis

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks for the great comment Dennis! We've only had our fence for less than a year now, but we made it through winter with NO broken fence and NO escaped critters! We are very happy with it, and we're sure you won't regret it! Let us know if you need any more information - happy to help however we can!

[@denniswall4729]

Where did you get your fencing material (what brand of material)? Thanks, Dennis

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Dennis Wall we purchased all of our supplies from Kencove.com, except the posts, which we purchased here locally.

[@TheHyde8875]

Im in northern utah. We get lots of snow. Never experienced what he was talking about in my 30+ years of maintaining fence lines.

[@myfund1]

great clue with electrifying the gates. I was searching for a solution and this is it! Thanks

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Glad it helped! Thanks for watching!

[@davej7458]

The best high tension fence I have seen thank you. I'm replacing fence on my much smaller pasture.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thank you for the kind words! Good luck on your fence replacement, let us know if we can answer any questions!

[@jefflawsonqwest]

Thank you so much for all the first hand info. It really helped me decide…I think I’ll try to follow what you did.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Awesome! Good luck!

[@NJBeachbum12]

Great video! Really like the fence the design. You touched on a lot of good points, and some stuff I didn’t even think about. Just subscribed. Will be watching more of your videos. Thx

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Awesome! Glad you found it helpful!

[@marcdipaolo5142]

Really useful video--thanks. The work on your fence looks very neat and precise--nice!

[@kopenhagenkid]

Great video nice looking fence

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks you!

[@Wakeywhodat]

That is some clean work. I’m starting my first fence now and found this helpful, so thanks! I have a rule that I don’t always follow, where I start in the least seen area, so if I don’t do a perfectly good job, it won’t be something I see often. Take for instance the fence around my pool 😂

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@t.curran8243]

Right, sliding wire is a real asset. Even white tails here in NC bend the barbed wire. I need to do some fence renovations and will go with high tensile. Joyce Farms in Clemmonsville, NC uses. Aberdeen Angus.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Sliding wire is probably the biggest factor that makes high tensile so effective. I've watched mule deer jump through our 8 strand high tensile - they never land on their feet and the fence has never been damaged. We've had the tensioners get wrapped up on another strand when the deer jump through, but never damage. We've even had black bear go through or over the fence (I didn't see how they got in/out) without damage.

[@t.curran8243]

Black Horse Ranch Idaho We have black bears, no hogs yet, but wish we had mules.

[@EthanPDobbins]

You can get hi tensile barbwire too that'll give you some stretch as long as you build it the same way and don't hammer the staples down tight.

[@SamuelPhi]

Beautiful fence you got there. I'm inspired! Thank you

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thank you!

[@brucekiefer2209]

I'd like it if you would talk about your energizer and ground rods. Great info! thanks

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks for the suggestion Bruce. I will try to cover that in a future video!

[@scott19641]

Great video one of the best I have seen. Been contemplating what type of fence to install on our 10 acre track in T.N. I think I’m now sold on high tensile. Just a couple questions. I know you said you located your bottom strand aprox 4” off the ground what is the spacing you used between strands? What was the overall height you used (top strand). We are just looking to contain 2-3 horses, 2-3 Hereford cow/calf pairs and a few goats maybe a couple sheep no bulls. Also why did you elect to go with plastic insulators on the end of your electrified wires at the end post instead of wrapping the wires around the posts and using the slip on plastic insulators? I’ve seen it done both ways just wondering if you choose to do it that way for a reason or just what you choose to do. Love the way you did the gates also. Thanks for posting great video! Enjoyed watching it. Scott

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Glad you found the video helpful! Our spacing was 4" off the ground, then 5", 5", 5", 6", 6", 6" 7", 7". So if my math is right, our fence is 52". We went with the plastic insulators because you can visually inspect them. If they break and you get a short circuit, you can see it. If you wrap the wire around the post with the slip on insulators, eventually the wire will break through the insulator and short to the post, but you won't know unless you unwrap the wire and look.

[@scott2464]

@@BlackHorseRanchIdaho fantastic makes complete sense. Appreciate the quick reply. Look forward to following you posts !

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

@@scott2464 oops! I added too many strands spaced at 6”! We only have an 8-strand fence, so remove one and total height of our fence is 45”.

