How Many Wires - Fence Weaning

[jhambley]

How many wires of electric HT fence do I need if I intend to wean across it?

JH

 

[Mongoose]

If you are going to do it this way then put as many as possible, but this in turn is going to put them at greater risk of getting caught up in the fence, and its going to run up your electric bill.

The only thing that electric fence is going to do is get your cattle hurt. They are going to try to push through that fence no matter what and they are going to be getting shocked the whole time. What if they get caught in that fence? Yeah its not going to be pretty. I agree with Cowboyup. Do you have a corral, catch pen, barn, or anything to catch them in? If so that would be the way to do it.

 

[dun]

If they're broken to electric, one starnd 28 inches high will do. I suppose if you got some really small calves in the mix another one about 12 inches from the ground wouldn;t hurt. We use a pasture that they're used to and run a single starnd of polywore across it. Calves on the side with the permanent water and a temp waterer for the cows. After a couple oor 3 days the cows get moved out and the claves stay in the smallish area for another day or 2 and get used to coming in twice a day for grain. After they;ve goten to coming in whenever I head out with a grain bucket they get the rest of the pasture.

 

[jhambley]

I do have pens but I'm building a new fencing out of HT electric and thought I could use my lanes for weaning. Anyone try that before? It will be 2 wire. Hot wire at 24" and ground at 48".

JH

 

[Mongoose]

Never tryed it myself but know people that do it that way. It will probably work. Just dont run to many down the lane at one time and get them all excited and trying to crash through the fence. Take your time and I bet you'll get it done.

 

[KNERSIE]

try the spikey nose rings, it will work great on 95% of calves. After about 5 days a normal non electrified fence will keep them apart.

 

[Bez>]

try the spikey nose rings, it will work great on 95% of calves. After about 5 days a normal non electrified fence will keep them apart.

Nose pieces may work for a few - but I cannot imagine doing a whole herd this way.

To all:

We have fence line weaned several times.

If the animals are trained to the fence three strands will hold ours. Less and they will figure out a way to suck through the fence and not touch a wire.

I am no longer a fan of this due to other problems - snow on the ground does not allow a decent ground - so calves do not get shocked. Frozen ground often the same. Just plain old panic to get to mom and they run through.

Some calves are serious about crossing over - as are some cows.

I know lots of words have been written and studies done - but that does not make me a strong believer.

I believe the best way is a solid pen - take the cows about a mile away and leave them there for three to four weeks. Never allow them to mix untill the cow has another calf on the ground. Even then you can have "robbers" as yearlings.

And never ever believe a calf is weaned - until the steer is steak or the heifer has its own calf they cannot be trusted. And in the case of the heifer - even then they can be trouble - ship them!! They will never stop.

The proof is in these boards - "I weaned my Jersey/Angus/Holstein/Limo cross heifer calf - Summer Joy - for three weeks and kept her from mommie for another month. Now she is back sucking Rose Bud the mommie cow, What do I do?"

See it on almost a monthly basis.

Untrustworthy devils - keep them apart.

Bez>

 

[Outrigger2]

i'll have to agree with bez on the solid fence. i have done it both ways. i prefer the solid fence.electric fence caused so many headaches even though the calves were use to electric fence

 

[Texas PaPaw]

I agree with Dun. One or two wires should do the job.

The key factors are:
1. Both cows and calves have to be trained to electric fence PRIOR to weaning.

2. The fence must be well constructed, adequately grounded and hotter than a pistol.

3. After separating the calves from the cows, just open the gate, walk away and let the calves wander out of the pen into their pasture. Do not drive them out.

Do not think of electric fence as a physical barrier. It is a psychological barrier. For the cattle to respect it they must think the devil himself lives in that wire. If their first experience is very painfull they will respect it.

Bottom line-Build a good hot fence and have the cows and calves trained to it and it will work.

 

[KNERSIE]

try the spikey nose rings, it will work great on 95% of calves. After about 5 days a normal non electrified fence will keep them apart.

Nose pieces may work for a few - but I cannot imagine doing a whole herd this way.

To all:

We have fence line weaned several times.

If the animals are trained to the fence three strands will hold ours. Less and they will figure out a way to suck through the fence and not touch a wire.

I am no longer a fan of this due to other problems - snow on the ground does not allow a decent ground - so calves do not get shocked. Frozen ground often the same. Just plain old panic to get to mom and they run through.

Some calves are serious about crossing over - as are some cows.

I know lots of words have been written and studies done - but that does not make me a strong believer.

I believe the best way is a solid pen - take the cows about a mile away and leave them there for three to four weeks. Never allow them to mix untill the cow has another calf on the ground. Even then you can have "robbers" as yearlings.

And never ever believe a calf is weaned - until the steer is steak or the heifer has its own calf they cannot be trusted. And in the case of the heifer - even then they can be trouble - ship them!! They will never stop.

The proof is in these boards - "I weaned my Jersey/Angus/Holstein/Limo cross heifer calf - Summer Joy - for three weeks and kept her from mommie for another month. Now she is back sucking Rose Bud the mommie cow, What do I do?"

See it on almost a monthly basis.

Untrustworthy devils - keep them apart.

Bez>

Bez, I don't agree with you this time.

The noserings are cheap over here, easy to put in, usually easy to take out, I never lose one, sometimes break one or two when taking out. There is no wean shock, no weight loss, no broken fences, no bend panels, almost no noise.

