Electric fence - Help/advice please! :)

hack-tack

hack-tack

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Apr 21, 2009
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Cornwall
Hi there!
We are set to move to a new yard with our horses. We have always shared livery yards and this will be the first time of 'going alone'. I am very apprehensive about it all, but kinda excited all the same! The place we have found is beautiful and the land is just enough for our three horses.

We are however going to need to divide the fields up to prevent over-grazing and damage to the land. My questions are this:

1) Do you use electric fencing? Pros/cons, what type do you use?

2) What exactly do I need to buy to enable me to have a safe working electric fence? (I have seen starter kits but these seem to imply you still need to buy extras to use them.)

Any other advice/information would be greatfully received!

Thanks,
Rebekah
 
It depends on whether or not you want to be able to move the fields about abit.

i moved into my own field of 5.5 acres at the beginning of June.

We have divided the field up into 3 main sections using half round wooden posts and 20mm electric tape (3 strands). We have made a gateway to each section.

Then on top of that, I have used the plastic 5 ft posts with more electric tape to divide each section if needed. (these can obviously be moved if needed)

we then also needed to buy the battery and pulser, and not forgetting the charger to charge your battery up.

As we have used wooden posts, we also needed to buy the insulaters, but this still works out cheaper than the plastic posts, believe it or not!

All in all, we have spent about £800 :eek: on fencing since we have been there, but remembering the energizer (pulser) alone is over £100 and then you are looking at the same again for the battery and charger!

UK country stores are the cheapest I have found for electric fencing and the cheapest place I could find near me for the wooden posts was Scats Country Stores.

Good luck and believe me, you wont look back - I havent!
 
I like this place for leccy fencing too as it's nice and cheap :)

http://www.farmcareuk.com/?section=shop&action=cat&c=1&pc=1

You need an energiser, battery, plastic posts (if your horse is anything like mine then go for the tallest ones you can afford), tape and gate handles for the number of strands you are going to run. I always go for gate handles so that you don't have to switch off your eletric to get the horse in and out.

Go for the best energiser you can afford. Mine on its own was nearly £120 a couple of years back and is one for cattle that does up 15 km of fencing. My 2 fatty natives don't respect tape unless it has enough of a kick to make them think - they wouldn't even notice the pulse sent through by my neighbours energiser and battery :rolleyes:

There are 3 clips on the energiser a red and black one that clip onto the battery and then another one to clip on the electric tape. The energiser will either come with an earthing rod or you'll need to pop your own on (I have a few lengths of copper pipe driven into the ground. Make sure this is pushed deep into the ground and that the connection are tight. I once couldn't understand why my fence wasn't working very well and changing the battery didn't help. Turned out the earth connection was loose.

I like the 22mm tape the best. The 40mm blows in the wind a lot which bent the posts. Talking of posts, I've giving up on the cheapy ones. My ground has stones just under the surface and so the spikes can get easilly bent, aslo the cheap ones become brittle in no time so when moving them about bits can snap off.

Remember to be most efficient on your battery mustn't have the tape touching anything it can earth out on so have a plastic post next to the wooden post (I tie mine to the wooden one with bailing twine making sure the leccy tape won't touch the twine). I have 2 strands running along the posts to make sure they don't try the limbo trick although the lady in the field next to mine manages with one strand the lucky thing! Littles would be able to walk staight under it I just had one strand of tape at the 4ft hight that my mare needs.

Where you want your gate to be make 2 loops in the tape for the gate to hook over to keep the current going continously through the whole fence. Dont forget that with electric fencing you can move your gate area when the original one starts looking bear. It great to do that when needed so you end up with no bear patches or muddy areas ;)

As for distance, I tend to have my 4ft posts spaced about 8ft apart, no more than that or the wind gets it. Rather than just running the fence through the runners on the posts I wrap it once round each post to keep it in place. Because of this I find it easier to do the bottom strand first.

The tape must run in a continuous loop but you can join the tape by tying it in a knot. No need for those fancy jointing plates ;)
 
Good advice Joyscarer. My energizer has a forth clip a green one which goes to the earth stake. Also if you don't have enough earthing it pulls the battery down and you end up charging the battery to frequently. So look at the earthing instructions when you go to buy it. If your not sure then ask. Don't go for the cheapest energiser (probably one likes in a starter kit). There okay for doing strip grazing but not for a more solid fence.

Good idea to have some wooden posts in on any corners, if using wooden ones buy some screw in insulators. You then just hook the tape or rope through. If you have polys on corners the posts either bend or the metal bit at the bottom. Corse to put the woodens in you need a post rammer. If your going to divide the field into paddocks which your not going to keep moving then I would suggest you go for woodens, interspersed with polys. If you then want to strip graze you can sub divide of that.
 
Everything Joyscarer says!! :D

I ordered 40 posts and 2 x 200m of tape from Farmcare; All for £68!! free delivery and it arrived the next day. Really good quality too.

Spent three hours making a track around my 4 acre winter field.

I already have lots of fencing, so in all I have used 120 posts and 1K of tape :eek: But it looks great!
 
We divide nearly all our fields up using leccy fencing. We have two types, one purchased at considerable cost from a local agricultural supplier, which has worn extremely well and another that we bought from Robinsons, which hasn't unfortunately done quite as well. the Robinsons one was a lot cheaper, but not as effective.
We split our fields mainly as both our pair are good doers and also to prevent extreme damage and hoolyism (Joe is 18 but thinks he's 2!!!!!).
We have 13 and a half acres, but believe me, if you don't look after it properly it can soon run to rack and ruin! (Some of that is now taken up by a school and stables - and some of it we've not had post and railed yet).
HOwever, winter is the worst time, don't know if your horses are used to living out 24/7 or what kind of winter turnout you are used to, but we only give ours limited in winter even tho they live at home and we are in control. Thats simply because they churn it up and hooly if you leave them out until it goes dark, Joe is a tb type and extremely routine orientated, and gets very upset it left. He is apt to pull shoes and damage ligaments if left!!!!
Anyway, good luck - its great being in control - enjoy!
 
Just wanted to add as well, the joy of rolling fields! Its like magic, we've just had our top field rolled and now it will be left to rest until mid winter / early spring - its amazing how it "knits" together again!!!! One of these days I will have my own tractor and be able to do the rolling myself..........
 
Just wanted to add if you have sheep / cattle around you make sure you place your connector thingies near the actual transformer box away from where the little blighters can nibble! We turn our leccy off at night when they come in but unfortunately we had the sheep nibbling through most of the wires - most annoying (of course they didn't get zapped as it was switched off!). Also, cattle nibble it when its tied at the end near to the roadside track (tho its private its full of passing cows!!!). Just a thought......
 
Thankyou all so much for the advice you have given! I have been trawling websites for electric fencing and it totally confused me!
Thanks again!x
 
newrider.com
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