S4 ● E80 Fencing tips & knots from the core team. Remember the snow 3 months ago?

Sam. Sa. Holy.

High tensile wire. So we can tension it a lot with this tool. And because of that we need the corners or the ends of the fence to be strong, like to put up with all that tension without bending in. So like the strongest part of the fence is the corner or your end of the fence. And then in the middle you can just put some other posts to guide the wires and to like hold the wires in the distance you want to keep between wires. So in this ones we have in the bottom ones 15 centimeters apart and then it's 20 between the third and the fourth and 25 between the fourth and the fifth. So the middle posts are not holding any tension, it's just, they are just holding the wire unless they are like here. And like the laneways hasn't got a lot of tension because we have like, like the road is not straight. So these middle posts are holding a little bit of like sideways tension but not the, the main tension from the wire. So in the corners we usually put bigger posts as the ones that are on the other side of the, the river and deeper and they go deeper. The big post in the corner was we put them one and a half meters down and then we make like an H frame with another post to hold the tension. But we don't have any here, so maybe we can. Yeah, we can go up there and I show you how the forces work for that. So then it's a matter of building the corners, putting all the posts in the middle posts, screwing in all the insulators because the most of them are electric fences. And we make with this bit intake screwdriver. It's very easy. Then we insulate the corners as well. Like in that one we put, put a little piece of that plastic tubing so the electricity doesn't flow into the post. Anyone, it's wet. And to protect the posts as well.

What about the trees?

Well, we use that tree as a corner because this fence doesn't have a lot of tension and we should have put an insulator there really. But as this lane, this is only a lane where it's not holding animals. We are not putting it electric. So we didn't put insulator, but we should have to protect the tree mainly.

This will be in the middle of the tree in 15 years time. Be really cool.

Yeah, and it will hold hopefully a chainsaw. And also the trees like this one and this small, they don't hold as much force as a proper corner building like this tree can move easily. So when you tension like you just Bend the tree, there's a lot of force put in the wires.

And the aim of these, like the pig fences, I'm probably sure you're all aware now, but is to just electrify the top three by just joining them together. And you can do that with simple clips or you could permanently do that, but the reason being that you've seen the pigs digging, right? They dig everything on the fence. So it's either you're clearing the fence every day or two, or you're just electrifying the top and using the tensile wire to stop them getting through, as it were. And that just makes maintenance easy because what we can then do is when the cows are coming up into some of these paddocks in the future, they can graze this laneway as a half day grazing or whatever and they will go under that fence. If we don't electrify it, they'll go and grab the grass underneath it. Same with the wolf fence. Like the bottom line on the wool fence is the lynx, sorry, is the wolf fence. The top one's a lynx fence. And the cows and sheep will graze right up to that. If you don't have it electric and that saves you a lot of time, it's a good day's work cutting around the whole fence line on the farm. So it's better to not have to do that.

So here's an example of a corner with the H frame. So this is dug down 120 in the ground because it holds a lot of force. And the other ones, I think it's only 80, but maybe a medium. And this is tooth to take some of that force. And then it's quite essential we have this diagonal reinforcement so we get a pull this way on the fence so that this one. So to distribute some of that force that way, it pulls from down here because it can take more pull down here where it's close to the ground. The reason why we have all these isolated CP's because we want to be able to have, for example, electrics running here, but not over here. When we move the pigs into the next paddock to the right of here. So there can be run electricity independent in these lines. And they, as Richard was talking about before, you can see that they're connected. The three upper wires are connected here permanently. So that's why we just put electricity into the top one, for example, and then it'll be distributed automatically into the rubbers.

I think this is the coolest corner on the farm.

Yeah, I like it. To make Clear. The physics of the like, of how this stands, all the tension is that, like, all the tension firstly comes to the main post. So all that tension makes the post, like to bend towards where the tension comes. So that bending movement pushes the secondary post with this horizontal one. So the secondary pole starts bending as well in this, like, in the same direction. So then this wire that is like the main thing that keeps all together as you put both poles like this, these distance between the bottom of the main corner and the top of the secondary corner increases when you pull this way. So that wire holds that distance together so you cannot pull it more. And that's all, like, all that tension goes to the bottom of the post where it is most strong. Like, you cannot. It makes, like, if you are pulling this post like horizontally like this. So you need really a very strong force to like push all the soil down there too. So that's why, like, that little diagonal wire is like one of the main things of the corner. Why would you choose an H frame instead of like two diagonals? It's stronger. Like, the diagonal you can, like, sometimes varies. Like, it goes deeper a little bit. So it is strong. But for very high eight tensile, like, this is still stronger.