When pen weaning I have found its better to leave the calves in a very strong pen, or corral with the cows just outside. By the second day the cows will start to wander off, by the third day only a few cows will still hang around the pen, after 5 days all the cows have moved on and the calves can be moved to a different pasture than the cows.

In my experience leaving the calves in the pen and taking the cows away will result in a lot of fence maintenance the next week or so. Its better to let them wander off in their own good time if your conditions allow.

I agree that if you have a persistant sucker and a nosering don't work, you are better of without it.

 

[Limomike]

10 million as I have never seen a high tensil or any electric fence hold in weanlings and keep them away from their mothers. Only real way to wean em is to trap em up in a pen or corral? You have cattle yet you dont have a corral? You should definitely build something asap to confine cattle in. Once this is done then you can worry about weaning them. To answer your question though it electric probably wont hold em in period.

I agree with this statement.. The BEST way to wean them is to put them in a corral, and hold em, and feed em for about 3-4 weeks and then let them out into a fenced pasture (not back to their mommas)

 

[Susie David]

Tried the nose devices...calves soon learn to tilt their heads and defeat the device. Tried fence line weaning and got tired of repairing the fence.
Now we just move the calves to a different pasture for six weeks....works well.

 

[dun]

Our electric fence configuration. The temp stuff varies by need and gass availability. The dark lines are existing fence consisting of Barbed, Field, a combination of the 2

 

[jhambley]

Dun (and others),

Can I ask a few questions.

1. I like the floating brace idea. Do you only wrap the HT brace wire around one time? How do you tighten the brace wire?

2. Is it better to use individual insulators at the corners or should I use the plastic sleeves around the corner posts? Any tips on wrapping and securing the individual insulators. Any preference, ceramic or plastic?

3. Looks like I can continue a long length of wire around a corner post with no need to tie off if I use the plastic sleeves. That's not possible with the individual insulators correct?

4. How do you build your gates. Looks like you either have to bury wire or go over head. Any tips for me?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

JH

 

[dun]

Dun (and others),

Can I ask a few questions.

1. I like the floating brace idea. Do you only wrap the HT brace wire around one time? How do you tighten the brace wire?

2. Is it better to use individual insulators at the corners or should I use the plastic sleeves around the corner posts? Any tips on wrapping and securing the individual insulators. Any preference, ceramic or plastic?

3. Looks like I can continue a long length of wire around a corner post with no need to tie off if I use the plastic sleeves. That's not possible with the individual insulators correct?

4. How do you build your gates. Looks like you either have to bury wire or go over head. Any tips for me?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

JH

For floating braces I use asingle strand of HT and I use a daisy tightner.

The plastic wrap kind don;t hold up and eventually will get little arcs through them. I tie of both sections and jump them with a short piece of the inslated wire.

I like the ceramic insulators except for t-posts, those I use the snap on plastic kind.

Most of our gates function as switces so tere isn;t any wire buried or over head. For those that need a cotinuous flow I bury the duble insulated stuff, but there are a coup;e of places that it's just laying on the ground because it can;t be dug. I have on that is on the surface of the ground and has been driven over by everything from a Nule to a track loader. It gets run over a dozen times a day and it's still doing fine at just shy of 5 years

 

[jhambley]

Dun wrote:

Most of our gates function as switches so there isn't any wire buried or over head.

Can you give me some more specifics? How exactly are they wired?

I think I also read a post of yours where you were using a switch to turn off the bottom wire. Can I ask why you needed to do that?

JH

 

[Putangitangi]

Most of our fencing is electric, three to five wire. At weaning time I make sure the cows/calves have some area which is not electric so they can touch noses through it (but not anything bigger than that!) usually a gate or a section of non-electric fence. I've not yet had trouble with animals climbing over or through the electric fencing; the only near-disasters have occurred with new-born calves falling into the fences, flipping through and having their legs caught, so the bottom wires of all fences are now turned off during calving.

Weaning time the mobs are generally around 25 pairs and it's a little noisy.

 

[dun]

10 million as I have never seen a high tensil or any electric fence hold in weanlings and keep them away from their mothers. Only real way to wean em is to trap em up in a pen or corral? You have cattle yet you dont have a corral? You should definitely build something asap to confine cattle in. Once this is done then you can worry about weaning them. To answer your question though it electric probably wont hold em in period.

Bingo Bob, dead on!!!! My first experience with weaning was placing about 5 heifers behind a five wire barbed fence with a creep feeder, planning on 50 lbs of Accuration per week for each heifer. Right. The calves broke through the wire to get back to mama and the cows broke through from the other side, flipped over the creep feeder and proceeded to eat all the Accuration dumped onto the ground. From that point forward the calves go into to a stout corral for weaning. End of story.

Electric? Forget electric. Junk. Too much maintenance. Unless it's hooked up to the voltage at the Huntsville State Prison, your not going to keep the heifers away from mama.

A poor workman alwasy blames his tools. We've never had a problem, but our fence has a good ground and works properly. Maintenance, what maintenance? I have more maintenance on the barbed and field fencing then I do on elelctric. We have a lot more electric then all the others combined.

 

[dun]

I think I also read a post of yours where you were using a switch to turn off the bottom wire. Can I ask why you needed to do that?

JH

Not me. We use a single strand of HT. I would imagine with a less then adequate ground sysytem or a weaj charger it may dain too much voltage into wet foliage.

 

[jhambley]

Dun,

So how are the fences used as switches? When you open the fence it kills all the fencing on the other side? This would shut down a lot of fence line correct?

JH