Hot Wire Training

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Aero

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I have a group of heifers coming from a ranch where no hot wire is used. 90% of my fences are reasonable/decent hot wire and I'm looking for advice on training them to recognize high tensile wire as well as step in poly braid.

There is a receiving pen that I will keep them in for a short while (week?) on good hay and I was thinking I might just run some step in posts inside the panels to start their learning. What good ways have yall tried?
 
Sounds like it would work. Mine grow up with experience around poly wire or hi tensile dividing pastures from hay and pasture fields so they are accustomed to watching for wires.
I like the idea of the step in posts. If you attach the wires to insulators on wood posts, it will get torn down eventually unless you keep it charged.
 
to train run a stub fence out with the posts you intend to use. 6-8 strand poly wire should work fine.
be sure you have good grounding on your energizer. I prefer 8-10 joules. a 100' is usually enough.
good luck.
 
to train run a stub fence out with the posts you intend to use. 6-8 strand poly wire should work fine.
be sure you have good grounding on your energizer. I prefer 8-10 joules. a 100' is usually enough.
good luck.
In the training pen you mean? 8-10 joules on 250' of wire will teach em if it doesnt kill em. :)
 
In the training pen you mean? 8-10 joules on 250' of wire will teach em if it doesnt kill em. :)
They learn pretty quick!
Usually only mess with it 2 or 3 times.

That's the way I do it also. I just run a temporary single strand about halfway thru the pen. They learn quick
 
In my receiving pen have a single polyrope wire that runs perpendicular to the perimeter fence. Hot wire extends about 15 ft into the pen and is between the water tank and the feed bunks. Usually only takes a couple of days to get them trained. Have trained everything from peewee calves to old cows. Works well.
 
Pee on the fence and you will be trained for life. Oh for cattle. I know a guy who brings in 200 calves fresh off range cows. He runs a wire about 5 feet in from the corral fence. It is hooked to a 16 joule charger. Just leaves them over night and turns them out to pasture. They never touch the fence. Believe me I hit a 16 joule fence one time. I was extremely careful near that fence from then on.
 
As described by others above, here is a photo of training fence in our corral. This was May 22 this year.
We rarely get rain here in Idaho but this bunch of 177 hd had the privilege of meeting electric fence for the first time while standing on wet ground. I had about 200 ft of fence set up to cut off one corner of the corral holding pen.
These yearlings were straight off the Nevada desert and had never seen electric fence until that point in time.
Held the cattle in the pen for 3-4 hours then we put them out to irrigated pasture against single polywire an hour before dark.
Next morning four head were out. Put them back in. The same four were out the following morning. Put them back in & then they stayed put for the entire season. Shipped them just a few days ago.
 

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I run 2 strands of poly wire around a bag/bucket of cubes or square bale in the pasture, close to my charger. About a 6x6 foot square. I watch to make sure they all test it once. They learn quick! Works for my cow/calves and the rental bull I bring in every summer so far.
 
I have a group of heifers coming from a ranch where no hot wire is used. 90% of my fences are reasonable/decent hot wire and I'm looking for advice on training them to recognize high tensile wire as well as step in poly braid.

There is a receiving pen that I will keep them in for a short while (week?) on good hay and I was thinking I might just run some step in posts inside the panels to start their learning. What good ways have yall tried?
12K volts out of a Parmak trains them pretty fast.
 
If you ever want to experience what your cattle feel, touch the fence while on your knees. Standing up/2 points of contact=mild jolt. 4 points of ground contact is about 5-10 times worse! Did that once just for fun and understand now why they train so quickly.
 

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