Farmall Cub

Does anyone have experience or common sense advice on where to place snow fences for the best effectiveness? Did some research on the internet and all i seem to find are formulas or tables for fence heights and types, distances, wind speeds, etc.
The only thing i can gather so far is the fence has to be some distance from the intended area to be protected from drifts.
It can't be that complicated!

Ken

Snow fence is placed on the windward side - up wind from what ever you want to protect. Usually on the north or west side of the building or road.

We used to set snow fences about 100 feet from the barn. The snow fence for the driveway and house were set back about 150 feet or more. The reason the fence for the house and driveway was set so far back was - that's where we could put it and that's where Grandpa wanted it.

Grandpa placed the fence based upon his experience - years of living on the place.

I have the exact worse situation for snow fence. My 1000 foot drive has a hill with a row of trees to the east of it and a pond to the wes with the winds from the west. The valley is shaped so that every thing other than a direct east wind comes from the west.
Had to fix the length not not 100 but 1000.

As soon as the corn and beans are out of the fields transportation departments will start seting up snow fence.

Suggestion: Take a look at how far from the highway they set snow fences in your area.

Eugene

Ken,

Basically, a snow fence accumulates snow for a distance from 12 to 15 times the height of the snow fence. This means that a 4 foot snow fence will drift snow from near the fence to 48 to 60 feet from the fence. So this means that the effective placement of a 4' snow fence will be in the neighborhood of 50 to 60' from your driveway. Keep the snowfence up straight. If your fence sags down to 2', you will drift snow only 24 to 30' past the fence. Just like good fences make good neighbors, good snow fences make good snow drifts.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Thanks Bill, Eugene, beaconlight for the advice and comments.
The fencing i have is 5' vertical wired picket. Based on the comments here, it looks like around 60 to 75 and maybe out to even a hundred feet or more if placement becomes tricky due to obstacles.
The main drifting problem occurs from Northern winds as there's a large open field to the North. Its my dog kennel and adjacent garage that i'm primarily concerned with.

A potential complication is the kennel, house, barn and garage are about 5 feet above the open field grade.
You can see part of the large field to the North of the dog kennel from a picture i posted on this thread:

http://farmallcub.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24189

My property is protected from the South by heavy woods, the West by a line of tall evergreen wind breakers and the East by my 50' X 70' pole barn. The barn sometimes produces large drifts at its western wall from Easterly winds but there's not much i can do about that.

Now i've got to buy some post stakes.
Thanks again guys,
Ken

Keep in mind that it is better to put the fence too far out than too close. Too far out, it won't help any. Too close and you may be drifted in so deep you won't be able to dig out before the spring thaw.

Ken,

Good luck with your fence placement. If you get it right, I'm sure both you and your dogs will enjoy the benefits. Your picture sure looked like a bad situation.

Bill

Ken,

You may want to consider a combination of temporary snow fencing and a permanent extension of your evergreen windbreak along the northerly side.

Hazel nut bushes/trees make an excellent permanent wind break.

Don McCombs wrote:

You may want to consider a combination of temporary snow fencing and a permanent extension of your evergreen windbreak along the northerly side.

I thought about that but it would spoil the view of the woods to the north during summer BBQ's!
Here's a view from my back yard looking directly north at my woods:



Eugene wrote:

Hazel nut bushes/trees make an excellent permanent wind break.

I've been thinkin on planting some blueberry bushes to the northeast of the dog kennel. Maybe instead i could plant a line of them directly north of the house, garage and kennel. I understand blueberry plants like sandy soil which i've got plenty of out here. But i don't have a clue on how high or thick blueberry plants are or whether they'd make a good natural snow fence. Hazel nut bushes would be OK too, but again i don't know how high they get!

That view of my woods (to the north across the field) from my back yard is worth a million dollars to me! I geuss it all boils down to this: if it comes to spoiling that view or spending the better part of a day plowing snow - i'd choose the view.

Bill, one thing for sure, this indeed is starting to look like a bad situation the more i get into it!

Winter wonderlands! BAA HUMBUG!
Ken

Hazel nuts get about 8 to 10 feet tall. They can be pruned into a single tree or left as a bush. The bush makes an excellent snow fence. The suckers will cause a dense close growing wall - for lack of a better description.

Hedges?

moparado wrote:That view of my woods (to the north across the field) from my back yard is worth a million dollars to me! I geuss it all boils down to this: if it comes to spoiling that view or spending the better part of a day plowing snow - i'd choose the view.

Bill, one thing for sure, this indeed is starting to look like a bad situation the more i get into it!

Winter wonderlands! BAA HUMBUG!
Ken

Ken,

I'll take the view also.

As for the bad situation, experiment. Put up the fence you have, where you think it will work best and see what happens. If you get it to close you can move it further away. If it is to far away, move it closer. Either way, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I'm with you on the BAA HUMBUG! I was raised in snowbelt country, I know how to deal with it but I sure don't like it! I should have never left Texas.

Bill

Bill (TAMU '78) wrote:
I should have never left Texas.

Bill

Down here my snow fence is only 6 strands

The only snow fence I've put up was done the easy way for my 800'+ driveway. I plowed up a double windrow of snow with my dozer about 80' back on the west side. It worked surprisingly well.