Last Updated on September 17, 2026

Cattle Panel Arch Calculator: Height, Span and Panel Length

A 16-foot cattle panel with its ends 5 feet apart makes an arch about 6 ft 7 in tall, and up to about 10 feet apart, every extra foot between the ends takes about 3.4 inches off the peak. Set the ends 7 feet apart and the peak is right at 6 feet; set them 4 feet apart and it is about 6 ft 10 in. The calculator below works it out for any panel length and span, adds the height of a bed or anything else the ends stand on, runs backward from the height you want, and counts panels and T-posts for a tunnel.

Cattle panel arch height chart

Peak height above the panel ends for a panel bent between two fixed ends, from the same geometry the calculator uses. If the ends stand on a bed or a frame, add that height. The last column is how much of the width has at least 6 feet of headroom with the ends at ground level.

16-foot panel

8-foot panel

Notice the headroom column. A 7-foot span does reach 6 feet, but only for the top 3 inches of the curve. If you want to walk through without ducking, a 5-foot span leaves about 38 inches of width above 6 feet.

How close is the math to a real arch?

Here is the calculator next to published builds where the finished arch was measured. Each arch is a single 16-foot panel with its ends on or near the ground.

DIYType’s cattle panel arch build guide publishes its backyard measurements for 48, 60 and 72-inch widths, with the panel kept vertical to the top of 42-inch T-posts and then curving inward to the top. The calculator came in about 2 inches under each one. Gardening Know How lays out T-posts in a 5 ft by 50 in rectangle and gets an arch roughly 6.5 feet tall, within an inch of the calculator.

A wider example: University of Kentucky Extension’s hoop pen plan (ASC-189) bends two 16 ft x 50 in cattle panels over a base frame made from 101-inch boards and describes the hoop as approximately 6 feet tall, enough for a person to stand up inside. At a span of about 101 inches the calculator gives about 5 ft 7 in above the panel ends, and in that plan the panels rest on cleats on the frame rather than on the ground.

Real panels do not bend into a perfect curve. Treat every number here as a close estimate: stand the panel in place, measure the peak, then fasten it. The DIYType builder also noted in the comments that at some width, he thought 7 or 8 feet, the top of his arch got too flat and a little unstable.

How the calculator works

The ends of a cattle panel arch are held by posts, stakes or bed walls, so the calculator assumes the arch is never wider than its base. That gives two shapes.

• Straight sides and a round top. When the panel is long enough, the sides run straight up and the top is a half circle as wide as the span. Straight side = (panel length – 3.1416 x span / 2) / 2, and peak = straight side + half the span. For a 16-foot (192-inch) panel at a 60-inch span: (192 – 94.2) / 2 = 48.9 inches of straight side, plus 30 inches, is 78.9 inches. This shape holds until the span reaches 2 x length / 3.1416, about 10 ft 2 in for a 16-foot panel and 5 ft 1 in for an 8-foot panel.
• A shallow arc. Past that width the ends have to lean outward, and the panel is treated as a circular arc: the calculator solves sin(a) / a = span / length for the half-angle a, then radius = length / (2a) and rise = radius x (1 – cos a).

The “ends sit above the path” number is added straight on top. The reverse mode searches for the span that gives your target height, and the headroom line reports how much of the width is at least that tall.

For tunnels, panels needed = tunnel length / (panel width + gap), rounded up. Standard panels are 50 inches wide when bent into an arch: Hutchison’s cattle panel spec lists them as 50 inches tall, 8 or 16 feet long, in 4-gauge wire, and Savvy Gardening gives the same 16 feet by 50 inches. Some farm stores also carry a 16 ft by 52 in combo panel, so measure yours. DIYType joined two panels edge to edge for a tunnel 100 inches long on 6 T-posts, and Gardening Know How adds one panel and two T-posts for each extra arch, which is where the post count of 2 x (panels + 1) comes from. The builder in Countryside magazine’s cattle panel trellis overlapped his panels by 2 inches, for 48 inches each; enter -2 in the gap box for that.

For the 32-foot setting, enter the length that actually bends. If two panels overlap where they join, subtract the overlap: a 1-foot overlap bends as 31 feet.

