Batt latches and gate lifters - who's using

[Nsoiled]

Hi there,

Just looking into timed gate options for use with kiwitech temp fencing systems.
Anyone got any pics of their batt latch setups, or gate lifters (Pensagro etc) they would share?

Cheers,
N

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Go for the PensAgro system and even switch the way you shift them manually, yes gates can work but,,, why? Just put the gate anywhere along the fence.

We use 2 metre fibreglass blanks and just put a double wedgeclip on them to hook to the wire. That way everything is schooled and the auto lifters don't need any extra thought

saying that, you can make a lifter out of a battlatch and a spring/pivoting arm if you have one.

I think @Fenwick is using his, mine are still in their boxes as we're only shifting OAD

 

[Nsoiled]

Go for the PensAgro system and even switch the way you shift them manually, yes gates can work but,,, why? Just put the gate anywhere along the fence.

We use 2 metre fibreglass blanks and just put a double wedgeclip on them to hook to the wire. That way everything is schooled and the auto lifters don't need any extra thought

saying that, you can make a lifter out of a battlatch and a spring/pivoting arm if you have one.

I think @Fenwick is using his, mine are still in their boxes as we're only shifting OAD

Thanks very much for this

Can you share a pic of your set-up?
Can't quite see how this will work with KT temp fence and polywire.

Cheers

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks very much for this

Can you share a pic of your set-up?
Can't quite see how this will work with KT temp fence and polywire.

Cheers

Yep, no worries there, I will get you some pictures tomorrow.

For lifting your lane fences, probably the best bet is still a ¾ inch galv pipe sat in a coffee mug as an insulator - put your gloves on, put a half hitch of lane fence around the pole and hoist it up like a clothesline, sit the pipe in the cup to save it grounding out the fence while you load the lane with stock.

We're all cattle, single and double wires and the wires are on springs to give plenty of flex, so the small fibreglass poles are fine for that. Only takes a couple of kg of "lift" and the polywires are even less.

But the lanes are built and they take some lifting, the bottom wire has to go the furthest and is quite tight when you get it there, hence recommending the steel pole

 

[Nsoiled]

Nice one.
Love those instructional pics from KT
in this case we're not using lanes

Set-up is basically all KT step-in posts

Thanks again

 

[Gil582]

Just out of interest, what’s the benefit of the above fence prop system compared to a couple of hand gates in the fence line

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Just out of interest, what’s the benefit of the above fence prop system compared to a couple of hand gates in the fence line

Probably cost, reliability and simplicity as I see it.

Say we have 280 paddocks, that's a lot of posts and gates and knots to fail over time

@Nsoiled here is how we do it

10mm fibreglass rod blank with kt double wedgeclip on the end; due to our contour we just used arrowposts and double wedgeclips everywhere, as we have up, down, and up/down pulls.

Lift it up, count to 10, put it down. If they can't work it out in ten seconds, then they get a day to think about it - this "firm but fair" approach means you don't get 2 d!ckheads hanging back waiting to be chased through the gap. Also it's to teach them to JFDI for when we are on halfsize paddocks with more moves and auto lifters etc.
(We'll cut the 50x20 into 2 25x20s to be a bit kinder on the soil)

 

[Nsoiled]

Nixe one. Thanks
I can't see the lifter or batt latch in these pics
Am I missing something?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Nixe one. Thanks
I can't see the lifter or batt latch in these pics
Am I missing something?

Yeah. I haven't pulled them out of their boxes other than to watch one work and say "yip, they'll be great in the winter" and put it back in the box. I like shifting them if I can get there, and usually someone else has it done.

Winter will sort them out

(Post was more to show @Gil582 why wire lifters can be better than gate systems in most cases, the whole farm is a gateway if you have a lifting device)

 

[Agrifool]

How do you block the lane off though to guide cows into the opening? Whats happens when a cow rubs her head on the pole and it falls over?

