Grass farmer magazine cover page

[Central Fl Cracker]

On the cover they show a guy from Nebraska reeling up his temp electric fence. The fence appears to be 12 " off the ground and is holding back a few dozens cattle from some good grass. Is it really possible to install one wire of portable electric fence to subdivide pastures into smaller paddocks. It is so low (12") that a cow could literally step over it.

 

[Bez?]

On the cover they show a guy from Nebraska reeling up his temp electric fence. The fence appears to be 12 " off the ground and is holding back a few dozens cattle from some good grass. Is it really possible to install one wire of portable electric fence to subdivide pastures into smaller paddocks. It is so low (12") that a cow could literally step over it.

Yes. But they must be well trained.

Our cows will not step over the wire if it is lying on the ground.

Mind you if it lies there for a week they will.

It is a bear trying to move them from one pasture to another - they will stop right at the fence wire line - even if we pull the wire out of the way.

Bez?

 

[Frankie]

On the cover they show a guy from Nebraska reeling up his temp electric fence. The fence appears to be 12 " off the ground and is holding back a few dozens cattle from some good grass. Is it really possible to install one wire of portable electric fence to subdivide pastures into smaller paddocks. It is so low (12") that a cow could literally step over it.

We've got our place split up into several smaller paddocks separated by one strand of electrice fence. We've had cows that wouldn't honor it, but most of them get zapped once and won't go near it again. It does need to be plenty hot for training.

 

[lukem86]

i run mine about 15" off the ground, higher if the grass is taller, but have never had trouble with cows going through it. makes it real nice when they are trained.... its amazing how much they respect a "dummy" wire to get them to the corral

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Mike

My only internal fencing is one wire electric, even lanes to the corral. Put mine 28-30 inches high.

The thing about electric fence, it is not a physical barrier, but a psychological barrier. Making their first experience very painful is the key. Have had trouble getting cattle to cross where a steel wire had been because the steel wire is not that visible. For that reason, I like the greater visibility of polywire or polytape. We use polytape for all gates & high pressure areas such as lanes. When the tape gates are open it is very apparent to the animals & they readily pass thru. Like Luke said even a dummy wire between 2 people or as a temporary wing fence is extremely effective. Train your cows to a hot wire & your twins (with a piece of string) can become instant cow herding pro's.

Another plus to electric fence is it is so much easier to move or reconfigure your pasture divisions (crossfences) than multiwire fences. Just another 2 cents worth.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Proverbs 12:10]

We use poly-wire as well and one strand at about 2-2 and a half feet will do it. However, stressed cows(weaned, separated from the heard, chased by a jack donkey, mishandled) will run right thru or over it.

 

[Alan]

Many of my pastures are now just two strands of hot... much easier than barb wire. When I move them across the driveway to the back pastures it's just one strand of "dummy" wire. they respect it very well. As said before it's got to be real hot, you know keep their attention .

Alan

 

[Chris H]

Mike

My only internal fencing is one wire electric, even lanes to the corral. Put mine 28-30 inches high.

The thing about electric fence, it is not a physical barrier, but a psychological barrier. Making their first experience very painful is the key. Have had trouble getting cattle to cross where a steel wire had been because the steel wire is not that visible. For that reason, I like the greater visibility of polywire or polytape. We use polytape for all gates & high pressure areas such as lanes. When the tape gates are open it is very apparent to the animals & they readily pass thru. Like Luke said even a dummy wire between 2 people or as a temporary wing fence is extremely effective. Train your cows to a hot wire & your twins (with a piece of string) can become instant cow herding pro's.

Another plus to electric fence is it is so much easier to move or reconfigure your pasture divisions (crossfences) than multiwire fences. Just another 2 cents worth.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

That's what we do, although we are cussing the tape gates this year. Some of our polywire remains in place year 'round. We put up polytape at the gates 2 years ago and discover the wires are burning through at the knots on the tape. We're switching back over to polywire for the gates. We didn't find any difference in use of the tape for the cows over the polywire.
In every herd some cows are leaders. Polywire works best when those leaders trust you because I can open a fence anywhere and the leaders come through with the rest following.

