Lambs and electric sheep netting

[Mick78]

Does anyone use electric netting with lambs.

I had a lamb try to run through it and got tangled up when I was setting up, as ewe was on other side. Was'nt switched on at time, but im wondering is a bad idea for young lambs circa 5 weeks old.

 

[Al R]

Netting really has a very limited place now that reels and poly wire is so good. Last time I used netting a storm blew it flat and 150 ewes walked through it and it was a serious mess, the poly wire stayed in place and I have never had a tangle, lambed plenty of sheep with triple strand around parts of fields and never a problem

 

[sticky]

You'll have a lamb hang itself in that stuff.

 

[Mick78]

Netting really has a very limited place now that reels and poly wire is so good. Last time I used netting a storm blew it flat and 150 ewes walked through it and it was a serious mess, the poly wire stayed in place and I have never had a tangle, lambed plenty of sheep with triple strand around parts of fields and never a problem

Thanks, Ive a good perimeter fence, its just to strip graze, so not overly worried if its blown over, more worried about losing lambs on it. Might have saved money with poly wire though.

 

[Mick78]

You'll have a lamb hang itself in that stuff.

Is there a safe age for use with lambs do you think?

 

[sticky]

Is there a safe age for use with lambs do you think?

Not in my experience/opinion, but others might feel differently.

 

[rancher]

We use it from about 3 weeks old, no problem,
They cant be in the field when you're setting up alright

 

[Mc115reed]

Take that electric fencing netting ... bundle it all up... then burn it... absolute dog shite all it does is earth out and kill sheep.. if you’ve got a good energizer 3 strands will keep anything in...

 

[Paddington]

We have a poultry run in the corner of a field fenced off from sheep with three strands of mains fencing, to keep the sheep and foxes out and a four foot high poultry mesh inside, to keep the hens in. Found a lamb the other day grazing in the poultry run. don't know how it got in. I've had kicks from the fence and it really hurts, but our lambs don't seem to notice that much, wool must be a good insulator.

 

[jonny]

Been using it for 20 years to split fields to keep batches small, no problems as long as there is a shock in it and it trains lambs young not to be putting their heads into fences

 

[Uggman]

I run two strands of soild metal wire round my ewes and lambs no problems. My sister in law gets away with one strand of polywire round there ewe and lambs open gate ways and all if the catch a ewe out they catch it and sit it for 2 minutes on the wire that usually stops it getting out if not it gets it gets culled . I still don't know how they do it though.

 

[JoeFo]

It works if there is a super strong current and no earth. Once lambs get a shock once then it they build up a fear

 

[Montexy]

I have about ten yards of electric rabbit netting that have a smaller mesh size, I put this up in what I term the secure field about a week before I move them out into the other field that I rotate them around. After a week of touching the rabbit netting - which is very close to the energiser, they keep well away from the sheep netting.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

You can train the lambs to all electric fence with a fencing unit that has limited output in joules. Depending on the size of the paddock, no more than 1 joule output. They will touch the fence once and learn right then to stay away from anything that looks like that. 99.99% of the time, they will retract upon touching it. If they go forward, they generally just walk right through. Which could cause some issues with the lamb and the ewe. Either big gaps or smaller gaps between the horizontals works best.

You could also use a dumb limit switch (10 ohm resistor in some water proof case ) on the main fence that will step down the joule output on the lamb training fence from the main fence. If you need to. You can buy four of those things for the price of a pint. They are cheap. Just put it inline at the connection from the main fence to the lambing fence. Voltage will flow from the main fence to the lambing fence in a reduced, limited pathway.

Also make sure your ground field is working correctly. Anything over 1000 volts on the ground means it really is not working optimally. Strive for less than 500 volts on the ground and always use the correct hookup wire for the fence and ground field.

 

[JohnGalway]

We have a poultry run in the corner of a field fenced off from sheep with three strands of mains fencing, to keep the sheep and foxes out and a four foot high poultry mesh inside, to keep the hens in. Found a lamb the other day grazing in the poultry run. don't know how it got in. I've had kicks from the fence and it really hurts, but our lambs don't seem to notice that much, wool must be a good insulator.

Horned ewe got live polywire wrapped around her horn last year, long walk to energiser so I said "f**k it" - many, many times as it happens - and untangled her. I can say that dry wool conducts electricity just fine.