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Re: Electric Fence

Before I started traveling on business regularly I kept a few head of
cattle on my acreage.  The exterior is fenced with 5 strands of barbed,
but a calf can find its way through barbed wire like it's not there.  I
also have a rather small pasture, so I had to manage it rather carefully
to keep the grass healthy.  Both these issues were solved with electric
fencing.  But I had to make sure it worked all the time.  A cow will
continually test the fence to see if it is on, and she will walk right
through it if it's weak or turned off.

Since I was running a half-mile of fence from one charger I had to
become pretty well adept at getting the most out of the unit. 
Basically, you need to run as many wires as feasible from the charger so
you limit the total length of any one wire.  The farther the current has
to be "pushed", the weaker the spark will be.

Of course the most important point is to avoid any grounding at all
along the charged wires.  The (very) occasional weed will not be much of
a problem but fenceposts can be real trouble.  My biggest problem was
slugs that would crawl up the posts and short out the wire when they
crossed it.  It would cook them to the post.

For temporary fencing, nothing beats braided nylon string with embedded
wires and nylon fenceposts.  Unlike metal, the nylon wire doesn't tangle
in an instant and it's much easier to work with.  If you break it you
just tie a knot in it.

Steve  (Maritime...)





Ross E Stanford wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 11 Apr 1998 17:58:49 +0000 (GMT) Allan Day
> <allan@crwys.demon.co.uk> writes:
> >On Sat 11 Apr, Ross E Stanford wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> The last time I set up my electric fence, I attached one wire to the
> >> output
> >> and strung it around the garden, back and forth and finally attached
> >the
> >> other end to the grounding rod.
> >>
> >What sort of a fence have you got? The one we have requires the actual
> >unit in its metal box to be grounded, the high voltage wire is on
> >insulators throughout and must on no account be grounded other than
> >when an animal touches it, thus completing a path to ground through
> >its body, hence the (non-lethal) electric shock.
> >Please check your instructions.
> >--
> >Allan (Sparks) Day  Hereford HR2 7AU allan@crwys.demon.co.uk Tel:-
> >01432
> >275443 (+answer m/c)
> >
> >
> Sorry, you're right.  (I guess I have taken too many shocks over the
> years).
> (I gotta stop showing people how "harmless" it is to the animals)
>      Any way, do you think I can run multiple lines in parallel.  If I
> remember
> right,  wiring in parallel will keep the voltage the same in all wires,
> but I
> wonder if the amperage draw will be excessive and blow something in
>  the unit.
> Thththththththanks.
> 
> Stan        The cheap and extremely lazy gardener.
> Stan        The cheap and extremely lazy gardener.
> 
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