Setting an arch between two raised beds

Gardening Know How suggests an arch that connects two parallel raised beds, and DIYType’s first arch had one end in each of two raised beds. Two measurements matter:

1. Span: the distance between the points where the two panel ends are fastened. That is the path width plus however far each end sits in from the inside of its bed wall, not the path width alone.
2. Ends above the path: if the ends stand on the soil in the beds, the height of that soil above the path.

Worked example: the ends stand on soil 12 inches above the path and you want a 7-foot peak. The panel has to rise 72 inches above its ends, and a 16-foot panel does that with the ends 7 ft 0 in apart. At that span about 59 inches of the width clears 6 feet, because the beds lift the whole arch a foot. Use the “span, for a height” mode for your own numbers.

If you are still laying out the beds, my 4×8 raised bed layout shows how I fill a bed with cucumbers and peas on a trellis along the north edge, so the tall crops do not shade the rest of the bed. If what you really want is a winter cover over the beds, my hoop house build uses 10-foot PVC bows on a wood frame over the raised beds.

How to build a cattle panel arch

1. Pick the span with the calculator, then mark a rectangle: the span one way and the panel width the other. Gardening Know How’s is 5 ft by 50 in.
2. Drive a T-post at each corner and check that each one is plumb. Gardening Know How marks 6-foot posts 4 feet down from the top and drives them to that line. DIYType drives its posts 24 inches deep and points out that the anchor blade on its posts sits about 15 inches up from the bottom, so a post needs about 16 inches or more in the ground to bury the blade.
3. Mark the center wire of the panel with tape. Savvy Gardening does this so the middle stays at the top as the panel bends.
4. Bend it with a helper. Gardening Know How calls the panels heavy and unruly to lift alone, and DIYType puts one at about 32 pounds. Fasten one end to two posts, bend the panel over, and fasten the other end.
5. Measure the peak before the last ties go on, and adjust the clips if it is off.
6. Fasten for the long term. Gardening Know How uses four zip ties per post and Savvy Gardening about six. Savvy Gardening recommends replacing zip ties every season or using wire instead, and DIYType finished with metal wire clips, three per post.

What to grow on it

• Cucumbers climb with tendrils once you guide them onto the support, and I grow them at 2 per square foot when they go up. Cattle panels are one of the supports I list in How to Grow Cucumber Vertically.
• Peas climb with tendrils too, so the trellis should be up before the seed goes in (my pea post). My square foot chart has them at 9 per square.
• Squash and zucchini have no tendrils, so they will not cling on their own. Train the vines onto the panel and tie them with soft ties as they grow (growing squash vertically, growing zucchini vertically). Squash, pumpkins and melons are 1 per 4 squares on my chart.
• Heavy fruit such as winter squash and cantaloupe should be fastened to the panel with twine as it grows, Savvy Gardening advises.

A 50-inch panel covers about four 1-foot squares along each side of the arch, so a one-square-deep row at its base fits up to 8 cucumbers or 36 peas per side. Vining squash and melons take a 2×2-foot block each, so they need two squares of bed depth as well as two along the arch. The spacing for every crop is on my square foot gardening chart.

Quick questions

How tall is a cattle panel arch?

A 16-foot panel with the ends 5 feet apart peaks at about 6 ft 7 in, and with the ends 7 feet apart at about 6 feet. Narrower spans are taller: 4 feet apart gives about 6 ft 10 in.

How far apart should raised beds be for a cattle panel arch?

Measure between the points where the two panel ends will be fastened, not just the path. With a 16-foot panel, 5 feet between the ends gives about 6 ft 7 in at the peak and 7 feet gives about 6 feet, plus the height of the soil the ends stand on.

How tall are cattle panels?

Standard cattle panels are 50 inches tall and 16 or 8 feet long, so each panel gives about 50 inches of walkway when bent into an arch. Some farm stores sell 52-inch combo panels, so measure yours.

How many cattle panels do I need for a tunnel?

Divide the tunnel length by the panel width and round up. An 8-foot tunnel takes two 50-inch panels and a 16-foot tunnel takes four, on 6 and 10 T-posts if neighboring panels share posts.

Plan the beds under the arch

Plan My Garden is free to start: enter your zip code, draw the beds on each side of your arch, pick cucumbers, squash and everything else you want to grow, and it places each plant at square-foot spacing and builds a planting schedule from your frost dates.

Related guides: How to build a string trellis · Grow cucumbers vertically · Grow squash vertically · How to support tomato plants · Raised bed soil calculator · Charts and Tools hub