Lawton Farm Fence: Farm Fence Installation in Lawton, OK
Lawton Farm Fence is a farm and ranch fence contractor licensed and insured in Oklahoma, building pasture fence, working pens, and boundary fence across Comanche County and southwest Oklahoma. We weld pipe fence and continuous rail, lay out corrals and working pens, and run barbed wire, field and woven wire, high-tensile and electric fence, board and rail fence, and farm gates and ranch entrances. We clear the old line and haul the scrap off first. Our customers run cow-calf herds, stockers, and horses on ground in Comanche, Caddo, Stephens, Cotton, and Kiowa counties.
Wire pulls toward the end of the run, and the end assembly carries all of it. We build an H-brace at every corner, end, and gate opening: two posts, a horizontal rail near the top, and a brace wire wrapped twice on the diagonal and twisted tight. That rail pushes while the diagonal wire pulls, so the tension turns into downward load instead of a lean. Brace posts run six to eight inches through and go three and a half to four feet down. We hang Red Brand or Bekaert Gaucho wire in Class 3 galvanized coating on CCA ground-contact posts, weld pipe corners where a bull works the line, and hang Priefert and Powder River gates, panels, and headgates in the pens. A driven T-post carries wire. It cannot hold wire back.
Call for a Free Estimate- Licensed and insured in OK
- Welded pipe fence, corrals, and working pens
- H-braced corners, ends, and gate openings
- Class 3 galvanized wire pulled to tension
- Comanche, Caddo, Stephens, Cotton, and Kiowa counties
Farm Fence Installation
A fence is an assembly, not a spool of wire. Line posts carry the wire off the ground. Braced ends carry the pull. Leave the brace out and the corner walks in toward the load, every strand behind it goes slack, and the run bags out inside a year. So we build the corners before we build anything else.
We stake the run, set brace assemblies at corners, ends, gate openings, and hard turns, then space line posts twelve to sixteen feet, tighter on breaks and where cattle bunch. Every strand comes to a set tension on a ratchet strainer rather than by arm strength. Depth follows one rule worth remembering: a post belongs as far into the ground as the top wire stands above it. More on farm fence installation.
Pipe Fence and Corrals
Pipe is the signature fence of this country, and the oilfield is the reason. Surplus drill stem and sucker rod came off the patch cheap, welders were looking for work, and ranchers put the two together. The result outlasts everything else on the place. A bull leans on welded pipe and the pipe wins.
We weld pipe fence and continuous rail, set steel posts in concrete footings, and lay out pens that move cattle the way a person actually works them: a crowding area, a straight alley, a squeeze at the end, and gates hung where a hand can reach them without climbing. Priefert and Powder River panels, headgates, and chutes bolt in where bolted beats welded. Concrete goes under steel. Around a treated wood post it does damage. More on pipe fence and corrals.
Barbed Wire Fence
Barbed wire fences cattle. It is wrong for horses, which cut themselves on it, and useless against goats, which simply walk through. A five strand run stands about four and a half feet tall, the bottom strand sits roughly a foot up, and the gaps close toward the ground because a calf tries the bottom first. Oklahoma defines what counts as a lawful fence, and we build at that mark or over it.
Red Brand two point and four point wire and Bekaert Gaucho high tensile barbed both go on our trailers. We splice with proper wraps instead of knots and stretch each strand against a wood or pipe corner. Driven T-posts hold the line between assemblies, which is the job they are good at. The corner is a separate problem and it gets a separate post. More on barbed wire fence.
Field and Woven Wire Fence
Field fence handles the stock that barbed wire cannot. The knot decides how the mesh behaves. A fixed knot wraps a separate wire around each crossing, so nothing slides and the sheet stays square over a rise. A hinge joint gives when an animal hits it and springs back, which costs less and works fine on level ground. Broken country is where the two part ways.
We roll Stay-Tuff and Red Brand off a jack, stretch against braced ends, tie off clean, and add a barbed strand on top where cattle reach across. Mesh spacing answers to the animal: graduated squares tight at the bottom for goats and sheep, wider openings for cattle, small mesh for horses so a hoof cannot punch through. Cattle lean, horses jump, goats hunt for a gap. More on field and woven wire fence.