This is really much stronger.

Yeah, it pulls like the whole thing sideways instead of this one.

You even do, like, for a long run with a lot of tension pulled on it. You might do a double H brace with two of those wires. Like, it, like, this is far stronger than a single post. And it's a lot of work to make it compared to just the simple one. So that's why we did like that down there. It's just not necessary. But, you know, like, in, like, New Zealand is a country where I tell you a couple of interesting insights I got researching fencing in different parts of the world, is that in New Zealand it's very common to have seven or nine wire systems, just because that's the way they do it. And so it needs a massive amount of infrastructure, like really big poles, really high tensile. It's very nice fencing. It will last 50, 60 years, but it's a massive cost and labour as well. And then in Australia or America, where they have massive farms, you find they put their posts, like up to 15 meters apart because they often have huge branches where they couldn't afford to buy that many posts. So. So check your guidelines, but check your. It's like water testing. Your country's water testing is very different from your neighbouring country's water testing. But it's like that. It's like, check your guidelines. In England we do 4 or 5 meters, but there's no reason why it couldn't be 10 meters if you're on a flat open thing. So it's one of them things that there's no perfect answer. It's like, what are your objectives?

In Argentina, we use posts like that every 10 or 12 meters. And then very thin pieces of wood, like where the wire goes through. And they are not in the ground, they are just hanging from the wire, but they keep the distance between the wires.

And take down the corner posts. Then put in the isolators, which we use this bit for. Very handy. And then we would take a shorter piece of wire, tie around one end of the stretch. I can show you afterwards how to tie a knot. And then for the rest of the stretch, you need to either walk with this super heavy roll of wire or you can have this super handy wheel that Richard has here. So you can, for the stretching, right here, I put the wheel here. You put the roll of wire on it. You can move these ones.

This wire is a bit like black poly pipe. Like if you let it go, it can just unspring and it's a nightmare, like poly pipe. So you've got to keep it wrapped up good.

Yeah. Then you can tie that to a branch maybe and start walking and it will just wheel out. Nothing is in the way. Yeah, Tie that to the other end. And then.

And you have to remember to put. If you're going around corners, you must remember to put bits of this tube, like this one. You must feed them onto the wire before you tighten it and tie it all off. Otherwise you're like, we do. It happens.

We use these pliers to cut the wire.

These are fencing pliers, standard fencing pliers. And you want them because they do many different things. This is for the nails, like these nails here. You can hammer them in with this one and you can take them out with that one. And this is for cutting the wire. This is for gripping the wire. So you can do some hand tensioning, which you can use this as a lever for. And these are crimpers that you can crimp things with. Like some different wire connectors use different crimps and things. So definitely you want a pair of these. And any brand will do of decent fencing pliers at €15 Hayes are a good brand of stretchers.

Basically, it's to put one end on one of the pieces on one end of the wire, one of the wires, that's where it ends. And then the other piece like it goes in here. There. And it can be tightened by the pull holds it. It's the same system on the other one. And then the chain would go in here and you can by moving this walk along this chain and in that way tighten it.

This is like the one tool I would put money in and buy the better brands like Haze is a good brand because this is where your risk is. If it slips out of the lock jaw that's where you get hurt. And Hazer you find it all over the world. It's a good brand. But all the rest of the stuff is kind of generic. Doesn't make so much difference.

Like the importance is that the knot doesn't lose with time and with like different seasons and all that.

They can't slip.

So because why are. It's like slip. Like there's a lot of people that just go around the post and around the wire itself. And that not like loosens easily with time. So this is a variation of that that is very easy to make and it doesn't slip.

So basically we would want to start by tying a regular knot. Like if you wanted to start tying your shoelaces. So it goes under and down here and then we can start rolling around. So I found that it's easiest if you start by making the kink. Makes a knot and then go under and before tightening it around here. It's easier to make that knot so you have the room to tighten it. And then you can I make the isolator too long for this thin pole. It's okay. So now I have the knot. Normal knot here and then I want to tie it around this. So I would go up now and then around here. So putting as much tension as possible. Now something to hold against. Then it's about wrapping this handle.