[@springtimeplumbing6240]

I would definitely stay away from concrete around wood posts. It holds moisture against the post, and causes it to rot and break off much quicker.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Agree 100%

[@TheHyde8875]

Guess what else holds moisture. Soil.

[@PetersonFarmstead]

Great Video, Don't know if you put any of the stays in the fence but if you did it would electrify the whole thing. We are going to be doing outside boundary fence and needed some ideas. Thanks for the video

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

We never ended up needing the stays with the 8 strands. The stays are different for high tensile. They are insulators - either plastic or fiberglass usually, so they don't electrify all of the fence.

[@joemc111]

Nice presentation.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks!

[@LibertyGarden]

Thanks for the video. Nice fence.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks Liberty Garden. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@theodorewilson399]

Thank you for all of the information. That was a very helpful (informative) video. : )

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@AlpineWarren]

This is great - Do you have a guide on how you ran all that with spacing/electric and wire connections and setup etc.?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Yes we do. Did you check out this video? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWeqoGSffKmCrJo Let me know if you have any other questions.

[@kaceesavage]

Nice looking fence! So are the electrified wires buried in conduit under the gates?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

The electrified wires are insulated and direct buried under the gates - no conduit. We have lots of pocket gophers, ground squirrels and various other burrowing rodents and we haven't had a problem yet. If we do, we'll have to pull the wires up and run conduit.

[@kaceesavage]

@@BlackHorseRanchIdaho great, thanks for the tip!

[@hairymanonetwo]

Nice looking fence ! But.... why so many strands ? I have a three barb fence thats close to 60 yrs old. The cows never bother it ( no electric wire). My question is....do you feed your cows properly ? I rotational graze....and the cows never reach through the three barbs. After all.... by mid summer the grass on the other side is already rank ! So..........just curious ?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks for the comment. We opted for more strands because cows aren't the only animals we raise or plan to raise. So we wanted a closer spacing for some smaller animals than we would have for only cows. We also have one of the lower strands hot as a predator deterrent (we can turn the low strand off for snow). It won't stop all predators, but if it deters a few, that is more than none. We also rotational graze, and yes we feed our cows properly. I would agree that lack of food is the #1 reason I have seen cows escape, but I don't have a ton of experience. What breed of cow do you raise? That definitely matters, as some breeds are much harder on fences than others. Our American Aberdeens are very easy keepers. We have never had an animal out. As I say in the video, we basically had no fence here when we bought this property, so we had the opportunity to decide between barbed wire and high tensile starting from scratch. High tensile was the obvious choice to us in every category. It is cheaper, stronger, requires less maintenance, keeps animals in better. When you do have to do maintenance, it is much easier than maintaining barbed wire. If we had an existing functional barbed wire fence when we purchased, we would have just kept it since it is much easier/cheaper to maintain than replace the entire fence.

[@davidpeightal4918]

Thank you. For the gate, were you putting screw holes in the tubing to hold the insulators? And if so, do you get water in the tubes? (To freeze and break) Also: why would you not connect all the dead wires to the ground?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Yes, some of the screws go into the tube, but the tube is open at the bottom and doesn’t retain water. You could tie all dead wires to ground, just extra cost.

[@JScottShipman]

Great video! Do you use the same tools (fence stretchers) for high tensile? I read that in New Zealand and Australia, high tensile corrals are common.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

@@JScottShipman No, you don’t use fence stretchers - there is a ratcheting tensioner and a tension spring used for high tensile fence. We have an installation video on our channel that you should check out.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

@@JScottShipman kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWeqoGSffKmCrJosi=1pBN8IFaiL514Yt_

[@JScottShipman]

@@BlackHorseRanchIdaho thanks!

[@kenjorgensen4405]

Could you possibly show me in detail how you did your gates and hardware you used thanks

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Pretty busy, but I'll try to get a short video showing details on the gates. Are you in a hurry?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Ken, we've got a video posted showing our gate detail. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[@CatoELYounger]

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Our pleasure!

