Electric high tensile vs post and netting

[SilliamWhale]

Why don't farmers make more use of permanent electric fencing rather than post and netting?

The Gallagher brochure reckons a 4/5 strand sheep fencing system costs about £1.04m and will last for 25 years.

Is it because of a lack of trust in electric to do the job well enough in permanent grazing situations?

 

[Dry Rot]

Not sure how long mine has been up but it must be about 25 years. 4/5 strand would be OK for low ground TRAINED breeds and is excellent for my horses. Visibilty is an issue with horses, so I cable tie white tape to the top wire. The original Insultimber/Electrotimber posts are gradually being replaced with ordinary fence posts with screw on insulators, not because they rot out but because they break when some idiot (not me, of course!) hits them with an implement. And at £8 each (?), I'm not replacing like with like!

Hill sheep will take a dive through and I wouldn't want to use electric for boundary fencing (my neighbour's sheep certainly wouldn't be trained to it and he has Blackies).

One problem to permanent electric fencing is to get farmers to understand it. Traditional fencing is a physical barrier. Electric fencing is a psychological barrier. If stock has experience of getting a nasty zap, it won't go near it. But if there is any doubt and there is some serious inducement to go through (better grazing?), they'll give it a try. Also, e-fencing needs to have some 'give' and be springy so the wire stays in contact with the animal as long as possible to deliver a decent shock. I installed electric fencing years ago when I couldn't get someone to put up some traditional fencing for me and now I wouldn't go back. It is easier to put up and, as the OP has noticed, a hell of a lot cheaper. But it does need maintaining like any fencing and a basic understanding of electricty will help.

(Does it really cost as much as £1.04/m after purchasing the energiser?).

 

[It was already broken.]

What do you do about hedges and rubbish growing up the electric and shorting it out?

 

[neilo]

We used miles of it at home for decades, but for cattle. Single strand of polywire on wooden posts at 25m spacing. I wouldn't like to trust it 100% for sheep though, or be willing to take on the endless running around with glyphosate that would be required to keep it free of shorts. It took us many years to persuade the old man that we should at least have decent permanent fencing on road hedges.

 

[Dry Rot]

What do you do about hedges and rubbish growing up the electric and shorting it out?

A powerful energiser will push electricity through the wire rather than discharge through weed growth. I got the most powerful energiser I could afford and have never regretted it. I also put the electricity through the top wire, then take a feed off that to lower wires with a switch in each field when needed. As I've said, wilder breeds of sheep will sometimes go through an electric fence but they won't go through Rylock, but the price, and the fact that I could do it all myself, was the decider for me. I can also take white tape off that top wire and fence off paddocks. It is not for everyone.

There is also the wider spacing of posts for electric, especially on flat land. I got a grant to put mine up and the maximum spacing they'd allow was 30m between posts with two droppers inbetween at 10m, obviousy more on hilly or undulating ground. The Aussie get away with a lot wider than that. A turner post can be used as a "strainer" too as it is not a physical barrier.

 

[Greenbeast]

When time and money allows i will be permanently fencing our grazing paddocks with polyrope, the horses and cattle are trained to it now and the temp posts get blown/knocked over too easily. It will make the hundreds of metres of fencing a lot cheaper to do and means all paddocks can be ready at a moments notice (switching on rather than winding up and moving the wires/posts, also means the geese and ducks can graze the entire set of paddocks and return home underneath the lowest wire for these large herbivores. Would not be relevant if we had sheep of course.

For pigs it's just not enough, they are great and very well controlled behind it but too quick to figure out it's 'down', and boisterous behaviour can force pigs through it, which then shorts/breaks wires and the whole of that portion of the network is useless for everyone else to leave

 

[Man_in_black]

What do you do about hedges and rubbish growing up the electric and shorting it out?

I go round 'roundup' under the bottom wire. The energiser I use actually blasts through any longer bits of grass that reach up and seem to eventually 'burn' brown the tips of grass.

Edit just seen @Dry Rot reply

 

[Dry Rot]

I used to go round with an old cutter bar mower and a forked stick. Pro the fence up and mow! But the bottom wire shouldn't be electrified anyway and stock soon gets used to grazing up tight to the fence.

Some say the wire is dangerous for horses as they can get a leg caught. The only time I had this happen, it was my fault and I had a slack wire. A foal got it's leg over the wire, then twisted the wire when it tried to move on. My fault entirely. Moral -- keep all wires tight! But that applies to any type of fencing. Personally, I wouldn't bother with rope. Old tape and cable ties works just as well and is cheaper. If it's windy (and it is 40 miles north of Inverness), use more cable ties!

 

[Kevtherev]

No good for Welsh sheep!

 

[Man_in_black]

No good for Welsh sheep!

Keeps my Welsh drafts in. Training pen for few days on arrival then.........no I'm not jinxing it, but you get the drift!!

 

[Baker9]

I am seriously considering it for paddock grazing with sheep and suckers. I have been looking at mains energisers and have a question, when the information on the energiser says it will power say 10Km of fence, I assume this is single strand so if you are using say 4 strands then will it power 2.5Km of fence?

 

[Al R]

@Baker9 All 6 of my fencers are 30 net battery units. They reckon 30+km I think that's high tensile? The Rutland 325 etc size fencers we use.

 

[multi power]

If there is enough voltage no vegation will grow under the fence

 

[Dry Rot]

I am seriously considering it for paddock grazing with sheep and suckers. I have been looking at mains energisers and have a question, when the information on the energiser says it will power say 10Km of fence, I assume this is single strand so if you are using say 4 strands then will it power 2.5Km of fence?

As I understand it, so long as the 10Km is measured from end to end in circuit that would be equivalent to a single strand of 10Km, or rather beter as there will be reduced resistance with multiple wires. So all your strans in the 10Km start at the same point, if you follow me, so the other strands are in parallel to each other. Does that make sense? Easily tested in practice.

 

[Baker9]

As I understand it, so long as the 10Km is measured from end to end in circuit that would be equivalent to a single strand of 10Km, or rather beter as there will be reduced resistance with multiple wires. So all your strans in the 10Km start at the same point, if you follow me, so the other strands are in parallel to each other. Does that make sense? Easily tested in practice.

Thanks, I get what you mean.

 

[Grassman]

I have a few miles of electric fencing. Keeps my sheep in ok but requires a fair bit of maintenance.
Bit of a problem now with spraying a strip with roundup is the maximum field size is two hectares for cross compliance. Over that and you have to be 2 metres from the centre of the hedge so a lot of rubbish can grow and swamp the electric fence.

 

[Grassman]

When I look at the rotten posts in my conventionaly fenced fields electric does look a lot more attractive!

 

[ajcc]

Have two strand ht 2.5mm plain wire, bottom earth stapled to 2x2inch tree stakes, top live screw in insulators.....Gallagher mains fencer, had two in 25year fencelife. Cheap system fronting dry stone walling as scare system. Atv roundup 2x annually, trim few brambles with foot trimmers occasionally.
Have recently invested in Ridley rappa atv set up as temporary solution of fence the flock not the field now that the entire farm wants refencing all at once after 25years.

 

[NZDan]

I've just bought an unfenced block of land and I'm intending on using electric fencing on all of it. At this stage the plan is to 'techno' fence it in to long narrow lanes and use poly wire front and back with portable troughs. Total cost is about 25% of netting fences. I've currently two mob of ewes behind 3 wire poly fences full time with no major issues.

 

[David.]

Trouble with Roundup-ing under fences is that pod thistles soon invade the nice bare soil.