electric fence

[Anonymous]

I've got six 3-4 month old calves that I can't keep in the electric fence. It happens this same time every year. My fence is; two strands of barbless wire, about 1/4 of the way around 110 acres and a 35 mile fencer. I've checked the fence and it's showing 5000 on the meter.The fence is hot but the calves just wiggle their way through it. If anyone has any ideas, please help. None of the older calves ever push the fence. We live by a busy road and my only other option is to early wean and sell.

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[Anonymous]

Have you checked the power at the area the calves are getting out? If you have a very dry type of soil, like rocks in one area and your ground is a little weak you may not be getting full voltage in some places. Are there any low spots that the calves can get under? Are the calves long wooly haired, or have the shed out slick? Is it all the calves or just a couple and always the same ones? I have fund that when the conditions get too dry the pulse on the fence doesn't alwasy stay consistant, the time between pulses becomes longer. How high is your bottom wire? If you are having a weak ground problem because of the dryness, you could run third wire about four inches from the bottom wire, or depending on the spacing between the two wires and hook it to your charger ground. There are so many variables with hot wire, trying to figure them out long distance can be pretty tough. Our calves always forward graze, (the wander under the wire and go anywhere they please) till the are about two months. By then they are big enough to hit the wire and have been lit up enough that they don't even go near it. We use a single high tensile wire 30 inches above the ground and don't have any other problems.

dunmovin farms

> I've got six 3-4 month old calves
> that I can't keep in the electric
> fence. It happens this same time
> every year. My fence is; two
> strands of barbless wire, about
> 1/4 of the way around 110 acres
> and a 35 mile fencer. I've checked
> the fence and it's showing 5000 on
> the meter.The fence is hot but the
> calves just wiggle their way
> through it. If anyone has any
> ideas, please help. None of the
> older calves ever push the fence.
> We live by a busy road and my only
> other option is to early wean and
> sell.

 

[Anonymous]

The calves are slick-haired. My bottom wire is about 30" off the ground. The calves actually go under the bottom wire, the wire rubs their entire back before they get through. There isn't any special spot they go through and I've checked about every square inch with 2 different testers and it all shows 5000. I've accidentally grabbed the fence twice and it's hot! Every year this happens; the same time every year with the calves being the same age 3-4 months old. Our soil is very dry here and I was wondering if the size of the calves feet have anything to do with it? I've even tried keeping the area where my grounds are wet. Nothing. I've got a 4 strand hotwire fence along the road and they wiggle through it. My husband suggested wrapping a wire around their necks and leaving 2 long ears out so that when they wiggle through the fence the wires will touch. I've had the fencer tested. It has to have something to do with the size of the calves because once they get older and bigger they don't touch the fence and the dry time of year, too. Help!



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[Anonymous]

wow! sounds like to me that you will have to run ground wires too like dunmovin suggested.. alternate them so the calf touches one of each as he goes thru the fence.. i know this will be a hassle, cause you dont want them getting slack and shorting each other out.. or else consider putting up a permanent fence.. i know lots of $$$

good luck

gene

> The calves are slick-haired. My
> bottom wire is about 30" off
> the ground. The calves actually go
> under the bottom wire, the wire
> rubs their entire back before they
> get through. There isn't any
> special spot they go through and
> I've checked about every square
> inch with 2 different testers and
> it all shows 5000. I've
> accidentally grabbed the fence
> twice and it's hot! Every year
> this happens; the same time every
> year with the calves being the
> same age 3-4 months old. Our soil
> is very dry here and I was
> wondering if the size of the
> calves feet have anything to do
> with it? I've even tried keeping
> the area where my grounds are wet.
> Nothing. I've got a 4 strand
> hotwire fence along the road and
> they wiggle through it. My husband
> suggested wrapping a wire around
> their necks and leaving 2 long
> ears out so that when they wiggle
> through the fence the wires will
> touch. I've had the fencer tested.
> It has to have something to do
> with the size of the calves
> because once they get older and
> bigger they don't touch the fence
> and the dry time of year, too.
> Help!

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[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have done a lot of good detective work that, unfortunately, has not yet been fully rewarded! I've not experienced any problems even when the soil was EXTREMELY dry but had a little problem when too much tall grass and brush made contact all up and down the line (I assume you have checked for that). Dun has been at this much longer than I, and knows much more, but IMHO 30 inches seems a little high for the lower wire. I've always set mine at 24". Don't know if 6" makes that much difference but I want them to make initial contact with the wire with their head, chest or neck. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

> Hate to tell you but you need to build some fence. My fence contracting pays for the cow/calf part of my life and as the cobbler's kids go barefoot, my cows have some really poor fence. Calves are dumb and can't seem to remember that wire is hot so as they walk up to it, they can usually get halfway thru before it zaps them . I even had a heifer drop a calf next to a 5 strand hi-tensil(about the only good fence I've got on the place) and the calf fell thru it! Horse fence starts at 16 inches off the ground( so they don't hook a hoof over the bottom wire as often) and calves can lay down next to it and stand up on the other side without even noticing. I have to start fence for calves at 10 to 12 inches off the ground to keep the little beggers in four wire temporary is about as little fence that will consistantly hold very young calves, 'specially next to a road that lawyers drive on.

