Some people love to travel. Rome, Paris, Rio. I am pretty happy just staying home on the farm, but if I do travel whether in Australia or overseas, I like to go to rural areas, visiting farms, horse events or sheep dog events. One of my favourite pastimes though wherever I go is to check out farm fences. In my younger days I did a fair bit of contract fencing and of course I have done all the fencing on our home farm.

The most essential element of every fence is the end assembly. I have always used standard box end assemblies, but I am amazed at how many variations there are. What I find particularly interesting is how they vary according to the region they are in. I am biased I guess, and always do a traditional box assembly as below, using treated pine posts. The fashion in my district now tends to be to have the rail, about half way down (or more) and I can’t for the life of me understand why. The brace wires actually pull around the strut. See the photo below. They are popping up like mushrooms as fencing contractors copy each other. I would like to see come engineering computations on them, as I am convinced a traditional box is the most stable.

Diagonal struts were common years ago when people cut their own posts. They would cut a hole in the strainer, then fit a pointed end of the strut post into the strainer. The diagonal strut was usually long (10′ or more) as shorter struts would act as a catapult and lift the strainer out of the ground.

There are many prefabricated options today, and they are increasingly common, although they are expensive. End assemblies are the most important part of any fence. If a strainer fails, the fence fails.

This is an interesting article I found that includes some thoughts on end assemblies.