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Post by lavacaw on Jul 11, 2013 9:24:01 GMT -5
When my bull figured out he could easily jump over fences as tall as he was, we switched fencing to taller field fence and very tall heavy weight stock panels. Fences were tied to T-posts every ten feet. Should be enough to confine him...right? Wrong. He has figured out that if he wants to cross a fence or get out of the bull pen he can work his head under the panel/fence and lift. Because our ground is very sandy, with a little effort, the T-posts can be pulled out of the ground and he can waltz right under. The resulting mess of a stock panel makes them very difficult to straighten out. I really don't want to go to electric fences but it is looking more and more like my only option!  |
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Post by lavacaw on Jul 11, 2013 12:04:35 GMT -5
Where do you find the battery powered ones? Have a couple of electric ones but there is no power source near the bull pen.
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Post by lakeportfarms on Jul 11, 2013 12:57:51 GMT -5
If you can get temporary power out there, even with an extension cord, I'd suggest that before the battery chargers. The battery chargers send out a test pulse before the real pulse, and it can sometimes result in enough of a delay that they are already partway through the fence before the real zap comes. They are better for already trained cattle.
In the alternative, if you can get a marine battery with a power inverter (12v dc to 115 ac) and then use a regular line voltage charger that would also work. I know it's a bit more complicated than getting a solar battery charger, but you're going to have to teach him even more to overcome the bad habits and it's going to take a good zap to do so. If there is no way you can run anything but a battery charger, Parmak makes them.
Avoid Zareba (Tractor Supply). We've had really good experience with the Parmak chargers. A few days ago we bought a really nice hay saver feeder from somebody getting out of cattle. She had a pile of misc. stuff that she wanted to get rid of and said $100 for all of it. In with all the stuff (lots of it including a complete new Mighty Mule gate opener with two remotes and keypad, vet supplies, etc... I felt like we were stealing from her) were three fence chargers. Two Parmak and one Zareba. I tested them. Guess which two worked and which one didn't?
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Post by Olga on Jul 11, 2013 17:05:32 GMT -5
We hook the fencer to a car battery and check it every so often. Got ours at Tractor Supply and it worked very well over a long distance, not just a pen.
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Post by hdrockn on Jul 12, 2013 6:47:02 GMT -5
After years of off and on problems with the solar powered fence charger units I bought a Patriot ac/dc charger, got a 7 watt solar panel from Northern Tool on sale for $20 and a lawn mower battery from Tractor Supply. This has been the best arrangement I have found so far. I can isolate which ever part of my system that isn't working by doing this. The 7 watt panel is powerful enough to keep the battery well charged but not so powerful that it needs a charge controller.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2013 16:06:42 GMT -5
Lavacaw are you able to put a couple of pregnant girls in with him? They say bulls who run with a herd are calmer, less likely to wander or possibly break through fencing. Our boys run together and with the pregnant girls. There is only a short period during the year that all the boys are together without girls but they still seem to behave *touching wood* as I type this  |
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