'Smart' fence energiser

[miniconnect]

Is there such a thing as a smart electric fence energiser?
Round the bend with cattle breaking out.
We've a lot of fences that have had wires added over the years, and improving them isn't going to be today or tomorrow.
is there preferably a mains energiser that will alert me when it drops power? ideally without the need for WiFi? maybe one I can put a SIM card in.

goodness has gone out the grass and cattle are constantly looking for a way out.

 

[TheRanger]

Just put a very strong mains one with a voltage display on it, somewhere you walk past it every day and can glance at the voltage reading.

The strongest ones on the market will still give a shock with quite a lot of vegetation touching.

I find it needs to have been off for 24 hours + before cattle start trying to break out, so will notice a voltage drop before any escapees.

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I remember those instances when the coos broke out. That’s fifty years ago!

Two things I also remember;
They were hungry.
The electric fencing gear was fooked.
I’d hazard that putting effort into renewing the lot and fitting a mains energiser.
Ours has run continuously for sixteen years so ultra reliable.
There are some great items on the market.
Make a little scale drawing as an aid memoire.
The time saved when things are sorted will have been time well spent
SS

 

[Dry Rot]

I remember those instances when the coos broke out. That’s fifty years ago!

Two things I also remember;
They were hungry.
The electric fencing gear was fooked.
I’d hazard that putting effort into renewing the lot and fitting a mains energiser.
Ours has run continuously for sixteen years so ultra reliable.
There are some great items on the market.
Make a little scale drawing as an aid memoire.
The time saved when things are sorted will have been time well spent
SS

After 16 years it's a fair guess that your cattle are now trained as well! Electric fencing is a psychological barrier. Cattle are physically strong enough to walk through it if they want but they won't find standard non-electric fencing quite so easy. Hence the recommendation to train livestock first in a small paddock with a powerful shock through the fence first.

An electric fence shouldn't be as taut as a non-electric fence so it "gives" as stock leans against it. That ensure contact between the animal and the wire is held for several seconds delivering several pulses and a bigger shock. We've all experienced the animal that will take a run at the fence and break through. Make that difficult for them. That paddock with a steel wire fence? I have tack sheep here that were breaking out a few months ago but are safely contained now and the fence is no longer on. I cured the breaking out by redirecting all the power to the fence of the field that they were in and leaving other fields with dead fences (as it wasn't needed). (I'm a know-it-all because I used to sell the stuff ).

 

[Pan mixer]

I have a couple of Speedrite fencers, they are not quite what you want but there is an alarm that sounds when the voltage drops to about 1.

Best bit is to have the detector that tells you which way the fault is and you can turn the enegiser off from anywhere in the circuit and back on again when you have fixed it.

mine run between 8 and 10 kv and burns off growth nearly always.

 

[yoki]

After 16 years it's a fair guess that your cattle are now trained as well! Electric fencing is a psychological barrier. Cattle are physically strong enough to walk through it if they want but they won't find standard non-electric fencing quite so easy. Hence the recommendation to train livestock first in a small paddock with a powerful shock through the fence first.

This exactly.

Same with sheep, only if you get one smart enough to figure out that if she goes through it quick enough she'll get away with it, then you'll never keep her behind an electric fence if she doesn't want to be there.

Cattle can't really do that.

Fortunately such sheep are the exception rather than the rule!

 

[bazza3034]

If you can afford it buy the gps collars ypu dont even need fences you put in your farm map boundry and the cattle get a single if they go near it

 

[Dry Rot]

This exactly.

Same with sheep, only if you get one smart enough to figure out that if she goes through it quick enough she'll get away with it, then you'll never keep her behind an electric fence if she doesn't want to be there.

Cattle can't really do that.

Fortunately such sheep are the exception rather than the rule!

Had one of those. Even a collar made from pieces of an old aluminium TV aerial didn't work. Some sheep you get to hate.

 

[TheRanger]

Or one of these:

Speedrite Fence Alert (Box of 10)

www.galloway-macleod.co.uk

 

[Gulli]

We've got a Gallagher one that gives a few different voltage readouts and alarms for vegetation overload etc.
Runs at a set power and will up the output if theres vegetation on the wire and just burns it off.

Good thing but I dont know if you can get them anymore, bought it from a farm sale for £150 a fair few years ago

 

[yoki]

Had one of those. Even a collar made from pieces of an old aluminium TV aerial didn't work. Some sheep you get to hate.

Ironically it's the ones that show intelligence and develop a character that I get to like the most.

But they also tend to be the ones that are the biggest pain in the bottom.

Nothing in life is ever simple!

 

[Dry Rot]

Ironically it's the ones that show intelligence and develop a character that I get to like the most.

But they also tend to be the ones that are the biggest pain in the bottom.

Nothing in life is ever simple!

Now you tell me!

 

[miniconnect]

Cheers for suggestions folks.

I've a bunch that have been on different grazing most of the summer with no electric wire, with hedges etc keeping them in, now they've been moved and we're relying on electric, they're wise to it, mid last week had a water contractor in doing a connection. being nice people, we showed them the electric box so the didn't suffer shocks all day and wanted them to plug it back in when they Finnished. of course they didn't, cattle out a couple hours later..... then Saturday, a gate had got knocked against it, robbing all the power out it, cattle out on Saturday night......

some kind of instant warning would have been handy.

 

[Homesy]

PEL 46000W Mains Energiser • Datamars Livestock

Datamars Livestock: Leading supplier of high-quality livestock equipment, animal identification tags, and solutions for real animal data tracking. Competitive prices, excellent service, and fast UK delivery.

www.kiwikit.co.uk

Not cheap and you will need wifi and mains power.

 

[Hamer5108]

Kiwi kit are bringing out a fence monitoring system that looks like it could be a handy bit of kit