We have some areas of our property with severe erosion damage that we are trying to repair (more here). This means that the cattle need to stay out as they just do more damage, however we don't want to be building massive permanent fences all the time, particularly when it may only be a temporary need. The solution is electric fencing.
Now that we have the gear and fence set up, I can't believe we didn't do it before, its so easy! It can be a little expensive, but so are permanent fences, so you just have to weigh up the benefits and if you want something that's quick to set up and easy to remove later, this is the way to go.
Firstly, we were given a small energiser (father-in-law bought it at a garage sale, amazing what he finds sometimes!), and a small roll of tape. We bought a new car battery and some electric fence stakes. We plugged it all in and dared each other to touch the tape......but there were so many knots in the tape it didn't produce a decent jolt, more like a small tap on the shoulder. Start again.....we bought a big roll of heavy duty tape and some steel picket attachments to make better corners, and an electric fence tester (no more touching the fence!).
We set it all up again. Turned it on, tested it, close to maximum, perfect. Let the cattle into the paddock and waited, wondering who would be first to touch the fence. It was Molly the calf, and it took a little while to zap her, because its only ticking every couple of seconds, but she felt it when it hit her! And the rest of them must have done the same when we weren't watching because we have had no trouble with them pushing through the fence, which happens to be a shortcut between two favourite areas to stand (the food dishes and the house yard gate).
The reason I was a bit scared of electric fences before is they seem so "technical", I thought I wouldn't know how to hook them up properly and they would require frequent checking, but lets face it, I can make the laptop talk to the printer on the wireless network (thank you, I'm quite proud of that), so surely I can make an electric fence work. As far as I could see from a brief internet search (good explanation here), the main thing is to connect one battery terminal to the fence and the other to the earth. The better your connections, the stronger the shock. The earth terminal is attached to a metal rod which is pushed into the ground (the deeper the better), the area around the rod must be damp as its the earth that completes the circuit when the animal touches the fence, so damp earth will conduct the electric charge better than dry earth. The amount of shock the animal gets will depends on the length of the fence too. Once the animals are used to seeing electric fences you can increase the distance and they will stay away if they remember that first nasty shock. Another good point from that website is that some animals have thick skin and lots of hair/fur, so they won't feel the shock as strongly as a human (another reason to use a tester and not touch the fence yourself!).
The only other thing to remember is, after you've got it all set up and working, don't forget to keep an eye on it as the battery will go flat eventually. In our case it took about 4 weeks. Luckily the cattle had got used to avoiding the area and didn't seem to notice that the fence wasn't working. We charged the battery overnight and plugged it in again the morning.
Do you use electric fencing? Any tips?
A few affiliate links to help you get started:
OzFarmer - electric fence wire
OzFarmer - electric fence energizer
More about using electric fencing, and how we use them to strip graze on our property.
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| fencing off our drain area and hoping something will grow |
Firstly, we were given a small energiser (father-in-law bought it at a garage sale, amazing what he finds sometimes!), and a small roll of tape. We bought a new car battery and some electric fence stakes. We plugged it all in and dared each other to touch the tape......but there were so many knots in the tape it didn't produce a decent jolt, more like a small tap on the shoulder. Start again.....we bought a big roll of heavy duty tape and some steel picket attachments to make better corners, and an electric fence tester (no more touching the fence!).
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| the special electric fence stakes |
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| battery and energiser |
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| special steel post attachments for the corner posts, the electric fence stakes are a bit bendy |
The reason I was a bit scared of electric fences before is they seem so "technical", I thought I wouldn't know how to hook them up properly and they would require frequent checking, but lets face it, I can make the laptop talk to the printer on the wireless network (thank you, I'm quite proud of that), so surely I can make an electric fence work. As far as I could see from a brief internet search (good explanation here), the main thing is to connect one battery terminal to the fence and the other to the earth. The better your connections, the stronger the shock. The earth terminal is attached to a metal rod which is pushed into the ground (the deeper the better), the area around the rod must be damp as its the earth that completes the circuit when the animal touches the fence, so damp earth will conduct the electric charge better than dry earth. The amount of shock the animal gets will depends on the length of the fence too. Once the animals are used to seeing electric fences you can increase the distance and they will stay away if they remember that first nasty shock. Another good point from that website is that some animals have thick skin and lots of hair/fur, so they won't feel the shock as strongly as a human (another reason to use a tester and not touch the fence yourself!).
The only other thing to remember is, after you've got it all set up and working, don't forget to keep an eye on it as the battery will go flat eventually. In our case it took about 4 weeks. Luckily the cattle had got used to avoiding the area and didn't seem to notice that the fence wasn't working. We charged the battery overnight and plugged it in again the morning.
Do you use electric fencing? Any tips?
A few affiliate links to help you get started:
OzFarmer - electric fence wire
OzFarmer - electric fence energizer
More about using electric fencing, and how we use them to strip graze on our property.
Hello! Thanks so much for coming over and commenting on my blog! Now I have discovered yours! It will definitely be regularly read by me- you and your husband are doing exactly what my partner and I hope to do someday, and I've already found some amazing resources and information on your page. Thank you for writing!
ReplyDeleteWe have electric fencing to secure the pigs in an area, it was very effective first time round with pigs and we now have pigs again and the fencing is once again set up, we also use it around the top of the fencing in the goat area to discourage them from going over the fences into the adjoining woodland, electric netting we have used around various poultry enclosures not to keep them in but keep predators out, the only problem with the netting is you have to keep cutting the grass along it otherwise it grows all over the netting and short circuits it.
ReplyDeleteWhere would we be without "hot wires"? Pigs, cattle, and even to deter the dogs from worrying the geese or running along the fence where we planted new tube stock trees. The animals touch it once and never go back, although the calves seem to know when it's not turned on, and chew the white tape. More work for Brian when that happens, so heaven help me if I forget to turn it on. :)
ReplyDelete