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A PB Forestry operative beside the Protech Evo tracked post knocker, with a newly driven timber post in the fence line

Stock, deer and rabbit fencing: heights, mesh and what each fence has to stop

A fence is specified by the animal it has to stop. Choose one below and the fence draws itself to scale, with its height, mesh, posts and spacing, then plan the run and check what has to be settled before the first post goes in.

Start the guide

Updated 15 October 2026

What it has to stop

Five ways an animal gets past a fence

The Forestry Commission's Forest Fencing guide sets out five ways an animal crosses a fence line. Each one fixes a different part of the specification, which is why there is no general purpose fence.

Climbing or jumping

Sets the height. The height needed varies with the species, and with how much the animals want to cross.¹

Pushing through or under

Sets the mesh size, and how closely the bottom of the fence follows the ground. Muntjac need a far smaller mesh than red deer.¹

Burrowing under

Sets the base. Rabbit netting is turned outwards along the ground towards the rabbits, to deter them from digging.¹

Breaking or chewing

Sets the wire. Rabbits may bite through thin netting where the problem is severe, so the guide recommends against 19 gauge.¹

Pushing down

Sets the posts and the spacing. The guide gives cattle fences heavier struts and half the stake spacing it allows for sheep.¹

Pressure matters as much as the animal

The risk of a breach depends on the quality of the fence, what the species can do, and the pressure to cross: the number of animals on one side and their need to be on the other. A panicking deer may jump or tangle in a fence it would never normally attempt, which the guide flags next to roads, areas of heavy public access and the edges of towns.¹

The guide therefore treats its figures as minimums. It asks for more where conditions are severe, pressure is high, the site has a history or safety is at stake.¹

Newly erected sheep fence running straight down a green hillside with sheep grazing on both sides — A recently erected sheep fence following the slope. Photo: John Haynes, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The fence builder

Fence heights, mesh and posts for each animal

Every fence below is drawn to scale, using the figures published for it. The dark bars are the posts, including the part in the ground. The person is 1.75 m tall.

Choose what the fence has to stop

Fallow deer fence

Minimum height: 1.8 m
Largest mesh: 200 x 220 mm
Typical net: HT 13/190/22
End posts: 2.8 m x 12 to 18 cm
Struts: 2.5 m x 10 to 13 cm
Stakes: 2.6 m x 8 to 10 cm
Stake spacing: Up to 10 m

The guide records a wide range for this species, from deer not crossing a 1 m fence around a small farm woodland to deer clearing 1.8 m. Its advice is that if in any doubt, a taller fence should be installed.

Woodwork, typical nets and stake spacing are from the Forest Fencing guide.¹ Stock heights are from the guide and Countryside Stewardship,^{2, 3} deer heights and largest mesh from Countryside Stewardship,⁵ rabbit netting from the guide and FG4,⁴ and horse fencing from the British Horse Society.⁸ Deer are drawn at the shoulder heights given by the British Deer Society.^{9, 10, 11, 12} Other animals are drawn at an indicative size. Silhouettes are from PhyloPic (CC0), with a general deer shape standing in for muntjac.

How to read a net code

A code such as 8/80/15 gives three things: the number of horizontal wires, the height of the net between its edge wires, and the spacing of the vertical wires in centimetres. Letters at the front give the wire, where HT is high tensile at 2.5 mm, MHT medium at 2.24 mm and LHT light at 2 mm.¹

Joints matter as well. Hinge joint netting is cheaper than locked joint, but it may be opened by wild deer and domestic stock. A deer scrambling over can concertina hinge joint net with no top line wire and trap a leg, which is almost impossible with locked joint.¹

Where more than one animal is present

Two parallel fences are poor practice, so the requirements are combined into one specification: a mesh that excludes the smallest species, a height that stops the most agile, and the strength to resist the most powerful.¹ A net with a smaller mesh at the bottom and a wider one at the top can serve for sheep and deer in one piece.¹

One detail matters on a stock fence where deer are about. A single strand of barbed wire must not be installed 150 mm above the net where fallow and roe deer are present, because they get caught when they jump. It goes on the top of the net.¹

Roe deer standing in long grass, about to jump a stone wall topped by a wire fence — If in any doubt, a taller fence should be installed. That is the Forestry Commission's advice on deer.
Photo: Humphrey Bolton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Posts and wire

What holds the fence up, and how many posts a run needs

The net is the part everyone sees. The fence depends on what it hangs from: straining assemblies that hold the tension, stakes that hold the line and wire that holds its strain.

Step 1 of 4

Straining posts take the tension

End post assemblies are the anchors that take and retain the tension in the line wires and netting. There are two designs, strutted and box, and both are equally effective when installed correctly. A driven strutted post must have at least 1.5 m below ground.¹

Timber and machinery

Timber in a permanent fence is always treated with preservative.¹ The current grant specification is softwood that is fully peeled and pressure treated or otherwise treated to Use Class 4 under BS 8417.² Round posts are recommended over sawn, and a treated post that has been cut needs its protective layer renewed.¹

A machine-driven post needs more length than a hand-set one. End and turning posts driven by machine should be at least 2.8 m for stock and 3.5 m for deer.¹ Our Protech Evo tracked post knocker carries the fencing materials to the work place and removes the need for manual knocking, and it arrives behind a pickup with no HGV required.