High-Tensile and Electric Fence
High tensile smooth wire in twelve and a half gauge takes more than a thousand pounds of pull before it stretches. That buys a straight line over a long stretch with fewer posts, which is why it prices out low per foot on section-line runs. It also puts every bit of that load on the ends. Big tension and a weak corner make one fence, and it comes down.
The wire runs on in-line strainers with heavy tension springs so a rancher can read the load from the pickup. We match a Gallagher or Speedrite energizer to the miles on the ground and drive enough rod to earn a real ground, which matters in dry summers when the soil quits conducting. Heat pushes wire long and cold pulls it back, and a strainer takes that slack out in a minute. More on high-tensile and electric fence.
Farm Gates and Entrances
A gate quits long before the fence around it does. All the weight of a gate hangs on one post and levers against it every time somebody swings it, in both directions, year after year. When a gate starts scraping a rut in the dirt, look at the post. The gate is usually fine.
Hinge posts go deeper than any line post and get braced back into the run, and a wide opening gets steel pipe in a concrete footing. Tarter and Priefert tube gates hang in the widths that suit a stock trailer or a hay truck, with a walk gate wherever people cross on foot. We build welded pipe entrances with a header over the drive, and we pour cattle guard footings that carry a loaded rig. More on farm gates and entrances.
Old Fence Removal and Line Clearing
Getting to the line is the first money spent on most of these jobs, and it is the money that saves the rest. Mesquite and cedar creep into a fence row a little every year until the row disappears. Nobody builds straight fence through brush, and nobody should try.
We push brush and trees off the line, pull old wire and broken posts, roll the scrap, and haul all of it away so no wire ends up in a swather or a tractor tire. Then the run gets surveyed and staked before a hole gets bored. New fence laid over an uncleared line hands the next crew the same job twice. More on old fence removal and line clearing.
Board and Rail Fence
Horses stop at a fence they can see. That is the whole case for board, and it is why horse people around here pay board prices on the barn lot and run wire on the back forty. We build three board and four board in rough sawn oak or treated pine, posts on eight foot centers so each board ends on a post.
Boards land on the animal side of the post, so a shove loads the fastener in shear rather than trying to pull it out. Woven wire mesh backs the lower bays where foals or minis share a lot. Paint or stain keeps water out of the joints, and vinyl ranch rail suits anybody who never wants to paint again. Plenty of places here get pipe on the barn lot instead and never touch a brush. More on board and rail fence.
Why Ranchers Around Lawton Call Us
- We weld, and that changes what we can build. Pipe corners, continuous rail, working pens, and entrance headers come off our own trailer instead of a subcontract. See pipe fence and corrals.
- Braces do the work. Corners, ends, gate openings, and hard turns all get a full H-brace, and a tall multi-strand run gets a double. That assembly is the reason a fence stays tight. Start with farm fence installation.
- Rock does not stop the line. Granite breaks the surface all through this country, and an auger quits the moment it finds it. We drill, we core, and where a hole simply cannot happen we build the run on welded steel and set it in a rock footing.
- Posts are tamped, not floated in concrete. Backfill packed in lifts puts the soil back the way the auger found it, and the post can be pulled and reset years later. Concrete around wood traps water at the collar. Nowhere does that show up faster than on a hinge post.
- Wire is a spec. Class 3 galvanized carries far more zinc than Class 1, and soft wire stretches once and never returns. See barbed wire and high-tensile fence.
- The animal writes the spec. Cattle push, horses run, goats climb and squeeze. We ask what the fence has to hold before we quote it, because the answer moves the wire, the spacing, and the height. Horse people often land on board and rail or woven wire.
Pipe Fence Country Under the Wichitas
Southwest Oklahoma is cattle ground with a mountain range dropped in the middle of it. The Wichitas are granite, rhyolite, and gabbro, and the rock does not stay politely underground. It surfaces. Mount Scott stands over two thousand feet, and the same igneous rock runs out under pasture for miles past the refuge fence. An auger hits it and stops turning. That single fact decides how a fence gets built on half the places we quote.
