Field & Woven Wire Fence in Lawton, OK
Lawton Farm Fence installs field fence and woven wire fence for cattle, horses, goats, and sheep on ranches, hay meadows, and small acreages around Lawton, Cache, Fletcher, Sterling, and Walters. Agricultural fence is the bulk of what we build in Comanche and Cotton counties, and woven mesh is the workhorse of it.
Mesh comes from Stay-Tuff in fixed knot and from Red Brand in hinge joint, both in Class 3 galvanized coating, which carries about three times the zinc of Class 1 and decides whether the fence outlives the note or rusts at the knots. We stretch the roll off a spreader bar against a braced dummy post so every horizontal strand loads at once. Corners and ends carry a full H-brace: two posts six to eight inches across set three and a half to four feet down, a horizontal rail near the top, and a diagonal brace wire wrapped twice and twisted tight. Line posts are CCA ground contact treated pine, with driven T-posts filling between them. A roll stapled to T-posts and pulled tight from the top wire alone bags in the middle and rolls over the first time a cow leans into it.
Mesh Follows the Animal
Cattle push against a fence, horses go over it, and goats find a way through. Cattle mesh runs a graduated spacing that tightens toward the ground, usually with a barbed strand or two on top so stock stay off the wire. Horse pasture gets a small opening that a hoof cannot pass, often a two by four inch pattern, and no barbs anywhere. Goats and sheep get the tightest mesh we sell. Wire stays go in between line posts on long spans to hold the verticals plumb where cattle crowd a gate.
Ground Around the Wichitas
Woven wire is the right call across the shortgrass country north and west of town, where buffalograss and blue grama run to the foot of the Wichitas and mesquite has moved into the draws. That ground rolls, and rolling ground is where fixed knot earns its price. Where an outcrop of granite stops the auger we set steel and shift the brace assembly rather than force a hole. Down toward the Red River the clay turns red and heavy, augers clean, and takes a tamped post well.
Quotes and Build Season
We walk the line, count the corners, and price the actual job per linear foot. Brush on the line and the number of corner assemblies move the cost more than the wire does. Our season runs long in southwest Oklahoma, but wet clay still puts a build on hold. (580) 555-0139 gets you a free estimate.
Is fixed knot woven wire worth the extra money?
On rough or rolling ground, yes. A fixed knot ties every crossing with its own separate wrapped wire, so the mesh cannot slide out of square when a cow leans on it or the fence follows a hill. A hinge joint flexes on impact and springs back, which costs less and works fine on flat pasture. The difference shows up after a few years, not on installation day.
What mesh do I need to hold goats?
Goats go through a fence rather than over it, so the openings decide everything. We use a tight mesh, four inch squares or smaller, with the graduation kept small near the ground. Horns are the other problem. A goat pushes a head through a six inch opening and cannot back it out. Fixed knot mesh in a four inch pattern handles both.
Do you put a barbed strand on top of field fence?
For cattle, usually one or two. A top barb keeps stock off the mesh, and cattle reaching over is what rolls the top wire down and ruins a woven fence. For horses we skip barbed wire and cap the fence with a board or a strand of coated wire instead.
How do you keep field fence tight on hills?
The roll gets stretched with a spreader bar and a dummy post so all the strands come up to tension together, not one at a time with a come-along on the top wire. Then the fence follows the ground. Tie-down posts go in at the low points and the mesh stays in contact with the dirt through the draws, so nothing crawls under.