 

[Gil582]

Yeah. I haven't pulled them out of their boxes other than to watch one work and say "yip, they'll be great in the winter" and put it back in the box. I like shifting them if I can get there, and usually someone else has it done.

Winter will sort them out

(Post was more to show @Gil582 why wire lifters can be better than gate systems in most cases, the whole farm is a gateway if you have a lifting device)

Probably cost, reliability and simplicity as I see it.

Say we have 280 paddocks, that's a lot of posts and gates and knots to fail over time

@Nsoiled here is how we do itView attachment 961273
10mm fibreglass rod blank with kt double wedgeclip on the end; due to our contour we just used arrowposts and double wedgeclips everywhere, as we have up, down, and up/down pulls.View attachment 961274View attachment 961277
Lift it up, count to 10, put it down. If they can't work it out in ten seconds, then they get a day to think about it - this "firm but fair" approach means you don't get 2 d!ckheads hanging back waiting to be chased through the gap. Also it's to teach them to JFDI for when we are on halfsize paddocks with more moves and auto lifters etc.
(We'll cut the 50x20 into 2 25x20s to be a bit kinder on the soil)

Thank you, very interesting !
so do you have springs on most of the division wires then to allow for a bit of play when you lift them?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Thank you, very interesting !
so do you have springs on most of the division wires then to allow for a bit of play when you lift them?

Yes, we do. The polywire fences don't need them, but all the wire fences have at least one spring assembly. Makes them rather indestructable as they will "give" by a few feet, so nothing is going to keep pushing.

Most of the system is wire, but we chose to run polywire along every second subdivision, for visibility mainly.

 

[PabloPensAgro]

I am Pablo owner of PensAgro if you guys have doubts or questions and videos. I just find this forum by coincidence so not sure if I will find it back.
Instagram is @pens_agro
Web WWW.PENSAGRO.COM

 

[Nsoiled]

I am Pablo owner of PensAgro if you guys have doubts or questions and videos. I just find this forum by coincidence so not sure if I will find it back.
Instagram is @pens_agro
Web WWW.PENSAGRO.COM

hi Pablo,
Post some up to date vids of the polywire lifter ;-)
Cheers

 

[Nsoiled]

Yep, no worries there, I will get you some pictures tomorrow.

For lifting your lane fences, probably the best bet is still a ¾ inch galv pipe sat in a coffee mug as an insulator - put your gloves on, put a half hitch of lane fence around the pole and hoist it up like a clothesline, sit the pipe in the cup to save it grounding out the fence while you load the lane with stock.

We're all cattle, single and double wires and the wires are on springs to give plenty of flex, so the small fibreglass poles are fine for that. Only takes a couple of kg of "lift" and the polywires are even less.

But the lanes are built and they take some lifting, the bottom wire has to go the furthest and is quite tight when you get it there, hence recommending the steel poleView attachment 961143View attachment 961144

Can we see this process done with livestock present?
Also, I know of people suggesting thickwalled PVC for this (with a notch cut out at the top) on single wire at least
Do we know what is at the end of the lines in this instance? Is it Kiwitech end assemblies?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Can we see this process done with livestock present?
Also, I know of people suggesting thickwalled PVC for this (with a notch cut out at the top) on single wire at least
Do we know what is at the end of the lines in this instance? Is it Kiwitech end assemblies?

Yep, you're onto it! On our paddock block, we have the lanes and ½ the crossfences made of 1.6mmHT with Kiwitech 1.6 hypersprings at the end, and their straingate handle at the other end. Maybe they have 8-10 feet of sideways/vertical stretch?
The other ½ of the crossfences are regular economy polywire with insulated handles - at the boundary end, it's just clipped to the fence, and at the other end I wind about 30 turns around the handle to tension it right, and a couple of half-hitches to stop it all sliding off. We used the polywire just for visibility in the mornings, as the fence is very hard to see

to lift the wire, we just use 2m x 10mm fibreglass blanks with a kiwitech double wedgeclip on the end, which I carry around in a rack on the scooter

Shifting is as quick as riding up the fence in front of the mob, popping over the lane-fence and planting the stick in the ground - 50m across the empty lane and repeat until all the mobs have their wire up - then ride back down the other fence and pull the sticks out

Because we have a very small farm, generally a shift (5 mobs) takes 2-5 minutes

Where Pablo's invention comes into its own is not (for us) a saving in time as such, but a little more freedom during the daytime when the stock could be moved more often, but nobody is sitting here to do it.