Frost is not the trouble here. The line runs about a foot to a foot and a half down in this part of the state, shallow by national standards, so nobody loses a fence to heave the way they do farther north. Rock is the trouble. Where the granite is close, we drill with a rock bit or a hammer, or we move the hole a foot and take the jog. Where it is right at grade, welded pipe set in a rock footing beats a wood post that will never go in deep enough anyway.
Away from the mountains the country turns to red clay plains, colored by the iron in the old red bed rock underneath. That ground augers well and holds a tamped post, but it turns to grease after a rain and it cracks open in August. Shortgrass and scattered mesquite cover most of it, and the mesquite is why fence lines need clearing before they need wire. Cattle and wheat have run over this ground since hundreds of thousands of acres were set aside for grazing when the country opened, and the pasture fences follow section lines laid out then.
The oilfield left the other half of the story. Boom and bust dropped surplus drill stem and sucker rod across this whole region, and welders who had been running pipe on the patch started running it on ranches. Pipe fence became normal here in a way it never did in most of the country. It goes where the abuse is: corrals, working pens, alleys, barn lots, and the entrance everybody sees from the road. Wire covers the acres and pipe covers the pressure points. That split is how most ranches around Lawton are fenced, and it is how we quote them.
How We Build a Fence
Walk the Line
We drive and walk the run with you, count corners and gates, mark the creek crossings and the rock, and stake it. A boundary fence gets a survey line rather than a memory. Nothing starts until you have the footage and the number on paper.
Clear and Pull
Mesquite, cedar, and brush come off the row. Old wire gets rolled and hauled, and broken posts come out of the ground. A clean line is what lets everything after it run straight.
Set the Ends
Corner and brace posts go first, six to eight inches through, three and a half to four feet down, backfill tamped in lifts. Rock holes get drilled. Then the H-brace goes together: rail in, brace wire wrapped twice and twisted.
Line Posts, Wire, or Pipe
Line posts follow the fence type: twelve to sixteen feet on woven and barbed wire, eight to twelve on driven T-posts, eight foot centers under board. Pipe runs get their posts set in concrete and the rail welded on.
Tension, Pens, and Gates
Each strand comes to tension on a ratchet strainer, springs go in on high tensile, panels and headgates get set in the working pen, gates hang on braced posts, and we walk the finished run with you.
What Farm Fence Costs Around Lawton
Fence prices per linear foot, and the type sets the band. Inside that band the numbers move on corner count, how much brush has to come off, whether the auger finds rock, and how far the work sits from a gate a truck can get through. You get a written estimate, at no charge, before we bore a hole.
| Fence Type | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Five-strand barbed | $4 - $8 per foot | Runs cattle. Corners in wood or pipe, T-posts between them |
| High-tensile and electric | $3 - $7 per foot | Long pulls on few posts. Ends carry more. Energizer quoted on its own |
| Field and woven wire | $7 - $14 per foot | Fixed knot costs more and keeps its square across broken ground |
| Welded pipe fence and continuous rail | $20 - $45 per foot | Steel in concrete footings. What surplus pipe costs moves this row |
| Corrals and working pens | Priced by layout | Alley, crowding area, headgate, and panel count |
| Board and rail, three or four board | $16 - $32 per foot | Rough sawn oak or treated pine, then paint or stain |
| Clearing and old fence removal | $2 - $6 per foot | Mesquite and cedar add to the per-foot number |
| Farm gates, set in place | $500 - $1,800 each | Priced on the opening, the hinge post, and the brace behind it |
A cross fence between two traps lands in the low thousands. A boundary fence around a quarter section climbs well into five figures, because length is length and every corner is a built assembly. Corners cost more than straight run, so a square field prices better per foot than one that jogs eight times around a creek.
