Gallagher tumble wheel.

[Chapin81]

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right forum. I'm looking to buy a Gallagher solar charger along with the tumble wheels to work on a more intense rotational grazing. Does anyone have experience with this equipment? Pros & cons? The reason for this is because post and wiring plus labor kills my budget. We currently work with rotational grazing but when we started we made the pastures too big so the cattle tend to roam freely and always leave grass behind.
Herd 1 we have 34 steers no more than 700lbs
Herd 2 160 cows plus calves and 2 bulls.
Herd 3 71 heifers and 1 bull.
Will a solar Gallagher charger and the tumble wheels keep the cattle within the enclosure I make for them? The tumble wheel keeps the live wire at 31 inches from the ground is it low enough for calves not to go under is it high enough they won't jump? Is it a strong enough "zap" to keep them in line? I don't even know what questions to ask I've never dealt with this equipment before :help: I hope one of you can provide great info or guidelines to follow.
Thanks in advance.

 

[BFE]

You want some grass left behind. The cows don't have to nuke it, it will come back faster with some grass left behind. It's trial and error, but any rotation and rest is better than none.

No experience with the wheels, but as long as your perimeter fence is good, why worry about the small calves going under? They don't go far, and they'll get the chance to eat the best before the cows do, but not so much as to short the cows.

That's about the height where I run my hot wires and the only thing jumps them is deer.

 

[Chapin81]

You want some grass left behind. The cows don't have to nuke it, it will come back faster with some grass left behind. It's trial and error, but any rotation and rest is better than none.

No experience with the wheels, but as long as your perimeter fence is good, why worry about the small calves going under? They don't go far, and they'll get the chance to eat the best before the cows do, but not so much as to short the cows.

That's about the height where I run my hot wires and the only thing jumps them is deer.

Thanks for the input. And yes your right the calves won't travel far anyways. We currently practice rotational grazing but we leave them in a pasture up to about a week or so because they have so much room to roam which is not a good idea because the we are also affected by the lack of rains. FYI the cattle are in guatemala and the weather patterns have change drastically since 15 years ago.

 

[Dave]

A dairy farmer friend of my used the tumble wheels. He had long narrow fields with permanent fence. He used the tumble wheels to move the hot wire back a notch every day. He quit using them and went to using step in pig tail posts. He said that the tumble wheels wore out the poly wire.

 

[Chapin81]

A dairy farmer friend of my used the tumble wheels. He had long narrow fields with permanent fence. He used the tumble wheels to move the hot wire back a notch every day. He quit using them and went to using step in pig tail posts. He said that the tumble wheels wore out the poly wire.

Well that's definitely the kind of input I'd like to hear. That's one heck of a con. LOL
Thanks Dave.
Just for kicks and giggles I did the math on adding wood post and barb wire for 9 pastures and it came out to 16k US dollars. Damm lol

 

[ValleyView]

I have an S16 Gallagher solar charger and run poly wire with step in ring top posts. I have not had to do anything to the charger since the day I put it on in April 2019, which is great in my opinion. Have since moved the wire but left the charger and grounding rod in place for when I planted wheat in September. Cows learn quickly and I can keep them off pasture with a dead wire bc they're trained to it now. I am interested the rolling wheels as well bc a pie shape rotation would be optimum in my set up. Hope some others can chime in on that issue but as far as the S16, I am very satisfied with it. Hope this rambling helps you.

I plan on rotating more this year as well and will likely purchase one or two more chargers. Moving the ring top posts is easy if strip grazing etc, your anchor points are what is more difficult to move frequently.

 

[Chapin81]

I have an S16 Gallagher solar charger and run poly wire with step in ring top posts. I have not had to do anything to the charger since the day I put it on in April 2019, which is great in my opinion. Have since moved the wire but left the charger and grounding rod in place for when I planted wheat in September. Cows learn quickly and I can keep them off pasture with a dead wire bc they're trained to it now. I am interested the rolling wheels as well bc a pie shape rotation would be optimum in my set up. Hope some others can chime in on that issue but as far as the S16, I am very satisfied with it. Hope this rambling helps you.

I plan on rotating more this year as well and will likely purchase one or two more chargers. Moving the ring top posts is easy if strip grazing etc, your anchor points are what is more difficult to move frequently.

