Mains fencer

It's definitely bad practice, not sure exactly why it's frowned upon

I know cattle are very very sensitive to even small electrical current hence why parlours and the like are so carefully earthed. I would have thought using a building as an Earth is bad because although the frame is metal, its all sank into concrete/floor and so won't be particularly useful as an earth.

I've seen someone use a scaffold pole as an Earth, driven in deep by a telehandler. Pouring a bucket of water in and around it helps ensure conductivity.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
My experience with chargers is that everything needs to have an excellent connection and ground. We have switched Most of the farm over to split bolt wire connections and done away with wraps. They lose less power. All gates have an underground.

the more oversized the charger and smaller the area fenced the more you can get away with being less ideal. I like ridiculously hot fences that are reliable. 8-11k is ideal.

If your ground rods and clamps are different metals they corrode and lose connection. If your wire between ground rods isn’t continuous it corrodes and shorts and you lose connection. I have ten 5ft ground rods and really need ten more. The clamps also need redone as they are corroded. A dry time will show all the weaknesses.
 

Cowlife

Member
When I was in nz the boss got me to change the mains fencer in the yard. I half heartedly knocked in an earth a couple of feet then couldn't understand why the output was rubbish. He rung Gallagher who sent a man out to have a look. The guy looked at me in disgust and explained and drive 5 metal earth's at least 4ft into the ground and from memory about 10ft apart. Problem sorted.
 

jerseycowsman

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cornwall
We use Gallagher, the first one I had lasted 20 years, the farm we just moved to has a fully functioning 40 year old Gallagher.
Ours is the biggest you can get, does 160km. 32 joules I think
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
I know cattle are very very sensitive to even small electrical current hence why parlours and the like are so carefully earthed. I would have thought using a building as an Earth is bad because although the frame is metal, its all sank into concrete/floor and so won't be particularly useful as an earth.

I've seen someone use a scaffold pole as an Earth, driven in deep by a telehandler. Pouring a bucket of water in and around it helps ensure conductivity.
that must be why the cattle are so wary of the electric fence, where as the sheep are a bit more gung ho with it
 

moorender

Member
Is there a reason for not using shed steels, asking for a friend?
I went to a farm years ago with the fencer earthed to a Stanchion and the electronic Pulsation box nearby was flashing in time with the fencer even when the Pulsator was unplugged from the mains. Probably earthing through the parlour.
 

In the pit

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembrokeshire

Homesy

Member
Location
North West Devon
The reason why you do/must not use the the building stanchions for earth is because when the fencer develops a fault the stanchions, feed barriers, milking parlour and gates can become live. I learnt this from bitter experience. Milking was a somewhat stressful and dirty experience. The cows were jumping in unison. It can also fudge up electronics. Luckily we were still in the old jar parlour. Getting the cows in for the next milking took 3 of us, 2 dogs and lots of swearing.
 
The reason why you do/must not use the the building stanchions for earth is because when the fencer develops a fault the stanchions, feed barriers, milking parlour and gates can become live. I learnt this from bitter experience. Milking was a somewhat stressful and dirty experience. The cows were jumping in unison. It can also fudge up electronics. Luckily we were still in the old jar parlour. Getting the cows in for the next milking took 3 of us, 2 dogs and lots of swearing.

I've heard of similar, a guy told me about how one day his cows wouldn't go in the parlour and when they did none of them would touch any of the metal work. They would hide as best they could an avoid going near the rail etc. Turns out there was an electrical fault and the parlour was all live.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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