What moves the price:
- Total footage, plus the number of corners and gate openings in it
- Clearing: open shortgrass, heavy mesquite, or a grown up cedar row
- Ground: red clay that augers easy, or granite that has to be drilled
- Wire spec, gauge and coating class, and knot type on woven wire
- Pipe, and what surplus pipe is going for that month
- Access for a truck, an auger, a welder, and a wire trailer
Pipe, Posts, Wire and Braces
Why Pipe Holds Where Wood Does Not
Steel does not rot and it does not break when a bull rubs on it. Pipe posts go in concrete footings, which is the one place concrete belongs on a fence job, and continuous rail welds into a single stiff run with no fastener to pull loose. Used oilfield pipe and sucker rod cost less than new tube and do the same work. Supply swings with the patch, so pipe pricing moves more than wire pricing does.
Posts and What Rots Them
A wood post rots at the ground line, where air and water meet, not at the tip. Pull a twenty year old post and it is often sound at both ends and pencil thin in the middle. Southern pine pressure treated to ground contact retention will hold in this red clay for decades. Steel does not rot at all. Those are the two answers we use out here, and pipe is often the cheaper one.
Wire Gauge and Coating
Twelve and a half gauge high tensile wire carries well over a thousand pounds before it moves. Soft wire yields early, and a yielded wire stays that way. Coating sets the lifespan: Class 3 galvanized holds roughly three times the zinc of Class 1, which on the same fence line is decades against years.
The H-Brace
Two upright posts, a horizontal rail near the top of both, and a brace wire wrapped twice on the diagonal and twisted with a stick until it rings. The rail pushes and the wire pulls. Between them they convert wire tension into downward force on the posts, which is why a braced corner stands and an unbraced one leans. Many strands and a tall fence call for a double H.
Tamped Backfill
Backfill goes in layers and each layer gets packed hard. That returns the soil column to the density the auger removed, and the post keeps its grip the whole depth of the hole. It also leaves the post resettable. Concrete poured around treated wood makes a bowl that holds water against the post and rots it from the inside.
Tension You Can Read
Tension is a number, not a feeling. A ratchet strainer brings high tensile smooth wire to a set load and a spring on the line shows it. Wire grows in a hundred degree July and pulls back in January, so a fence that read right in one season reads loose in the next. The strainer answers that in year three without rebuilding a mile of fence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Oklahoma 15-year fence law?
There is no separate fence statute behind that phrase. What people mean is the rule that a fence line both neighbors have treated as the boundary for fifteen years can become the legal boundary, even if a survey puts the true line somewhere else. The same fifteen year period covers a claim on land somebody has openly used as their own. It decides where the line is deemed to be, not who built the fence. If your fence and your survey disagree, that is a question for a surveyor and an attorney before it is a question for us.
What is the fence law in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma is fence-in country. The owner of the livestock has to keep the animals restrained, and the open range provisions were done away with long ago. The state also describes a lawful fence: about four and a half feet tall overall, the bottom rail or wire sixteen to twenty inches off the ground, boards or rails on closely spaced posts, with a barbed wire version that allows wider post spacing when stays are used between posts. Most cattle fence we build sits above that floor.
Does Oklahoma have a good neighbor fence law?
Not under that name. Oklahoma has partition fence rules instead. Where two adjoining owners both use the fence between them to hold stock, they are generally both responsible for it, and one owner can put a request in writing asking the other to keep up his share. An owner who runs nothing and leaves his land open sits in a different position. Get any split you agree on in writing, and take a real dispute to your county and your own attorney.
Who pays for a fence between neighbors?
If both of you are using the boundary fence to contain livestock, the cost and the upkeep are normally shared. If only one of you runs stock, the responsibility for keeping animals in falls on that owner, because Oklahoma requires livestock to be restrained. Most of the fences we build get settled with a conversation and a written agreement long before anybody reads a statute. We will quote the whole run and split the invoice however the two of you decide.
Can you set posts where there is rock?