Two PB Forestry operatives with the tracked post knocker, its carrier loaded with timber posts — The Protech Evo carries its own posts along the fence line.

Plan a fence run

The guide's way of estimating materials is to walk the fence line with a map and mark the straining posts, the struts each one needs and the stake spacing.¹ This planner does the same arithmetic from the published limits, for a first figure before anyone has walked the route.

Length of the run: 600 m

Changes of direction

Type of fence

Line wire

Spring steel or high tensileMild steel

Straining assemblies

Struts

Intermediate stakes

600 m

Netting and each line wire

Stakes at 12 m, sections of up to 600 m. A first estimate on level, uninterrupted ground. Gateways, slopes, gullies and pressure from animals all add posts, so the walked route replaces these figures.

Stake spacing is the Forest Fencing guide's maximum on spring steel line wire. Section limits on stock fences are from Countryside Stewardship, 600 m for high tensile and 150 m and 3 m stake spacing for mild steel.^{2, 3} For rabbit netting the guide says 1,000 m is possible on long, straight, flat lines, and for deer it describes up to six 50 m rolls of high tensile net joined and strained together.¹ One strut at each end and two at each assembly between them.

Before the first post

What to check before a fence goes in

These checks can be made from a map, the authority's records and the network operators before anyone is on site. Tick them off as they are settled.

0 of 8 checks confirmed

A fence is permitted development up to 2 m above ground level, or 1 m next to a highway used by vehicular traffic. It is not permitted within the curtilage of a listed building, or where it would affect the enclosure around one.¹³
This matters most for deer fencing. The Forest Fencing guide recommends the tallest fences along roadsides,¹ which is exactly where the permitted height is lowest, so a roadside deer fence is raised with the local planning authority first.

Who is responsible

Who is responsible once the fence is up

A fence takes on a legal role as soon as stock go behind it. These are the main points for a landowner in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules in some of these areas.

Livestock that strays is its owner's liability

Under section 4 of the Animals Act 1971, where livestock strays on to land in another person's ownership or occupation, the person it belongs to is liable for damage to that land or property, and for expenses reasonably incurred in keeping the animals. Horses straying on to land in England have their own provision.¹⁸

Doing the work

From bare land to a working smallholding

On a mixed holding, one project may need several of the specifications above, built around how each part of the land will be used.

New post and rail paddock fence backed with wire netting across a smallholding — Post and rail with wire netting on the smallholding.

Case study

More than 2,000 metres of fencing for horses, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry

PB Forestry were hired by a private client to turn barren arable land into a fully operational smallholding, with paddocks, pig enclosures, chicken runs and a manège. We installed wire fencing for perimeter security and post and rail suited to the horses, with sheep and goat enclosures built with close attention to spacing and tension.

Read the fencing case study

Safe working on a fencing job

HSE's leaflet AFAG104 is the guide's reference for fencing. Its summary is practical: eye protection and gloves when cutting wire, a dispensing reel for line wire, the post retaining strap on a vehicle mounted driver, mechanical help or team lifting for straining posts and heavy rolls, and great care when dismantling old fences, because wire can unexpectedly release and recoil.¹

A 1.8 m roll of high tensile netting can weigh 120 kg, and nets wider than 1.5 m can be difficult to handle without machinery.¹ Our mini-digger post knocker and auger handles regular post insertion and work such as newt fencing, and bores post holes for concreted posts at gateways.

For fencing around new trees, see our planting service and our article on mixed species planting.

Tall wire deer fence and metal gate running across rough ground in front of young conifers — A deer fence and gate around a young conifer plantation. Photo: Richard Dorrell, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where PB Forestry come in

We install agricultural and security fencing, along with fence post installation and repair. Where the boundary needs opening up first, our vegetation clearance teams clear the line before the posts go in. Send us a plan of the route and tell us what the fence has to stop.

Our fencing service

The short version

Fencing in six points

Start from the animal. How it crosses a fence sets the height, the mesh, the base and the strength. There is no general purpose specification.
Sheep and cattle need about 1.05 m, roe and muntjac 1.5 m, and fallow, red and sika 1.8 m. Rabbits need 0.9 m of 31 mm hexagonal netting with a 150 mm lap.
The figures are minimums. Roadsides, large areas and high pressure all call for more, and the guide's advice on deer is to go taller if in any doubt.
Straining assemblies, stake spacing and line wire hold the fence together. Spring steel allows the widest spacing, while mild steel means many more posts.
Check planning height, rights of way, common land, badger runs, archaeology and services before the first post. Deer fences beside roads are the case most likely to need planning permission.
Owners are liable for stock that strays. A fence is inspected for as long as it is needed, and removed when it is not.

Sources

This guide is general information and is not legal advice. Every statement of law or official guidance above is drawn from the sources listed here, last checked on 6 November 2026. Legislation and guidance change, so confirm the current position before relying on it.