Cows pushing electric fence/pigtails over

[box]

I've got a cow (or maybe there's more than one?) in my herd who has worked out how to push over and bend pigtail posts while the electric fence is going. Cool party trick, not much good for strip grazing.

I've tried angling the pigtails towards the cows to make them harder to push over with no success.

Any ideas?

 

[rusty]

Kiwi kit sell some where the post is live right down to the foot.
https://www.kiwikit.co.uk/product/hot-post-pigtails-tangle-free/

 

[Kiwi Pete]

1.Get a tup raddle/crayon and rub it all over your pigtails.
2. Get rid of cow(s) with coloured face(s)

or, get some "hot" pigtails, a couple of types are available; one is all metal with a small insulated handle (these are good) and you can also get normal-looking pigtails with a wire wrapped around them, a bit like a heater element - these are better for educated cows who know the silver ones bite, and lean over the other ones.

 

[O'Reilly]

+1 for the kiwikit hot posts. Nice and light to carry about too.

 

[Whitewalker]

Our bull did this . We put very fine wire down the front of his Favorite posts . Invisible at a glance. A few good cracks stopped him . We then shampooed his head as he was itchy which really was the reason

 

[up to my neck in it]

we had the same problem last yr bought the kiwi kit live posts placed every other post worked well till the cheeky buggers worked out which posts were live and which weren't and started pushing them over again so all live posts now also check your fencers got a good kick to make them respect it

 

[Homesy]

Once one starts,, you won't stop them. Only way is live posts. I use the Hotline version, half the money of the Kiwikit.

 

[O'Reilly]

Once one starts,, you won't stop them. Only way is live posts. I use the Hotline version, half the money of the Kiwikit.

Twice the weight, much easier carrying 15 kiwikit pigtails up the field.

 

[Homesy]

Twice the weight, much easier carrying 15 kiwikit pigtails up the field.

15 ?
Whimp !

 

[Sylution]

Find that the hotline break at the white insulator easily. I know you can replace them, but its annoying all the same. So use kiwikit hot post.


Both are kiwikit, better pigtail on the first one.

 

[O'Reilly]

15 ?
Whimp !

My longest strip fence. Fine now, less so in a frost and your fingers feel like they are going to drop off. I do carry more on occasion. You carry on, tough guy!

 

[Repeat]

we just put some steel wire down a couple of plastic posts so they are live , two or three in the fence line is enough to train them

 

[box]

Just following up on this with a conclusion. Those hot posts are brilliant, I didn't realize there was such a thing.....sadly I've already spent hundreds on normal pigtails and don't plan on replacing them all again.

I've stolen this idea from the man I bought the herd from (although he used rubber straps on the bottom, not cable ties). It's been 15 days now and I haven't had any more problems. I made 60 of them and this has been enough to keep both herds out of trouble.





All you need is 1.5m of polytape, a 300mm long cable tie and 45 seconds per pigtail to carry out the modification. The pigtails I've used are near new and are still springy - easy to bend them over and tension the tape so they stay tight and don't wander up to the post of the pigtail.

Advantage: Cheap fix & guaranteed connection due to nature of how the tape loops through the pigtail
Disadavantage: It's hard to tension the fence once the tape has been looped through the pigtail because they resist tape sliding through them - the best way is to just tension is you go

The look on the cows face when it gets zapped on the nose when it touches the pigtail - priceless.

 

[Ballygreenan]

Builders steel wall ties can be used too. Link two together and hang them beside each post.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

That's a neat trick

 

[nails]

I've got a cow (or maybe there's more than one?) in my herd who has worked out how to push over and bend pigtail posts while the electric fence is going. Cool party trick, not much good for strip grazing.

I've tried angling the pigtails towards the cows to make them harder to push over with no success.

Any ideas?

To cure that we used to put posts at an angle and hang old mower blades on poly wire off them. Only need to do it a few times and it will stop the problem.