Hot wire and scratching posts

[kozzy]

The current fence is 4' high mesh wire, wood posts on 24' centers with steel T posts on 8' centers between, stretched very tight. I originally put this one in for goats and horses but the goats live elsewhere and no plans for a horse any time soon. I have had no problems with my 2-1/2 Y.O. "girl" except using it as a rubbing place to scratch those inevitable cow itches.

But...yesterday her new boyfriend arrived--9 months old so not a problem...yet. He's well behaved and gentle now but the time will come when he's going to ignore a fence because he wants something just beyond 1000 lbs of stupid will tend to do what it wants.

I was thinking it might be wise to get around to putting up a hot wire for some extra protection as well as to deter the scratching issue. The problem is, I am not sure what height will be most effective. Should I shoot for shoulder which is about 3 feet? In a forum search someone mentioned "halfway up" a 4 foot fence which seems low to me. Multi-strands? Any suggestions would be helpful. Better to do it once with advice from people who've had experience than twice based on me guessing what would be most effective.

Also: Any experience with solar chargers in northern climates? I do have power in the general vicinity but the layout would be easier if solar was a good ticket and still reliable in the winter.

And just to throw another twist into the mix...anyone got clever ideas on scratching devices? I'd sure like to give them something effective to use but again, don't want to just reinvent the wheel if someone already has some clever idea that worked well. I really do need to stop the fence walking to scratch and since the itches won't go away, I'm happy to provide a substitute that'll do the job if I can find one.

Thanks!

Koz

[dexterfarm]

2 foot is a good height. you want to prevent them from pushing under and that is low enough it will stop them. Use the insulators that stick out about 6". If electricity is an option go with that more powerful than the solar ones. I have a parmak mark 8. You will never have to clean out weeds from the fence with that.

[hdrockn]

If you don't need the lights like Gene you can do this cheaper. I got a 7 watt solar panel from Northern Tool...under 10 watt you don't need a charge controller. I added a $35 lawnmower battery that has now worked for a year and a half...don't know if that would be a problem in the north....I use a Patriot AC/DC.

[lonecowhand]

Genebo: Good info and is that Brenn mooking for the camera again?

Diane, how many feet of hot are you running with that?

[hdrockn]

It surrounds a 2 acre horse pasture to keep them off the smooth wire fence and then I have about 500 feet of half inch tape on an area that pulls from that setup that I keep my bull and one of his ladies in waiting to graze down. The tester consistently registers around 8.3 KV.

[RedRidge]

We rotationally graze using Kencove poultry electro netting. The reason this is relevant is because setting an electric wire about 3' up meas we can pig tail into the electric anywhere on the perimeter fence - very handy. It's low enough to prevent fence pressure from cattle or, in our case, sheep and maremma also. But high enough that weeds aren't a problem and pig tails work great.
Solar... We do a lot of things with solar but our experience with fence charges has been they are great for the short term but rarely last more than a year or two. They also tend to pack very little punch. We use a few but prefer to simply use a high kv charger from the nearest point of electric, running insulated buried wire to the closest fence and then electric at 3' or at the top of the 48" field fence. By running one strand in this fashion we have electric around the entire acreage and can tap in anywhere.
Hope that helps.

[carragheendexters]

The amount of kick in the hot wire is dependent on a few things. The power of your energiser, how far you are trying to stretch that cover and the resistance of your hot wire. Resistance is a big factor. The white tape has the highest resistance of all of them, followed by the braids that vary a bit, and the solid straight wire has the least resistance. I think the wire tape is only really good for use in horses, it is good as it is a good sighter wire and horses are very sensitive to electric fences so don't need much of a kick.

Like Sheri we use a solid wire around the perimeter of the property plus also on some of the inner fencing, and then we attach our strip grazing wires to that. We use braid with a low resistance so that it gives plenty of kick. Here is a photo of the braid that we use and the leads that we use to attach it to the straight wire. Braid is very easy to work with, even for using on permanent fencing. It is very easy to strain up, and if it breaks or any damage done to it, it can be quickly repaired.

We use the braid on our bulls paddock, with only one hot wire, using 12 inch standoffs at a height of about 2-2 1/2 feet,  with a  self contained solar energiser, that can be charged up from mains electricity if we have overcast weather for some time. We have 2 of these energisers, so any problems we just swap it over to the charged up one. The ones we use are rated to 5km which I think is about 3 miles for you guys, but the paddock perimeter probably is only about 1 km, just over 1/2 mile, so they work well. I can assure you they really pack a punch, from getting caught out myself. Our bulls all have great respect for it.

If you are going to use a braid, it is best to get the thicker more expensive one, the thin ones break too easily and have too high a resistance. If you do decide to go that way, compare the resistance ratings before you purchase and make sure that it will do the job you want it to.

[hdrockn]

I am aware the tape is the most resistive...that is my reason for regularly checking the "punch". My reason for using it is the visibility and lighter weight. I have used the heavier weight 1/4 inch rope type but it is so much weight when wet that is sags and pulls the temporary posts in our sandy soil. This is for cross fencing/rotational grazing. I would not want to depend on this as a perimeter fence.

I agree with Sheri that most of the solar fence charger set ups don't last long....that is why I tried this set up.
The advantage to this is no loss of power to the fence when we lose power from storms....in this part of the Piney Woods of East Texas that happens more often than I care for.

[kozzy]

Thanks for the feedback. The only compelling reason to go solar over line-powered was about 30 feet of distance to power and the need for the hot wire to cross a gate if I start on that end: Nothing insurmountable.

Balancing the height recommendations as well as what'd work well on the existing fence, I think I've settled on roughly 36" high with a bit of a drop in areas where the fence is on a slight berm relative to where the critters would stand.

Braided sounds like the way to go. I like the high visibility of the tape but braided seems like a good compromise between visibility of tape and strength of bare wire.

Grounding is going to be a bit of an issue at the charger location--I hit bedrock at 3 feet there so I'll likely have to drive rods at angles or similar--have to ponder that one.


I just wanted to make sure you all knew that I appreciated your responses---thanks!

[dexterfarm]

you dont have to ground it at the charger. I have one that I put the ground rod in the bottom of a creak bed and ran a wire down to it.
Another option if you use metal post is to just ground it to the fence. I have done this for temp solar charges and it gives a great ground.