- Wire fencing comes in handy for a fencing pastures.frost covered wire fence image by Jorge Moro from Fotolia.com
Wire fences are a common site in the rural outdoors. They divide pasturage from croplands and keep livestock where they belong. Wire fencing comes in several different types according to what you are keeping inside the fence. Barbed wire and woven wire fences are commonly used to fence pastures and pen in livestock. High tensile steel wire and electrified high tensile steel wire is used to keep cows, sheep and goats penned in and to protect animals from predators such as coyotes. - Barbed wire is commonly used to fence pastures.Barbed wire image by Serenity from Fotolia.com
Barbed wire fencing has an illustrious history. First developed in the 1870s, barbed wire revolutionized the frontier by giving farmers a reliable way to protect their fields from roaming livestock and other menaces.
Barbed wire fencing is made with several strands of galvanized steel wire with two to four barbs spaced every four to five inches. According to the University of Tennessee Cooperative Extension Service, barbed wire fences can be standard or suspension fences.
A standard fence has three to five wires on posts about 10 feet apart. The suspension-type barbed wire fence uses four to six strands of wire stretched tightly between posts about 80 feet apart and reinforced between the posts with wire stays every 16 feet to keep the wire strands apart. - Woven wire fencing is often used to pen in animals.old fence image by Alexander Zhiltsov from Fotolia.com
Woven wire fencing is steel fencing with vertical steel wires attached to horizontal wires in a grid pattern. The spacing between the wires varies in size from 1 1/2 inches up to 12 inches. The smaller size woven wire fencing is used for small animals, and the larger wire size is for bigger livestock fence enclosures.
Woven wire fencing is sometimes called hog wire because it is used with a strand of barbed wire on top and bottom to keep pigs inside a pig lot. The tag on woven wire tells you what its dimensions are. A roll of 1047-12-11 woven fencing has 10 horizontal wires, is 47 inches tall, has vertical stay wires 12 inches apart and is made of 11-gauge steel wire. - High tensile steel wire is used for fencing.Roll of steel cable ready to wire a power line image by JCVStock from Fotolia.com
High tensile steel fences are becoming more common due to lower cost and less maintenance needed. According to the University of Tennessee Extension Service, high tensile steel fencing was first developed in New Zealand and later brought to the U.S.
Use heavy posts and bracing to install this type of fence because the wire is stretched to a tension of 250 lbs. per square inch. High tensile steel wire fence works best as an electrified fence for keeping cattle inside a pasture.
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