Thanks for the input. We currently deal with Brahmans how much "punch" does the S16 carry I figured I'm going to have to buy 3 units for our needs. Our herd is unfortunately a bit stubborn, we had cows tear down fences before and bulls fighting each other and causing damage as well.

Our biggest herd is currently 170 head of calves, cows and 2 bulls. The others are 35 steers(450lbs to 720lbs) and 1 bull and 72 heifers.

 

[Brute 23]

The best thing is to break them young on the hot wire and hope for the best. The good thing is the Brahmans have a good memory so if you teach them young and they decide they dont like it your odds are better. Older cattle, or separating bulls out may be a different issue.

Plug-ins will get more power significantly cheaper than solar if that's an option.

 

[ValleyView]

I have an S16 Gallagher solar charger and run poly wire with step in ring top posts. I have not had to do anything to the charger since the day I put it on in April 2019, which is great in my opinion. Have since moved the wire but left the charger and grounding rod in place for when I planted wheat in September. Cows learn quickly and I can keep them off pasture with a dead wire bc they're trained to it now. I am interested the rolling wheels as well bc a pie shape rotation would be optimum in my set up. Hope some others can chime in on that issue but as far as the S16, I am very satisfied with it. Hope this rambling helps you.

I plan on rotating more this year as well and will likely purchase one or two more chargers. Moving the ring top posts is easy if strip grazing etc, your anchor points are what is more difficult to move frequently.

Thanks for the input. We currently deal with Brahmans how much "punch" does the S16 carry I figured I'm going to have to buy 3 units for our needs. Our herd is unfortunately a bit stubborn, we had cows tear down fences before and bulls fighting each other and causing damage as well.

Our biggest herd is currently 170 head of calves, cows and 2 bulls. The others are 35 steers(450lbs to 720lbs) and 1 bull and 72 heifers.

The S16 consistently puts out 5K volts or better across less than around 2K feet or so. Judging on your operation and herd size, it may not be enough to fit your needs. Solar is my only option and my rotation is only across 60 acres. They are very easy to move and smaller than a shoebox charger and solar polar included. It sounds like it would likely take several to accommodate you and your operation.

 

[Chapin81]

I have an S16 Gallagher solar charger and run poly wire with step in ring top posts. I have not had to do anything to the charger since the day I put it on in April 2019, which is great in my opinion. Have since moved the wire but left the charger and grounding rod in place for when I planted wheat in September. Cows learn quickly and I can keep them off pasture with a dead wire bc they're trained to it now. I am interested the rolling wheels as well bc a pie shape rotation would be optimum in my set up. Hope some others can chime in on that issue but as far as the S16, I am very satisfied with it. Hope this rambling helps you.

I plan on rotating more this year as well and will likely purchase one or two more chargers. Moving the ring top posts is easy if strip grazing etc, your anchor points are what is more difficult to move frequently.

Thanks for the input. We currently deal with Brahmans how much "punch" does the S16 carry I figured I'm going to have to buy 3 units for our needs. Our herd is unfortunately a bit stubborn, we had cows tear down fences before and bulls fighting each other and causing damage as well.

Our biggest herd is currently 170 head of calves, cows and 2 bulls. The others are 35 steers(450lbs to 720lbs) and 1 bull and 72 heifers.

The S16 consistently puts out 5K volts or better across less than around 2K feet or so. Judging on your operation and herd size, it may not be enough to fit your needs. Solar is my only option and my rotation is only across 60 acres. They are very easy to move and smaller than a shoebox charger and solar polar included. It sounds like it would likely take several to accommodate you and your operation.

thanks for the input I was thinking either get the biggest solar unit they have or buy a few to get the job done( I unfortunately do not have electric as well)I called today to the Gallagher tech support Phone number but was on hold for a while and hung up. I also looked into the cyclops which carries 12 joules I think. I used google Maps to do the perimeter fence and I would need 7 miles of Wire so the unit won't be far from the house( less chance of someone stealing it) plus the additional wire to make the temp paddocks. Hopefully this Corona virus mess will be over soon in nyc so I can head back there to finish the job. I'll let you guys know how it worked out for me. Be safe everyone!