Fencing for the Homestead

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HIGH-TENSILE NONELECTRIC WIRE

Installation: about $1,000/quarter mile for eight strands of nonelectric wire (number of wires needed may vary); wooden posts and metal T-posts are spaced 20 to 30 feet apart. About 30 hours of labor

Ongoing maintenance: retensioning wires, reinstalling wire anchors and retightening corner braces

Pros: easy installation and maintenance; attractive appearance

Con: Not appropriate for any livestock except horses and mules. Goats and sheep will crawl through; cattle will push through, unless you use barbed wire.

In this approach, smooth 12.5-gauge wire (sometimes barbed wire, too) is loosely fastened to posts that offer vertical support, but still permit the wires to slide back and forth. This allows for easy retensioning of the fence wires and helps to better contain animals—when they hit the fence, a whipping action occurs that discourages future encounters. Support posts can be placed farther apart than with woven and barbed wire fences, though only where the land is flat. You’ll need more frequent post placement to make the wire conform to the undulations of a rolling landscape.

Smooth or barbed wire is anchored at each of the end/corner posts and then tightened with a rotary tensioner that allows you to specify the amount of pull for each wire. It’s easy and foolproof, except for one thing: Too much tension places unnecessary strain on end/corner posts.

HIGH-TENSILE ELECTRIC

Installation: about $700/quarter mile for four strands of wire at 12- to 16-inch intervals; posts spaced 25- to 60-feet apart. About 20 hours of labor

Ongoing maintenance: retensioning wires, replacing insulators, adjusting corners and checking chargers and ground rods

Pros: easiest and least expensive to install; lowest annual cost of ownership; good containment performance for almost any livestock

Cons: most technically complex fence; requires regular monitoring; if not protected, energizer can be ruined by a lightning strike; will shock people and pets

For many homesteaders, high-tensile electric fencing is an ideal choice. It’s the least expensive perimeter fencing to install, with the lowest level of ongoing maintenance required over its expected 25-year life span. High-tensile electric fencing also is the easiest to install if you don’t have access to specialized fencing tools such as a posthole auger. That’s because post spacing can be farther than that of other fencing types, and you can use metal T-posts in most places.

High-tensile electric fence installations are similar to their nonelectric cousins, the only differences are that fewer fence posts and wires are necessary and the electricity takes the place of barbs in discouraging animals from pushing down the fence. The wires are supported differently—because the entire system is electrified—by line and end insulators that keep the electrified fence wires from short-circuiting. To give the fence its electric shock, you’ll need an energizer, which costs about $200, and ground rods to complete the circuit.

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