Corral boards

[Woodwalker]

We have a good bit of treated CCA  1"X6" corral boards that are low grade, full of knots and break real easy whenever one of the horses or cows lean or rub on them. I also have a large amount of drought killed oak I plan to cut for fencing boards. My posts are 8' center and will use three rails. My question is what width and thickness would you cut?
I'm thinking 1 1\2" X 5 1\2" would be sufficient.

[r.man]

If you only had cows I would suggest a strand of barbed on the top to keep them honest but apparently horses and barbed wire don't get along well unless you want to put your Vets kids through college. I have wondered why board fences don't have a T rail on top to allow for a bit of leaning.

[bama20a]

Depending on the temperment of the horse's,But if was me I wouldn't go less than a full 2".The 51/2 will be ok.Mark,,,,,,,

[Bandmill Bandit]

Height is a factor for horses but that still doesnt stop them from using the planks for tooth picks.

8/4 X a full 6 inch width, start top plank at 5' 6" and go down from there using 5 planks. T top does help to keep them from chewing the rail but you have to change them out as required to keep them in a good supply of tooth pick wood. Good place to park your butt to. the height makes it uncomfortable for them to chew.

If you are working them enough most will chew less but some just love to chew and seems pine is a little more to their liking at least in the part of the world.

[Gary_C]

You are wasting your boards and time if you expect the strength of those few pieces of knotty wood to hold back an animal. Even without the knots it's doubtful the fence will last very long.

Think more about a solid fence that an animal cannot get it's head thru to eat grass or anything else on the other side. And when they can get their head thru and feel no pain, they will push against the fence as hard as they can and either push the posts over or break the boards.

So add an electric wire or wires to keep the animals away from the fence. Or put some barbed wire there, but as r. man said, barbed wire may just add to your vet bill.

[logboy]

I cut a few thousand bdft of red oak for a beef farmer building a cattle fence one time.  He used railroad ties for posts and full dimension 2" x 6" x 16' for the rails. He used old motor oil to coat the fence rails especially where they contacted the ties.  He said he was replacing a fence that had been there 30 years that was built the same way.

[AvT]

I preferred 2X8 rough sawn full dimensions and railway ties for posts, they stood up ok.  Most ranchers around here use old oil/gas well tubing for posts and rails anymore

[WildDog]

Only my opinion but I think 1 1/2 " is under gunned, 6" x 2" hardwood is prefered down here for cattle yards, (most new yards are steel these days) I had a steer go through the top rail that was only 6" x 1", as the rail snapped it sprang back hitting me in the face, busting my nose, loosening teeth and took some bark off making shaving hard. :( 

[Kansas]

We have cut a lot of corral boards. We always use white oak, unless its inside, and then the choice is cottonwood. (Horses don't like the taste of cottonwood). One suggestion is try to use as many 16 ft boards as possible, and stagger them. The other thing is to put an up down board between the 8 ft posts and fasten to all the corral boards. That helps spread the load when they get hit. I think I would use 4 boards, not 3. Depending on how confined the animals are, 1 1/2 might be sufficient. If its a crowding pen, you certainly want to use 2 inch. Also put the boards on the inside. If you notice those fancy pasture wood fences, they always put them on the outside for looks. I have seen people make that mistake on corrals. Also depending on how much you are willing to spend, and how many feet of corral you have, you might think about finding some used hog panels and line the corral from the top board down. That helps stop the cribbing, and spreads the load when the fence gets hit. There are a lot of used hog panels out there from all the hog farmers giving up over the last 20 years. You might find some fairly cheap at a farm auction or on craigslist.

[LeeB]

Only my opinion but I think 1 1/2 " is under gunned, 6" x 2" hardwood is prefered down here for cattle yards, (most new yards are steel these days) I had a steer go through the top rail that was only 6" x 1", as the rail snapped it sprang back hitting me in the face, busting my nose, loosening teeth and took some bark off making shaving hard. :( 

So, how did he taste?  :D

[Magicman]

With horses, you need more of a blind than a fence.  They need to easily see it, so 4 is definitely better than 3 and the wider the better.

[Bandmill Bandit]

We should really know what exactly you are constructing.

corrals or pasture/paddocks?

I ran 300 + head of cattle and about a dozen horses with a set of corrals built as I described above with railroad ties for posts and all pasture/ paddocks built with 5-6 inch treated posts and 4 or 5 strands of high tensile barbed wire (Bobby Hall wire)

And AvT is bang on. Used 3 and 4 inch drill stem is pretty cheap up here and it doesn't require a lot of maintenance once its in. A bit more work to install but once it in, its there for a loooonnnnnggggg time.

I have seen more than a few miles that used drill stem posts and top rail and then 3 sucker rods below that. Just need a portable welder and a chop saw to do the job. Most guys cement the posts in too.