I don't remember the picture on the mag but I'm betting it was dairy cows. Running beef cows with calves you won't keep a calf in with the wire that low, they will jump. With one wire about 28-30 inches the calves scoot under. We just call that creep grazing and don't worry about it. We do have 2-4 wires on the farm perimeter and some field perimeters.

 

[msscamp]

Is it really possible to install one wire of portable electric fence to subdivide pastures into smaller paddocks. It is so low (12") that a cow could literally step over it.

Yes, it is. Cows must be fence trained for electric fences because they are more of a psychological barrier than a physical one, but once trained one wire of pretty much any height will hold them. We had to change our fencing set-up because the cows knew where the boundary was and would not cross - even when the gate was open. Trying to get them through the gate caused some fairly major problems trying to move them from the pivot to the pen. Now we have an alleyway that doesn't have a gate.

 

[dj]

Not only can you train cows to electric fence, we keep the dogs out of the garden with nylon string cause they think it's polywire. In fact they will skin through a multi wire barbed fence
chasing rabbits, but when they run up on a single wire they get on the breaks quick.

 

[msscamp]

Not only can you train cows to electric fence, we keep the dogs out of the garden with nylon string cause they think it's polywire. In fact they will skin through a multi wire barbed fence
chasing rabbits, but when they run up on a single wire they get on the breaks quick.

I've had a little experience with this, too. A friend of mine had a dog that was an escape artist and she finally put up a hot wire (inside a chainlink fence) to keep the dog from going under the fence. I lived in an apartment at the time and went to visit her for the week-end. Having no experience with an electric fence, my dogs got bit within a very short time following arrival and received a few subsequent bites over the course of the week-end. Shortly thereafter, I moved to a house with a fenced in yard (chainlink fence). All 3 of my dogs were a bit hesitant, but one of them would not leave the porch until I put her on leash, walked the fence with her (talking to her the whole time), and she found out that the fence would not bite her.

 

[mnmtranching]

Just yesterday I had a few cows accross the polytape. The tape came off a post and was hanging about 8 " off the ground. It had been that way for a few days, but a few of the cows figured how to high step it across the wire. When I chased them back it was fun to watch how careful they were to not touch it.

mnmt

 

[farmwife]

On the cover they show a guy from Nebraska reeling up his temp electric fence. The fence appears to be 12 " off the ground and is holding back a few dozens cattle from some good grass. Is it really possible to install one wire of portable electric fence to subdivide pastures into smaller paddocks. It is so low (12") that a cow could literally step over it.

Yes. But they must be well trained.

Our cows will not step over the wire if it is lying on the ground.

Mind you if it lies there for a week they will.

It is a bear trying to move them from one pasture to another - they will stop right at the fence wire line - even if we pull the wire out of the way.

Bez?

I've seen this happen too. We ususally have to go through the gap (gate) first just to show them that it's ok. We also run a 2 wire system. The top wire is hot and the bottom wire is the ground -- sure adds an extra kapow!! Right now we have cows fenced off from a hay meadow and they don't even offer to try to get over the hot wire.

 

[MoGal]

Yes, it happens. When I bought my red poll heifers last fall, the people have their pasture in about 4 different lots of about 20 acres each held with one strand about 2 feet high. Its older cows (mostly 10-12 yrs old) and they've had them several years, but it kept them in.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I am not sure that psychological stuff works on every critter. Some cattle seem to be lacking in their education. I think higher voltage leads to higher education.

We put up two wire electric twine fencing for a while and then got lazy and went with one. Some of our posts are not adjustable - - so you get a 2" high strand or a 3' high strand. They will jump the 2' but the 3' will hold them if you match the land contours.

We herd or load cattle in open areas by two people holding a piece of tape. It ain't what Bud would do but it works well as long as you do not crowd them too much.