[@hairymanonetwo]

That explains it ! Thanks ! Since your starting with nothing... best do it right.....and go all out ! I milk Holsteins.......but they are no real problem regarding fencing. A question for you.......not sure if in your area there is a large population of white tail deer or not.....but whats the chances of keeping them out with every other wire hot ? Deer dont really opt to jump such a high fence as your installing.or if a person went even higher ? Just curious if you ever took note ?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

We do have white tail here. I have never seen them probe/touch the fence, so I don't think the hot wire would keep them out. I think you would have to make the fence taller. When we were in northern Idaho, white tail deer broke a lot of our barbed wire fences because they like to jump through them sometimes. I have seen white tail try to jump through our 8-strand high tensile, and they usually just bounce off. Sometimes they get a head and leg through on the first try and they struggle through, but usually they end up jumping over. But no matter what they do, I've never seen them touch the fence first.

[@janebennett9062]

Really enjoyed the video

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Awesome, thank you!

[@coldspring624]

great informative vid beyond good

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks a lot for the comment - I am glad the video was informative to you!

[@WTF-Gus]

Do your dogs go through? IF not, would they go through if it was not electrified?

[@anon7068]

Do you use a regular strainer on your bottom wire? I am grazing sheep and my bottom wire is a ground wire 2 inches above grade. Is it ok to have a tensioning strainer that basically touches the ground?

[@Cylastroy]

How far apart are your post

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

We spaced our posts at 30 feet, more or less. We set our h-frames and transition posts and then we spaced the posts evenly in between as close to 30 feet as possible. I think some are as close as 28 feet and some as far as 35 feet. I've read you can go 40-50 foot spacing on flat straight runs, but you would definitely want to use stays in between. We don't have many flat, straight runs, so we stayed around 30 feet. Our fence is doing well without stays.

[@kaylastanton8513]

Why did you decide on wood post instead of t posts? We are building fence for a horse pasture in the near future.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

T posts can’t handle the tension of a high tensile fence - they’ll bend or pull out.

[@organicvids]

@@BlackHorseRanchIdaho why not just use t posts for support and wood posts for tension?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

@@organicvids You might be able to get away with t-posts if your ground is flat and you don’t have any vertical tension on the post. But if you had any vertical tension on your post due to hills or valleys, you’d have to tie your high tensile wire to the post so tightly to keep it from jumping the bumps on the t-post, that you would have trouble with the high tensile wire being able to slide through your clip. I have found that the t-post clips aren’t rigid enough when wiring insulators to the metal posts and they tend to bind and don’t allow you to tension your fence properly.

[@organicvids]

@@BlackHorseRanchIdaho ahhhh ok yes i have many hills n gullies, my plan was to h brace at transitions then 133 6.5 foot tposts on the rest. Gauch high tension field fence, gaucho 4 prong barb top n bottom. 5 acres terraces hills. I want a few goats to eat weeds, blackberries. Is there a better way to tie off to t posts instead of clips? I just found this vid on tying t post down. Very interesting. kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4K5Xplqa76ho7c

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

@@organicvids I don’t know of a better way that would be very economical. We have a handful of metal posts that we left from the previous fence. We drilled holes through them and used high tensile wire instead of t-post clips to hold the insulators. We constantly have problems with them. You could weld something in place, but again, drilling or welding every post is just not very economical.

[@chipdoctorkent]

Can yiu do a video on the gate

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

We already have one… High Tensile Gate Detail kzbin.info/www/bejne/gaPcY4l4et5_o9U

[@tinysparky]

If you do 8strand, does it need to be electrified? Going back and forth between hi tensile wire vs high tensile barbed. The thought of a branch falling and shorting the fence here in the nw concern s me.

