REMOVING OLD WIRE FENCE

[radar]

Small 3 acre grass field, now not grazed, with falling down barbed wire fence. Fence needs removing and not replacing. Any easy tips or is it a case of knuckling down and knocking staples out and rolling up, and trying not to get tetanus off the rusty wire!

 

[davidroberts30]

i know plenty of lad who would come with hedgecutter and do 2 jobs in 1

 

[Steevo]

Guys here just pull it up with an excavator, bundle it up and put the whole lot in a 20 yard skip.

I've done similar with pallet forks before and pushed it all up into a heap, left it a while before burning the vegetation and posts off, then taking the wire off off to the scrapyard.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Drive the Loadal down it . But make sure its not listed as two fields on your SFP application
Sorry I see you replacing so don't apply , just don't cut any bushes until 1st of September or the Bush man be after you

 

[brigadoon]

Small 3 acre grass field, now not grazed, with falling down barbed wire fence. Fence needs removing and not replacing. Any easy tips or is it a case of knuckling down and knocking staples out and rolling up, and trying not to get tetanus off the rusty wire!

A good set of bolt cutters will cut any staples that are stubborn to remove. You can also just cut the wire where its easier and roll it into small sections etc etc

A walk along the fence with a knapsack sprayer a fortnight before you remove it will help a little with vegetation

A turn of wire around a ball hitch or loader end will help in getting the old crap out of the ground

Good pair of gloves

 

[Goweresque]

Cut the wire at some point, wind all the strands together and make a loop, hook a chain on the tractor and pull the whole lot out, posts and all. You can then easily remove the posts if you must, or as I would do, push the whole lot up with a telehandler and put it on the next big bonfire you have. Posts get burnt off, wire gets heated so becomes more malleable, and you can squash the wire down into a solid lump the scrappy will be happy to take.

 

[Wombat]

Dad made this up in the bale unroller, we pulled about 100m onto it at a time.

1mm cuting disc in the grinder nip the tops off the staples and then wind it in. We cleared about 10 acres like this in a day

 

[som farmer]

spent years, carefully removing staples, and rolling up, there's a corner, full of rusty barb and net, cheaper to rip out, and burn the stakes off, or push the lot into a hole, and bury it ! the stakes are probably shot, as well ! The time spent rolling it up, then unrolling it, is really not economic, unless you have plenty of spare time. And it never looks as good as a new fence !

 

[puppet]

A good set of bolt cutters will cut any staples that are stubborn to remove.

What! Pull them, straighten them on the top of a post, put in a bucket of diesel and store them carefully at the back of the workshop until they make 50p at your retiral sale.

 

[Wombat]

spent years, carefully removing staples, and rolling up, there's a corner, full of rusty barb and net, cheaper to rip out, and burn the stakes off, or push the lot into a hole, and bury it ! the stakes are probably shot, as well ! The time spent rolling it up, then unrolling it, is really not economic, unless you have plenty of spare time. And it never looks as good as a new fence !

We rolled up as above and popped in the scrap skip much easier than rolling the posts and all of it into one huge cluster

 

[Will 1594]

And don’t nail any old tin oil drum to the telephone pole to pull barb wire round , to pull it onto track to make easier to gather up about 60 yards of barb is as good as a chain saw , ?
as other said loadsll and burn stakes off , but remember cows will pick up stapples

 

[Barleymow]

We used a stiger and rake in aus

 

[roscoe erf]

use the forklift here just pull it up stakes and all then have a good fire and then scrap the wire

 

[radar]

use the forklift here just pull it up stakes and all them have a good fire and then scrap the wire

Sounds the easiest to me -thanks all. Fence has been up 40 odd years anyway so posts well knacked.

 

[Yale]

Muck grab and collect it.

Lifes too short it it’s not worth retreiving

 

[Ffermer Bach]

spent years, carefully removing staples, and rolling up, there's a corner, full of rusty barb and net, cheaper to rip out, and burn the stakes off, or push the lot into a hole, and bury it ! the stakes are probably shot, as well ! The time spent rolling it up, then unrolling it, is really not economic, unless you have plenty of spare time. And it never looks as good as a new fence !

I moved a pig netting fence (with two stands of barbed) and re used it all (inc posts) except the staples. At the time I vowed to never do that again, unless I was being paid to do it

 

[Willie adie]

Sounds the easiest to me -thanks all. Fence has been up 40 odd years anyway so posts well knacked.

I bet some of the posts are better than the shite timber being sold today

 

[jellybean]

Another guaranteed way to remove some netting is not to keep too keen an eye on your stags when their antlers are fully grown and they start to strip off the velvet. They will be looking for something to help get rid of it. Usually check them all 4 or 5 times a day at this time of year but yesterday I drove to Bicester to pick up a post driver and was late home. 5am this morning I woke up suddenly and thought I had better go outside; one stag had started cleaning his velvet 2 days ago and when I looked he was missing. Found him down in a stream trying to commit suicide, he had pulled about 30 metres of rabbit netting off the garden fence, twisted into a rope before breaking it right off and then obviously heading off for a drink and a cool down. When I found him he had snagged the wire around something and was anchored but with about 20 yards of the "rope" to play with. He is probably my most aggressive stag and given the stress was quite likely to attack me. I managed to walk him 3 times around the tree shortening his rope with each revolution, then cut the wire and freed him. Prepared the gates up to the handling system, got the quad bike and cut him out of the 30 other stags and drove him in on his own.. Good friendly neighbour then came up and we popped him in the hydraulic squeeze, removed all the wire and sawed his antlers off.
Sorry no pics, it was the last thing on my mind.

One thing I have learned (I am a fairly slow learner) is never to ignore premonitions when it comes to livestock.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Lot of folk seem to enjoy bending over and getting spiked!?

digger, pull the posts out, ideally by using the wire as a lift but if not, if your good you can dangle a chain of the bucket and wrap it around and pull posts with out leaving the cab.

pull up into a heap (remove topsoil first). Burn. Rake out metal into scrap bin. Return top soil.

 

[Up on the hill]

Guys here just pull it up with an excavator, bundle it up and put the whole lot in a 20 yard skip.

I've done similar with pallet forks before and pushed it all up into a heap, left it a while before burning the vegetation and posts off, then taking the wire off off to the scrapyard.

Is it worth whole whole to way the old wire in, I have about 7km to pull out?