How to: Wood Fencing for Pastures

Fence Posts

• 1

  Measure the length of your fence rails (or look it up on your lumber invoice) and divide that measurement by two. This tells you the distance separating the wood posts in your pasture fence.

• 2

  Mark out the fence line by walking down where you want to build the fence with a measuring wheel and driving in a stake with a rubber mallet at intervals determined by the results of Step 1. Each stake represents a fence post. Tie string between the stakes as you go, so you can look back and make sure the fence line is straight as you go.

• 3

  Select a typical fence post, since the length of the posts are often irregular, and measure it. Divide the length by three to determine the depth of the post holes. Then measure the width of the post and multiply that by two, which determines the width of the post holes.

• 4

  Excavate the post holes by pulling up the stakes and digging cylindrical pits with a mattock, post hole digger and shovel, using the measurements from Step 3.

• 5

  Set the fence posts by placing the posts in the holes and filling them in. Place a level along the length of a post and adjust it into a plumb (vertically straight) position, and tell a helper hold it in place. Shovel several inches of dirt into the pit and tamp the dirt down with the tamping rod. Continue filling and tamping layers of dirt into the hole until the hole is full, and then scatter the leftover dirt.

Fence Rails

• 6

  Determine how many rails you need on the fence line. A pasture for big animals, such as horses, needs only three rails. However, a fence for smaller animals needs four rails, to prevent them from squirming through the gaps between the rails.

• 7

  Decide where to place the rails on your fence line. The rails should then be equidistant from each other, with a uniform space a the top and bottom. A four-rail fence on a fence line with posts that are at least five feet high might have six inches at the bottom and four inches at the top, leaving 50 inches for the four rails. The center of those rails should be 12.5 inches apart.

• 8

  Mark the fence posts along the pasture to indicate where the rails will be nailed into place.

• 9

  Cut two rails in half with a saw. In a three-rail fence, cut only one rail in half.

• 10

  Set the top rail into position on the first fence post, so the end of the rail meets the middle of the fence post. Position the rail into the marked position for the second and third posts. Fasten the rail to the posts by driving three nails through the rail at each post.

• 11

  Install another rail as described in Step 5 in the third rail position (third from the top or second from the bottom). If you are building a three-rail fence, install this rail as the bottom rail.

• 12

  Install the second and bottom rails using the two rails cut in half in Step 4. In a three-rail fence, install the sole half-rail into the middle position. The result is a stronger, alternating rail pattern.

• 13

  Install fence rails down the line in the alternating pattern until you reach a corner or gate post. You may need to saw more half-rails to end the fence line smoothly here.

• 14

  Saw off any excess fence posts off the top to endow the pasture's fence line with a uniform appearance. This fence has four inches of post extending above the top rail, so any post with more than four inches needs its top lopped off.