Many of the feed lots up here use a similar construction for there entire lot and cattle processing system too.
   

[Magicman]

We should really know what exactly you are constructing.   corrals or pasture/paddocks? 

The thread topic is "Corral boards".   ;D

I have a hard time sawing "drill stem" with my WM.   :D

[Woodwalker]

We should really know what exactly you are constructing.   corrals or pasture/paddocks? 

The thread topic is "Corral boards".   ;D

I have a hard time sawing "drill stem" with my WM.   :D

A fella has to know the limitations of is equipment. Gonna have to upgrade to saw drill stem.
First off, I'm not having nothing on this place that makes a habit out of breaking fences, hard to pen, mean or wanting to fight. If they do, they better not load in a trailer............ Same with cribbing horses.
After reading thru the posts,I figure  I'll take Logboy advise and go back with with 2" x 6" or 2" x 8" and three rails like we have at present. If I was building working pens or the like it would be pipe and cattle panels.

[Dale Hatfield]

I wouldnt put up a wood fence without  A hot wire at the top bottom and middle. The grass is allways better just over or under the fence. The low wire helps keep the local hounds and critters from running stock.  The 3  hot wires will keep the stock respecting the fence. Nothing leaning over or under or scratching its backside in the middle.

Besides the best looking board fence is with boards on the outside. The livestock is on the inside. what are you keeping in,without some kind of inside prevention

[WildDog]

So, how did he taste?

You would have to ask the Japanese they owned the Tasmanian feedlot back in 1986 and his choice cuts went chilled to Eatomans supermarkets in Japan. Even if I wanted to eat him I would of had to heel a bit :(

[Bandmill Bandit]

Yes Magic man the topic is "corral boards"! How ever corrals are different things to different people.

In this country a corral is the area that the you use to sort, hold, handle/process and then pen the cattle. Includes the alley, sorting and holding pens, wedge pen, chute to the loading ramp and the processing squeeze. Hot wires in this environment are a waste of time and only serve to spook the cattle.

My system had 4 x 60 by 80 pens and 4x 120 by 80 pens for a total feed bunk length of 520 feet on the east side. Alley was 24 feet wide up the west side and across north end where the processing, birthing and sick pens were built. 3 x 16 by 16 sorting sick/holding pens and 1 x 24 by 16 that had the pressing wedge to the processing/loading chute built into the first 12 feet in a triangle shape to the chute on the west side of this pen in line with the alley. Chute was built on a 48 foot radius half circle with loading chute at the top of the circle with gate that directed cattle to truck or around to squeeze. 

The 4 Large pens were for pregnant cows (2 pens), yearlings(1 pen) and steers on feed for finishing(1 pen). the 4 smaller pens were for the weanlings sorted to 2 pens and the other 2 pens were for bred heifers and virgin heifers.

Pen separation fence lines were 3 x 2x8 rails with wind slabs for total height of 8 feet. Feed bunk side was 2x 3x8 + 1 3x6 bottom and 1x 3x8 + 1x 3x6 very top rail with a 2x6 T on the top. posts on 8 foot center through out.

West side of alley was 3x 2x8 with wind slabs to 8 feet.

sick/sort birthing pens were all 2x6 with top rail at 5'6 and bottom rail set 6 ish inches of the ground all tops were T railed as well

The wedge pen and handling system was 3x8 6 feet high with just enough room between planks to get the toe of a winter boot in so you could get out of the pen, quick any time of year.

Again hot wire in a system like that is a recipe for disaster. For a pasture that is another matter but in close quarters really stupid.

An as far as looks go you don build corrals to look nice. You build them sturdy and tidy. Your ultimate goal is the least stress possible on the animals and the least work possible to handle the animals. you leave only enough space between planks and slabs to create the illusion that freedom is just around that next corner without any possibility of escape at any point and the ability of the people working the animals to get up on top of the fences fast.

All gates were 1.5 sched 40 pipe, rails 8 inches apart 5.5 feet to top rail minimum and were built to block the alley as required.

That is a corral system. Any thing else is pasture and or paddock fencing.


   



 

[captain_crunch]

We have 5 2x6s on RR ties higher the better Best two corrals I have seen were one with RR ties and hiway gaurd rails and one with RR ties and the portable matting the army used but these were tax write off ranches

[Banjo picker]

The thread topic is "Corral boards".   ;D
First off, I'm not having nothing on this place that makes a habit out of breaking fences, hard to pen, mean or wanting to fight. If they do, they better not load in a trailer............ Same with cribbing horses.


From the above facts :  My corral is made of 1 1/2 x 3 1/2 lumber on 4" x 4" posts ....posts are on 6' centers.......I use mainly  4 hor...pieces as needed for the lay of the land.(5 in some places)...I have 6 horses and one mule at present....never had a problem with them busting the corral.......for regular fence I use 3" elect. tape......Banjo