Yes, and around the Wichitas it comes up constantly. Granite surfaces all through this country, and a tractor auger stalls the second it touches it. We drill with a rock bit or a hammer, and where the rock sits at grade we switch to welded steel pinned and set in a rock footing rather than fight for a depth we are never going to reach. A hole that quit at eighteen inches is a leaning post waiting to happen.
Is pipe fence worth what it costs?
On a corral, a barn lot, an alley, or an entrance, usually yes. Those are the spots that take the most abuse and get rebuilt the most often, and pipe simply stops that cycle. On a mile of pasture boundary the math flips and wire wins on cost per foot. Most ranches around here end up with both: pipe where the cattle get handled, wire across the acres.
How far apart should line posts go?
By fence type, not by one number. Woven and barbed wire line posts run twelve to sixteen feet on even ground. Driven steel T-posts want eight to twelve. Board fence follows the board, so posts sit on eight foot centers. We pull the spacing in on slopes, in draws, and at any spot cattle gather, since that is where the wire gets pushed hardest.
How deep do fence posts need to be here?
Corners and braces go three and a half to four feet. Line posts go shallower. The frost line in this part of Oklahoma sits around a foot to a foot and a half, so frost is not what sets our depth. The working rule does: a post should reach as deep as the top wire is high. Rock changes the plan, not the rule.
What makes a fence go slack after a few years?
Three causes, and it is nearly always all three at once. No real brace at the ends, so the corner tips in toward the pull. Posts set too shallow to grip. Wire that was never brought to tension, or brought once and never adjusted since. Fix the ends before anything else. Tightening wire against a leaning corner only pulls the corner over sooner.
Do wood posts belong in concrete?
No. Concrete around a treated wood post forms a collar that traps water against the wood and rots it from the middle, and replacing that post later becomes a demolition job. Tamped backfill grips the full soil column and lets the post be pulled and reset. Concrete belongs under steel, which is exactly how we set corral posts.
What fence holds goats?
Goats want mesh that closes up at the ground and a knot that will not flex. Fixed knot woven wire does both, and it gives them nothing to stand on. Goats rarely jump. They find a gap and force it, or they climb a hinge joint that flexes under their weight. A hot wire at nose height on the inside ends most of the testing. More on field and woven wire fence.
Is barbed wire safe around horses?
No. A frightened horse runs into a fence rather than stopping short of it, and barbs open a leg to the bone. Horses want a fence they can see and one with some give. Board and rail is the usual answer, sometimes with woven wire mesh behind the lower boards for foals. Welded pipe does the same job on a barn lot and never needs paint. See board and rail fence.
Do you build in winter?
Winter is quote season. Frozen ground and saturated ground both push a start date, because a hole bored in either one will not backfill and tamp the way it has to. We measure, price, and schedule straight through the cold months and build when the ground is right. In cow country the calls come after calving and before turnout.
Do you take the old fence out?
Yes, and we would rather. Old wire lying in the grass ends up wrapped in a mower or in a bale, and rotted posts pull a new line out of true. We pull and roll the wire, dig or pull the posts, clear the brush off the row, and haul all of it off the place. See old fence removal and line clearing.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. We are a licensed and insured fence contractor working Lawton, Comanche County, and the counties around it. The written estimate comes first, and it names the footage, the fence spec, the corner count, and the price.
Fencing Comanche County and the Ranch Country Around It
We build farm and ranch fence across Comanche, Caddo, Stephens, Cotton, and Kiowa counties. The ground shifts as you cross it: granite and hard digging near the Wichitas, red clay plains east and south, and open shortgrass with mesquite in between. The fence gets set to suit whichever one it stands in.
Ready to Price a Fence?
Call (580) 555-0139 for a free estimate. Have a rough footage in mind, tell us what the fence has to hold, and say whether the row is open grass or grown up in mesquite. Tell us if you want pipe on the pens and wire on the pasture, or pipe on the whole thing. Tell us whether the line is a boundary with a neighbor or an interior cross fence. You will get a straight read on what fits the animal and the ground, a price per foot, and an honest answer on whether the old fence can be rebraced and retensioned instead of replaced. We price through the whole winter. Builds start when the ground is right.