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Some very good questions! Here are a few thoughts for you to consider. Grab a comfortable chair and a cup of coffee... :-) The first thing to consider is what animals you are raising. We are planning to do some smaller animals (sheep, goats, hogs) and so opted to go with more strands. You wouldn't necessarily need that many just for cows, but you would definitely want at least 4 or 5 strands I would think - the same number as you would use for a barbed wire fence. We also have bears, cougars, wolves and coyotes here (which is probably similar to what you have in the NW), so another reason we opted to go with 8 strands is for predator protection. An electric fence may only deter a percentage of the predators that want to get through your fence, but a barbed wire fence doesn't prevent any! I've seen numerous dogs try to go through our fence (including all four of ours), but none of them ever try a second time! Physically, they can easily get through even with 8 strands, but that first shock becomes a huge mental barrier! We have local bee keepers here that have to fend off bears. Instead of building a bear-proof fence, they simply run three strands of hot poly wire around their hives! You should also keep in mind that it isn't barbs that keep a cow in - it is preventing them from stepping through the fence that keeps them in. Like I say in the video, in my [limited] experience, I've never seen a cow shy away from a barb as it takes a chunk of their flesh and fur, but now you the cattleman have a wound that you have to watch for infection, etc. One of the big cost savings of doing high tensile is that you use less posts. If you aren't going to electrify your fence, you need extra posts or "stays" (which are cheaper than posts) to keep your wires from spreading when a cow puts its head through the fence. With electricity, there is more of a deterrent, which means the cow isn't going to try as hard to push out. High tensile is also much tighter than barbed wire - even high tensile barbed wire because you can't stretch barbed wire. As far as trees go, you must keep in mind that the lowest strength smooth wire high tensile fence is still more than 1.5 times stronger than high tensile barbed wire, and fair bit cheaper. But the thing that makes a high tensile fence so effective is that it's smooth and can stretch past the posts along its entire run. Even with high tensile barbed wire, your fence will break when a tree falls on it because the barbs won't allow it to stretch past the post on either side. The same is true with snow, deer, elk, etc. I've seen deer jump THROUGH our fence, but we've never had a single broken strand; however, I've seen many a barbed wire fence broken by deer jumping through it. I would rather deal with an electric short caused by a fallen tree on my unbroken high tensile fence (we've had them) than have to fix a broken barbed wire fence that has allowed my animals to escape. Even if the animals can step over the high tensile fence because it is stretched to the ground, they are much less likely to do so because they are scared of it! That shock is very persuasive! So if your fence is electrified, it is a lot less likely that your animals will escape, even if you have to turn the fence off for a short time while you address the fallen tree. We do intensive grazing with our cows in the growing season, moving them from small paddock to small paddock constantly. We use only a single poly hot wire with step in posts. When posts get knocked over by the cows, 99% of the time they won't dare step over the wire. I've even tried to move them between paddocks a couple of times by lowering the wire to the ground, but they are VERY reluctant to cross that little wire. All this said, everyone's situation is different and everyone has had different experiences. Hopefully this has been helpful to you no matter which fencing system you choose. Good luck!

[@NJBeachbum12]

Thanks for taking the time to answer this person’s question so thoroughly. It’s a big help to us all.

[@tjwellard4178]

What distance did you use on your H brace? 8' 10'

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Hello TJ. We used 8' horizontal braces, except for one mistake which was closer to 9'.

[@GoldiefromMahia]

I'm a New Zealand farmer and use high tensile wire everyday except for the bottom wire that's touching the ground regularly and barbed wire for the second wire down if I put barbed wire on the top my dog's will get caught on the barbed wire when they jump the fence

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Thanks for the comment. Very happy with high tensile!

[@janebennett9062]

With that much whats the best way to energize it

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

We've used a 10 joule charger with remote and it works great. The charger is indoors in our shop and is plugged in to AC power and then we use a remote to turn the fence on and off.

[@newland007]

With the telephone poles, did the 10in h brace pins work with them or did you go bigger?

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

Yes, the 10" pins worked fine.

[@alanpinnt]

Any drawbacks to using T posts instead for your non corner/end posts? I figure in between you could just use T Posts

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

You might be able to get away with t-posts if your ground is flat and you don’t have any vertical tension on the post. But if you had any vertical tension on your post due to hills or valleys, you’d have to tie your high tensile wire to the post so tightly to keep it from jumping the bumps on the t-post, that you would have trouble with the high tensile wire being able to slide through your clip. I have found that the t-post clips aren’t rigid enough when wiring insulators to the metal posts and they tend to bind and don’t allow you to tension your fence properly.

[@johnnydollarhide9466]

I’ve been looking for the treated wood posts, I’ve found that tractor supply can have quality problems and I’ve heard that some posts have like a 20 year warranty, where can I find these? Or what do you recommend?

[@wenatahakwano3718]

Hey, For H posts u don't perfect timber just thick enough wood steams can do

[@BlackHorseRanchIdaho]

There is a place locally that does the milling and treating of the posts. I haven't seen them at big box stores, but I've seen other farmers use them? Maybe they are getting them the same place I did?

[@versatileduplicity9313]

Can I do both ?