Fencing material costs challenge producers

Rising fencing material costs have affected farmers and livestock producers.

Across the Midwest, farmers and livestock producers are facing obstacles when it comes to building new fences, in particular the cost of materials.

Chris Roberts does custom fencing work with his Roberts Fencing business, located in California, Missouri. He says fencing material costs have surged.

"Everything's gone sky high," he said.

Roberts says barbed wire rolls he used to get for $75 to $80 per roll are now $110.

The increases are part of a general inflationary economy and rising material and shipping costs. Roberts says he has felt the increase in fuel prices in how much he spends getting to sites to build fences.

Iowa State University Extension beef specialist Beth Reynolds says building fences has been a challenge lately. Her husband, Brandon, works as a custom fence builder. They are based out of Warren County, Missouri.

"Both labor and material have gone up, but most of the increase is in material," she says. "For awhile, it was hard to find anything. Now, we can find it, but it's more expensive. Used oilfield pipe for posts has increased a bunch."

Reynolds says overhead expenses are higher, and in addition to higher labor costs it has been hard to find people to do fencing work. She says people looking to get a fence built should plan ahead as there can sometimes be wait times.

Roberts says he has generally been able to get the materials he needs to build fences, although steel pipe posts have been harder to come by or have had delays. Despite the rising costs, he says people are still wanting good-quality fences.

"A lot of your farmers are wanting five-strand or six-strand barbed wire fences," Roberts says.

Demand has remained good despite the costs.

"I’ve had a lot of people still want to get fences built," he says.

Roberts says the price increases happened over time, and he is not expecting the trend to reverse any time soon.

"I don't see it going down, to be honest with you," he says.

University of Missouri Extension livestock specialist Andy McCorkill says he has seen similar trends in his area. He is based in Dallas County and covers several counties in southwest Missouri.

"Like a lot of stuff, everything's higher than what it used to be," he says.

McCorkill raises cattle, and he's seen the cost impacts on his operation.

"I bought some pipe corner posts myself recently, and they were two and a half times higher than what they used to be," he says.

He says that increase has happened over the last two years, but it has been especially pronounced over the last year.

McCorkill says he has not heard of any major issues with fencing material availability, but that could be due to somewhat lower demand in response to the higher costs.

"I think that the prices have kind of helped with the availability," he says.

Steel pipe has been a challenge, and McCorkill says production of that type of pipe has slowed down, as it is tied to production of pipe for oilfields.

"T posts have gone up less than what a lot of other stuff has," he says.

All of this adds up to requiring more money to build the same amount of fence as a year or two ago.

"I’d say it easily costs you double what it used to," McCorkill says.

Reynolds says her husband has also noticed some fencing material quality has taken a hit.

"His thought is it seems like in order to keep posts in stock, fewer have been rejected so there are some posts that aren't very straight or aren't quite as big as advertised," she says. "Even our rolls of barbed wire have had issues more often than in the past."

Reynolds and McCorkill don't expect prices to go back down anytime soon, or go down as low as they were a year or two ago. But producers continue to adjust as best they can.

"Basically, it's expensive, and I’m not sure if it will adjust back down much very soon," Reynolds says. "But at least you can find material if you check a few places now, compared to six months ago when you couldn't find any."

Daily Ag News and Market information from across the midwest.

Ben Herrold is Missouri field editor, writing for Missouri Farmer Today, Iowa Farmer Today and Illinois Farmer Today.

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