Farm Fence Installation in Springfield, MO
Springfield Farm Fence is a farm fence contractor building woven field fence, high tensile and electric fence, barbed wire, board fence, pipe corrals, and farm gates for cow-calf pastures, horse places, and small acreages around Springfield, Republic, Willard, Rogersville, Fair Grove, Ash Grove, Marshfield, Bolivar, and Halltown. Our crews work Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk, Dallas, and Lawrence counties, Missouri.
Wire pulls toward the end of every run, and the end assembly takes that whole load. So each corner, end, and gate opening gets an H-brace: two posts, a horizontal rail near the top, and a brace wire wrapped twice on the diagonal and twisted until it rings. Brace posts measure six to eight inches across. Backfill goes in lifts and gets tamped hard, since packed soil grips the full column of the post, while concrete poured around treated wood traps water at the collar and rots it from the middle out. Wire carries Class 3 galvanizing, roughly three times the zinc that Class 1 puts on a strand. Woven fence goes up in Stay-Tuff fixed knot or Red Brand, posts are CCA ground contact treated pine, and the alternative most pastures already have is loose wire on driven T-posts with nothing bracing the corner.
Rock Instead of Dirt
Springfield sits on the Springfield Plateau, and under the pasture is cherty limestone. Dig a foot or two and the auger quits. A tractor auger with dirt teeth stalls and polishes rock. We drill those holes with a rock bit or break them with a hydraulic hammer, then set the post to full depth. Sinkholes turn up on this ground too, and a hole that keeps swallowing backfill needs a different post location rather than more gravel.
Braces Matter More on Shallow Ground
Where bedrock forces a post shallower than we would like, the brace carries what the depth cannot. That means longer H-brace spans, double H assemblies on tall multi-strand fences, and a drilled socket where a corner holds real tension. A brace built right lets a shallower post stand. A brace skipped is why a corner leans by the second summer.
Spacing, Tension, and Rolling Ground
Line posts for woven and barbed wire sit twelve to sixteen feet apart, closer on the slopes and anywhere cattle crowd. Driven steel T-posts sit closer, at eight to twelve feet. Their job is holding wire up, never holding it back. High tensile strands get pulled to a set tension with a ratchet strainer, with a spring on the line showing the number at a glance. Ozark ground rolls, so the fence follows the terrain instead of running level over it, with tie-down posts in the draws and floodgates where a line crosses a creek.
Booking and Season
Building runs spring through fall. Frozen or saturated ground is a real reason a job waits, and we will say so rather than set a post in mud. Winter is when we walk lines and price work. Reach a real person at (417) 555-0195.
How much does it cost to put up a farm fence?
Farm fence prices by the linear foot, and the fence type sets the band. Barbed wire runs cheapest, woven field fence sits above it, high tensile lands near field fence once you count the energizer, and board and pipe cost the most per foot by a wide margin. Around Springfield three things move a quote more than the wire does: how much cedar and brush has to come off the line, how many holes hit rock, and how many corners, ends, and gate openings the layout calls for. Every corner is a full brace assembly, so a crooked boundary with eight bends costs more than a straight run twice as long. We walk the line with you and price the job in front of us.
What is the fence law in Missouri?
Most of Missouri runs under the general fence law, and Greene County is one of those counties. Under it the person who owns the livestock is responsible for fencing them in. Where both neighbors run stock along a boundary, each one keeps up his half. A small number of Missouri counties have voted themselves onto the local option law instead, and there both adjoining owners share a boundary fence whether or not either of them keeps animals. None of the counties we work sit on that list today, but county commissions can change it, so call your county clerk before you count on a neighbor paying half.
How high should a farm fence be?
Four feet is the floor Missouri sets for a lawful fence, and plenty of cattle fence gets built right at that. Height past the minimum follows the animal. Cattle hold behind forty eight inches of woven wire or five strands of barbed wire. Horses want fifty four to sixty inches so a spooked animal does not go over. Goats and sheep need the height plus tight mesh at the bottom, because they go through long before they go over. Bulls and stallions get their own spec, usually pipe.
How deep do fence posts go in Missouri?
Missouri sets no statewide minimum depth, so the number comes from the work rather than from a book. Our working rule is that a post sits as deep in the ground as the top wire stands above it. Line posts go two and a half to three feet, corner and brace posts three and a half to four. Around Springfield the limestone often stops you short of that, and then the answer is a rock bit and a deeper drilled hole, not a shorter post.