Split Rail and Farm Fence Installation in West Tennessee

Split Rail and Farm Fencing for Jackson and West Tennessee Properties

Farm fence is a different problem from yard fence. The runs are longer, the corners carry real load, and the fence has to stand up to animals that lean on it. We build split rail, post and board, and wire-backed farm fence on acreage around Jackson and throughout Madison County and the surrounding counties.

Split rail and farm fence get lumped together, and they aren't the same thing. Split rail is decorative, two or three rails set into drilled posts, and it won't hold livestock. A farm fence is built to contain animals, usually post and board or wire mesh backed by a wood or steel frame. Plenty of jobs want both: split rail along the road frontage, wire-backed fence where the animals are.

Who a split rail or farm fence is for

Split rail suits the property that needs a boundary and a look rather than containment. A driveway line, road frontage, the edge of a yard on acreage, a garden border. It's the least expensive way to make a long property line read as fenced.

Farm fence is for animals, and the animal decides the fence. Cattle push and lean, so they want strength at the posts. Horses are the delicate case, since a horse can put a leg through a wide-spaced fence and do serious damage, which is why no-climb woven wire is the standard for paddocks. Goats and sheep get out through any gap, so mesh size matters more than height. More in the farm and horse fencing guide.

Split rail is the wrong call with livestock, because they'll go through it or rub it apart, and a dog will walk straight between the rails. For those, privacy fencing or a mesh fence is the honest answer.

Styles and options we build

What the fence has to hold decides most of this.

• Split rail. Two or three rails set into drilled or mortised posts. Rustic, inexpensive per foot, decorative rather than containing.
• Post and board. Dimensional boards nailed or screwed to the face of the posts. Two to four boards. The classic farm look, and it holds cattle when it's built heavy enough.
• Wire-backed. Any of the above with woven wire or welded mesh fastened to the inside face. This is how you get containment and the wood look on the same fence.
• No-climb horse fence. Woven wire with openings small enough that a hoof can't go through. What we recommend for horses, usually with a top board or rail as a sight line.
• Field and barbed wire. Field fence on wood or steel posts for cattle, with barbed strands where appropriate. The workhorse for large acreage.
• Steel pipe. Welded pipe corrals and heavy gates where animals crowd. Expensive per foot and nearly indestructible.
• Vinyl ranch rail. The post-and-board look in PVC, with no painting. See vinyl fencing.

Gates get thought about last and used most. Size them for the widest thing that has to go through, usually a tractor with an implement or a trailer, not the truck. A gate that's barely wide enough gets scraped, then bent, then replaced. Hardware is on gate installation and repair, powered entry gates on automatic gate installation.

How farm fence holds up in West Tennessee conditions

Humid subtropical, zone 7b. On a wood farm fence the ground line is where it ends, and posts rated for ground contact are not optional out here. On wire, the coating is what matters. Galvanized wire lasts a long time untouched, and the failure points are cut ends, staple holes, and anywhere the coating got scraped stringing the fence.

Soil is the defining factor on a long fence. The uplands here are Gulf Coastal Plain under a cap of wind-blown loess. That silt digs fast, which is why farm fence goes up quicker here than in rocky country. It also drains poorly once compacted, holds water, and moves through wet and dry cycles. On wire that shows as loose tension and posts walking out of line, worst at the corners and gate posts that carry all the pull. Those need to be set deeper and braced properly, not just set bigger. More in fence posts in West Tennessee soil.

Low ground is the other West Tennessee problem. The South Fork of the Forked Deer River runs through the Jackson area, and plenty of pasture here sits in bottomland that takes water. A fence crossing a drainage needs to be built to give and be reset rather than to hold, or it becomes a debris dam and takes out the whole run. A fence in a designated flood hazard area also needs a separate development permit, worth confirming before you start. See fencing floodplain lots.

Wind matters less than you'd think. Two F4 tornadoes and an EF4 are on Jackson's record, but an open rail or wire fence gives wind very little to work on. What takes farm fence out is falling timber along a tree line, and that's a repair rather than a rebuild. See storm damage.

What it costs, roughly

No per-foot figures, and on farm fence the spread is wider than anything else we build. What moves it:

• Total footage. Dominant on farm work, since the runs are long and the number scales with the line.
• What it has to contain. Decorative split rail and cattle-rated wire-backed board are different fences at different prices.
• Corners and braces. Every corner and gate post on a wire fence needs bracing, and those are the expensive posts. A line with many corners costs more than a straight one the same length.
• Gates. Wide farm gates and heavy pipe gates are a real line item.
• Grade, clearing, and access. A line that needs brush cut first, or ground a machine can't reach, adds time.
• Old fence removal. Pulling old wire out of a fencerow grown into trees is slow work.

Ranked locally: split rail and field wire sit at the inexpensive end per foot, near chain link. Post and board is above them, wire-backed board above that, steel pipe at the top with ornamental iron. For yard-fence comparison see wood fencing and the Jackson fence cost guide.

Maintenance and how long it lasts

Farm fence wants a walk, not a schedule. Check the corners and gate posts, since that's where the load is and where trouble starts. Retension slack wire. Replace staples that backed out. Keep the fence line mowed, because a fencerow grown up in vines and saplings will push a fence over and hide the damage while it does it. Wood rails want stain or paint to keep looking new, and plenty of farms let them weather gray on purpose.

On lifespan, galvanized wire on properly set wood posts outlasts a stained board fence, and steel pipe outlasts everything we build. Vinyl ranch rail outlasts painted wood rail and needs no refinishing. Split rail is the shortest-lived of the group, because the rails sit in the posts where water collects. As always the posts decide it: set deep and braced, a farm fence lasts far longer than the same fence tamped in. Comparisons in the fence lifespan guide and best fence materials for West Tennessee.

Common questions about farm and split rail fence

How we work

No salesman in the middle. On farm work we walk the whole line, and we look at the corners, the low spots, the drainages, and where gates need to be for how you actually move equipment. Then you get a written quote with the fence type, post spacing, and bracing spelled out.

Then the utility locate, which Tennessee law requires at least three full business days before any digging, hand tools included, acreage included. After that it's corners and braces first, then line posts, then rails or wire. New builds on fence installation, repairs on fence repair.

Call or text Greg at (731) 555-1234 and we'll come walk the property.