That as got is vital. You can't do it without that handle.

Get a good grip by making a 90 degree angle on the wire here. So now it's about just rubbing the wire around. Thank you. Thank you.

Neat and tidy. Neat and tidy.

Tried it a couple of times now and then.

Watch this next bit. Isn't it?

Yeah. So you would need to go back a bit and then. Roll it sideways to snap it.

This is really important. The reason being is that doesn't leave a sharp edge. Feel that it's quite smooth. If you cut this wire it's very sharp and you rip your clothes or like this material is real nice to work with. When you get familiar with it. It's like it has tension in it. So you like when Astrid was wrapping that, you have to use a bit of strength because the wire sort of pulls off on its own. You need to guide it where you want it to be. So it's kind of letting the wire do the work a bit. But that's the goal is a tight knot that cannot slip now and it's not sharp. And you would typically in most fencing scenarios, you would then get a nail and nail that on the back of here so that it's translated. And you would choose the correct size one, like a big one so that it doesn't bite through the insulator and connect with the metal inside.

And you want it in a bit of an angle. Right. So it's not the same fibers. Yeah, it goes into, but different fibers.

It has a bit of flyers.

Yeah.

This size one is a bit. You might want to hammer. Then these.

Yeah, we have, we've actually used some small ones down here. These are mostly what we've been using.

And then how about Lucas, can you connect one to that?

Yeah. So the machine like this goes to the other corner. And now I have, I can show maybe this a bit more. So you put this on one end. So what I want is to tension this wire and tie it up. Then I put this one on the other end. Well, this obviously with tension you just can pull. And as much as you pull, the better it's grip in there. So then I would put the chain inside the tool here, something like that.

This is gonna test Astrid strength and endurance.

So for using the tool, let's see.

If we can pull Astrid over.

You have this leverage. You have to like keep your fingers like on the clear of these hooks because it has a lot of tension and you can, it's easy to get your finger jump there. So you want to pull the other lever out and this one. And then you grab the following link and then you do the same with this. So you start giving tension to the wire. As far as you want.

You can tell it posed actually.

So when you get the right tension. Yeah, the tension you want, then you have to tie these both wires together and you want to tie them as tight as possible so that you don't lose your tension.

So.

Thank you. Yeah, this will hold by itself when it's. Yeah, when it's tight. So we were trying some different knots. It's all about like the same knot, but you can like construct it like tension it differently. So the best option we came across is to do you want more or less 30 centimeters? I like, I follow this step So I don't forget. I take the left wire and I just do a kink below the wire like that. And you have that kink there. Then I come with a.

Sorry.

Then I come with the right wire and go from the top down. So I want this to be as tight as possible there. So then I can just pull again a little bit more this one so that it close a little bit the king. And then I want to make the same kink over this wire. So what I will make is to go over this wire and down again and come in this way, something. Like that. So it's the same king. Now here is the biggest trouble.

Like.

What you want to. For keeping this tight. And because if I do the kink here, then I have like a 5cm slack there. And so when I release the tool, then the wire is not tight. So I want these two kinks as near as possible. So the best way to do that is to like pre. Do a king here. Like I do it outside somewhere around there. And now I try to pull it back and back again. But here, like if I pull it by hand here, it will make a kink, another kink here. So the best thing to do like this is obviously very tension. So what I do is to grab the wire with the pliers and make a big pull there. But now I won't do it because she. Well, I can try. Let's try Astrid strength. So what I do is.

Would you grab it with them ones? Yeah, to get a better grip. Better grippage.

Yeah.

So I'm there. So there I have the two kinks. Those two kinks together like that will hold all the tension of the wire. So now that I made those two. This knot is called figure of eight. I think looks like a Nate. So now I can release the tool. I continue the knot. So I follow, I grab any end. This is maybe quite long. So then I follow this loop here. It's easier if I hold the knot now that I need to twist it. So I just hold it there. It's fine. So I go following that loop there. I make my handle as Astrid did. And then I go around.

Okay.

Maybe two or three turns, something like that. And the same on the other side. Just continue with the knot. Make my handle.

Neat, Sam.