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[Anonymous]

Good job on all the ground work of checking this out. The only suggestion I would have is to run (if you have it on hand) a single strand of ply about half way between the ground (dirt) and the bottom wire and make it hot. The extra wire so that you have a ground and hot in close proximity only is if you don't have a good ground system. See if the lower wire helps, if so, I would run a strand of high tensile to replace the temp poly. I'm basically xheap that's why I mention using the poly as a temporary to see if it solves the problem. If you don't have the poly I would just bite the bullet and run the extra strand as high tensile. Deer goats and sheep aren't much affected by hot wire because of the structure of their feet. I wonder if, because calves are growing so fast that they may have the same situtation. Loose powdery earth seems to decrease the grounding affect also, hard packed dirt appears to provide better conductivity. We just did a lot of dirt work along one of the temp poly fences, because of the drought the soil is realy soft powder. I noticed that the calves travel back and forth under the wire at that spot but don't along the rest of the fence. Interesting to me, maybe not to anybody else. When powered fencing works it is really a great deal, when it doesn't, there are few things any more frustrating. Good luck

dunmovin farms

 

[Anonymous]

You don't state how many ground rods you have and how deep they are. Should have at least 3ground rods and be 6 foot deep. You can have the best charger in the world and if you don't have a properly grounded fence, you don't have nothing because voltage without proper ground means nothing to a electric fence. Don't understand Dunmovins theory at all for grounding the fence

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[Anonymous]

You don't state how many ground
> rods you have and how deep they
> are. Should have at least 3ground
> rods and be 6 foot deep. You can
> have the best charger in the world
> and if you don't have a properly
> grounded fence, you don't have
> nothing because voltage without
> proper ground means nothing to a
> electric fence. Don't understand
> Dunmovins theory at all for
> grounding the fence

 

[Anonymous]

Running a third wire and hooking it to your ground on the charger. What are you going to accomplish?

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[Anonymous]

when a calf touches the fence, he grounds it out, right? unless.. the ground is too dry, thus the calf is not a good enough conductor.

so the extra wire, which is grounded, and is close to the hot wire, forces the calf to touch both a hot wire and a ground wire in close proximity.. thus.. pow.. he gets it. at least that is the way i see it.

hope this helps

gene

Running a third wire and hooking
> it to your ground on the charger.
> What are you going to accomplish?

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[Anonymous]

Exactly right. It is a method used frequently in very arid or rocky areas. Most bull pens are constructed around here using 6 wires, ebvery other one is alternatly hot and ground. If the original ground was poor due to adequate number of ground rods there wouldn't be a high voltage reading at different points along the fence. As you travel from the ground the readings would get lower and lower. We have one spot that is almost solid cap rock. The readings for that short section are always only about half of what we see on either side. Our cows are so used to hot wire that they never challenge any of the fence so they haven't found that one section. The following is a good source of information and covers testing the ground system

<A HREF="http://gallagherusa.com/Web3/frame.htm" TARGET="_blank">http://gallagherusa.com/Web3/frame.htm</A>

dunmovin farms

> when a calf touches the fence, he
> grounds it out, right? unless..
> the ground is too dry, thus the
> calf is not a good enough
> conductor.

> so the extra wire, which is
> grounded, and is close to the hot
> wire, forces the calf to touch
> both a hot wire and a ground wire
> in close proximity.. thus.. pow..
> he gets it. at least that is the
> way i see it.

> hope this helps

> gene

> Running a third wire and hooking

 

[Anonymous]

I've got 3 ground rods 6' apart, I keep the ground moist around the ground rods. I have to believe that the calves must be like the deer and because of their size they just walk through the fence like it's not on. I've seen the diagram about running one wire as a ground, like you're talking about Dun. Although I measured my bottom wire right now and it's between 18-22", the problem is that right now the calves go under the bottom wire. They have to work real hard to do it. So then what I should do is lower the bottom wire and hook it directly to the ground on the fencer. Then make sure that the second wire is close enough to the first that they have to crawl through it? I'd never heard of this one before. I'd heard of using the botom wire as a ground and then every 1000' or so put another ground rod in. But, I thought this method was just like my fencing setup other than adding extra ground rods.



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[Anonymous]

Thanks guys for all your help. It's greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can get this problem solved. Thank goodness it only goes on for a couple months out of the year. A funny story; my nephews are city boys, they stayed with me a couple weeks and kept asking me what the electric fence felt like. They walked the hotwire fence hanging on the wire. I couldn't figure out why they weren't getting shocked. I finally had the older one take his tennis shoes off and grab the fence where the calves go through the most, he screamed. The younger one went through the fence at the water trough and stepped in a puddle going through, he really screamed. Atleast they quit asking me if it hurts.



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[Anonymous]

nothing like hands on experience.. LOL they will probably never forget it either.. those things can really pop you.

gene

Thanks guys for all your help.
> It's greatly appreciated.
> Hopefully I can get this problem
> solved. Thank goodness it only
> goes on for a couple months out of
> the year. A funny story; my
> nephews are city boys, they stayed
> with me a couple weeks and kept
> asking me what the electric fence
> felt like. They walked the hotwire
> fence hanging on the wire. I
> couldn't figure out why they
> weren't getting shocked. I finally
> had the older one take his tennis
> shoes off and grab the fence where
> the calves go through the most, he
> screamed. The younger one went
> through the fence at the water
> trough and stepped in a puddle
> going through, he really screamed.
> Atleast they quit asking me if it
> hurts.

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[Anonymous]

Dun's method works because until the circut is completed the calf does't get shocked. the juice has to return to the ground rods(not the dirt) to complete the circut. If the dirt is dry or sandy then the juice will return to the charger on the wire hooked to the ground rod

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