We've been very slow to start using electric fencing. It all seemed very complicated to me, which is stupid really, I did study physics at high school and university, I should be able to understand how an electric fence works! Maybe I was over-thinking it, because now they seem very simple and very very useful.
For a simple temporary fence, all you need is electric fence wire or tape, fence posts or clips to attach to an existing fence, an energiser and a battery (unless you get a mains powered energiser). We usually run the wire/tape out around the area, and then position the posts at sensible intervals. We set up the earth, connect the energiser to power and turn on the fence.
I took me a while to work out what the "earth" was for, but once you understand that, the rest of the fence makes more sense. There are two ways of setting up the fence, either using an earth return wire or all live wires. With the earth return wire you alternate live and earth wires. When the animal touches the fence and contacts both and earth and a live wire, they complete the electric circuit and receive a shock. If you don't have an earth wire, you are relying on the ground to complete the circuit, which works ok if your soil is currently moist. The energiser itself is connected to the live wires, and to the earth wire, or to an earth stake. Some people use really long stakes, like 6 m long stakes, but we just use an old tent peg. So far we have been able to use just one or two live wires, with an earth stake.
Energisers come in different sizes designed to cover different nominal distances. When you first introduce cattle to an electric fence its a good idea to use an oversized energiser for the distance you're fencing. If the first shock they ever get is a strong one, they are unlikely to touch the fence again. Cattle are very set in their ways, Bella will not touch a fence, or even walk over a fence, so we don't even have to use an energiser to keep her on the right side. Our neighbour's goats, however, can hear when the fence is on or off and are very opportunistic if they do notice that its off. If you have a lot of vegetation touching the fence, it will drain some of the charge, so its best to oversize the energiser in this case as well.
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| Strip grazing a paddock of forage sorghum |
If you have a small area that you need to fence permanently or temporarily, electric fencing is the cheapest, most flexible and quickest method. I seriously don't think we'll be doing much more barb-wired fencing, apart from our perimeter fences and maybe to split up our largest paddock.
For a simple temporary fence, all you need is electric fence wire or tape, fence posts or clips to attach to an existing fence, an energiser and a battery (unless you get a mains powered energiser). We usually run the wire/tape out around the area, and then position the posts at sensible intervals. We set up the earth, connect the energiser to power and turn on the fence.
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| energiser on the post, attached to polywire, battery and earth stake |
Energisers come in different sizes designed to cover different nominal distances. When you first introduce cattle to an electric fence its a good idea to use an oversized energiser for the distance you're fencing. If the first shock they ever get is a strong one, they are unlikely to touch the fence again. Cattle are very set in their ways, Bella will not touch a fence, or even walk over a fence, so we don't even have to use an energiser to keep her on the right side. Our neighbour's goats, however, can hear when the fence is on or off and are very opportunistic if they do notice that its off. If you have a lot of vegetation touching the fence, it will drain some of the charge, so its best to oversize the energiser in this case as well.
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| brafords in the sorghum, its taller than them, so they could waste it if they had the entire area at once |
Another thing that we figured out by trial and error was that you can leave some of the fencing tape on the plastic reel, you can even buy reels with handles and gears that make it easier to wind up the fence and move it. Now when we are making temporary fences, we just wind out what we need and attached the energiser to the reel.
Temporary electric fencing opens up a world of opportunities. Here is a few examples of how we use it:
- We have fenced off an eroded area of our property that needed a rest from hooves, it is making an impressive recovery
- We fence inside the house yard so that Bella and Molly can come in and trim the grass (lawn moo-ers), this saves us mowing and lets them eat some nice green grass
- We have been strip grazing our 17 acres of forage sorghum as we haven't had very good weather for making hay. This way the cattle get a few acres at a time and don't waste as much, they are also spreading their manure over the cultivation area
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| Molly trimming in the house yard, and my garden is safe behind the fence |
The best way to learn more about electric fencing is to go to your local produce store and pick up a brochure in the electric fence section, most of the companies publish little handbooks that you can take away for free. I think they realise that everyone needs a bit more information about electric fencing! This is where I learnt what I know, also from a bit of trial and error.
How do you use electric fences? Do you have any questions? I'm going to write more about splitting up paddocks soon....
Hi Liz, thank you very much for the info, were currently looking at introducing cattle to our paddocks with strip grazing, but have been putting it off because of the cost of fencing. Another thing we struggle with is how to get drinking water into these your flexible paddocks, i've been told cattle needs a lot of it. How do you this?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Cheers, Marijke
Depending on the weather, a large bovine will drink up to 100L/day (http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/96273/water-requirements-for-sheep-and-cattle.pdf). Bella will suck down a 10L bucket like its a shot glass. On our smaller property we have a system of troughs, polypipe and a dam pump, we move the troughs to where the cattle are and keep them topped up about once a week. On the larger property, we rely on dams. The easiest way (and this can be done with a trough too) is to fence the cattle in near the water source and gradually move the fence away from the water to give the cattle more feed. They won't spend much time near the water except to drink, and will go back out to the new feed to eat. Its not ideal, but its a solution until you can set up a more complex water system. I'll write more about this soon, but I hope that gets you started.
DeleteThanks so much for this. Your post comes at a very handy time as I am looking at setting up smaller paddocks for strip/cell grazing ( there are so many competing terms for much the same thing). I am going to rest up the first big paddock over winter and let the grasses flower in spring and then I am off and running hopefully with portable electric fencing but with sheep not cattle.
ReplyDeleteHi;
ReplyDeleteI have been using electric for 13 years now and have had good results other than with goats, they just seem not to care when they want out. I use both the battery charger and the kind that plugs into house current. We have nasty electrical storms so I put a lightning arrester near the charger and run it to a good ground (earth) connection. I made one myself, the idea is that there is a ground wire going up to the main fence wire with a small gap. When a large charge from lightning hits, it will go the quickest way to ground and jump the gap.
Our single tape will hold a draft horse that could easily take down any wire fence, it is a quite effective system.
thanks Gill, that's a good tip. We have storms, but have never thought about lightning, probably something we should install....
DeleteI have just posted about fencing too. With all the rain ant the rate of grass growth strip grazing is working really well for us. We use the electric fence to keep Jessie in the house yard and away from the chickens. Sadly she wants to chase them and it would not end well.
ReplyDeleteGreat post on this subject from Fiona http://lifeatarbordalefarm.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/pasture-management.html, love the homemade spikes!
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