 

[DanM]

Yep, you're onto it! On our paddock block, we have the lanes and ½ the crossfences made of 1.6mmHT with Kiwitech 1.6 hypersprings at the end, and their straingate handle at the other end. Maybe they have 8-10 feet of sideways/vertical stretch?
The other ½ of the crossfences are regular economy polywire with insulated handles - at the boundary end, it's just clipped to the fence, and at the other end I wind about 30 turns around the handle to tension it right, and a couple of half-hitches to stop it all sliding off. We used the polywire just for visibility in the mornings, as the fence is very hard to see

to lift the wire, we just use 2m x 10mm fibreglass blanks with a kiwitech double wedgeclip on the end, which I carry around in a rack on the scooterView attachment 989035

Shifting is as quick as riding up the fence in front of the mob, popping over the lane-fence and planting the stick in the ground - 50m across the empty lane and repeat until all the mobs have their wire up - then ride back down the other fence and pull the sticks outView attachment 989036
Because we have a very small farm, generally a shift (5 mobs) takes 2-5 minutes

Where Pablo's invention comes into its own is not (for us) a saving in time as such, but a little more freedom during the daytime when the stock could be moved more often, but nobody is sitting here to do it.

Is that an electric scooter?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Is that an electric scooter?

Yep, that's the new beast. Great for what I want (lots of "cold starts") and nice and nimble for catching the neighbour's lambs when they break in my old farmbike feels like it's made of concrete now

 

[Nsoiled]

Yep, you're onto it! On our paddock block, we have the lanes and ½ the crossfences made of 1.6mmHT with Kiwitech 1.6 hypersprings at the end, and their straingate handle at the other end. Maybe they have 8-10 feet of sideways/vertical stretch?
The other ½ of the crossfences are regular economy polywire with insulated handles - at the boundary end, it's just clipped to the fence, and at the other end I wind about 30 turns around the handle to tension it right, and a couple of half-hitches to stop it all sliding off. We used the polywire just for visibility in the mornings, as the fence is very hard to see

to lift the wire, we just use 2m x 10mm fibreglass blanks with a kiwitech double wedgeclip on the end, which I carry around in a rack on the scooterView attachment 989035

Shifting is as quick as riding up the fence in front of the mob, popping over the lane-fence and planting the stick in the ground - 50m across the empty lane and repeat until all the mobs have their wire up - then ride back down the other fence and pull the sticks outView attachment 989036
Because we have a very small farm, generally a shift (5 mobs) takes 2-5 minutes

Where Pablo's invention comes into its own is not (for us) a saving in time as such, but a little more freedom during the daytime when the stock could be moved more often, but nobody is sitting here to do it.

With the regular polywire cross fences, are they clipping onto high tensile subdivistions? Is there enough stretch to put 2m of lift on these?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

With the regular polywire cross fences, are they clipping onto high tensile subdivistions? Is there enough stretch to put 2m of lift on these?

Where they go through dips, I clip them into the clips but most of the time they're just laid over the top of the lanes, so they can be picked up

Heaps of stretch, they're 3-400m long depending whether they span 6 lanes or 8, and good gaps between the posts means a decent span for animals to go through - they'd rather duck under a reasonably low wire than have it way above their heads - we take binocular vision for granted but they like to know where that wire is and struggle to judge it.
We aim to have everything with lots of give and flex and stretch, because it means more electric shocks before something snaps