Whether you're an experienced hand or just learning the basics of wood, wire and tape, there's always something more to learn when it comes to livestock fencing.
This ranks as the top mistake in fencing, be it barbed, high-tensile wire or woven wire. The main issues are undersized posts and corner posts not set deeply enough, particularly in sandy or soft soils.
Post diameter depends on the strength of the fence. The lightest-duty fence, such as a 1- or 2-wire, high-tensile pasture subdivision fence, only requires a 4- to 5-inch-diameter post. A 5-strand barbed wire fence, or 5- or 6-strand high-tensile wire fence, requires a 6- to 7-inch-diameter post.
How to fix it: Keeping corner posts in the ground. A 10-foot brace is the ultimate, and a “floating diagonal” bracing system, in which the angle brace is a 4-inch by 10-foot post notched a half-inch into the main corner post. The other end is set on top of the ground opposite the corner post.
Fencers tend to use too many posts, which likely stems from people's experience with barbed wire, where the rule of thumb was 1 post every rod length (16.5 feet).
How to fix it: In an electric-fencing system, fence post spacing 80-100 feet apart, or about 50 posts per mile. Using a “stay” – a shorter post that sits on top of the ground and holds wires up – if posts are spaced 100 ft. apart.
1 joule of output per mile of fence, regardless of how many strands of wire. If there’s a total of six miles of fence, it requires a minimum of a 6-joule energizer.
How to fix it: A low-impedance energizer, with a low-amp fuse. The larger the energizer, the smaller the voltage, because larger energizers are apt to power through more vegetation and short out. 7,000-8,000 volts high for an energizer.
Grounding is 99% of the electric fence, the specialists explain. So if the fence is using a 6-joule energizer, 18 feet of ground rods are called for. Typically this would be three, 6-foot ground rods, spaced at least 10 feet apart.
How to fix it: Spacing is key, as a ground rod is essentially an antenna receiving electrons flowing through the soil and back to the energizer, completing the circuit. Ground rods can also interact with a given volume of soil. If three ground rods are driven into the ground 6 inches apart, in essence, they act as one ground rod because of the volume of soil they interact with.
How to fix it: Rather than strive for a fence that's elk and moose-proof, a flexible fence. When he moved to Idaho from Missouri, the fencing was high-tensile electric on T-posts, but the T-posts were being bent and insulators broken off due to wildlife. He replaced T-posts with PowerFlex fence posts and has had few problems since, he says.
Another consideration is building a low-profile fence. On 2-wire range fences, the top wire is at 30 inches and the second wire is at 20 inches. It’s designed to allow antelope to go under the wires at a dead run, but low enough that elk will hit the fence with their legs and not the heaviest part of their body.
In an electric-fencing system, creating a gate system that conducts current is a challenge.
How to fix it: placing a floating diagonal brace on either side of the gate opening.
To keep the fence “hot,” trench both insulated hot and cold galvanized wires 1- foot deep under the opening (perhaps deeper in high-traffic areas or low-lying wet spots, or shallower in less-used pasture settings).
Putting a steel post anywhere into an electric fence is a big mistake, because you are then relying on the insulator to keep your cattle fence from shorting out.
How to fix it: highly flexible plastic or wood-plastic composite posts.
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