electric fence performance, and drought conditions

topside1 · #21 08/08/07, 08:05 PM

No not really, if you running 14 gauge aluminum wire then one ground return from your remotely placed rods is all you would need....You can still hook them up, can't hurt...I don't use remote ground rods, never had a need. These great ideas will optimize your system, but keep in mind everyone if you bought a weak charger from the get-go, well you only get what you paid for, a 100 ground rods may never solve your fencing needs. Look at your chargers output voltage @ no-load, the one I am using is 11,000 volts....ouch....Who's Bob?

Liese · #22 08/09/07, 05:07 AM

Bob is my partner, whose own reading I interrupt to read your posts to

How does one determine the output@ no load? The Parmak unit we use principly supposedly has a "governer" which adjusts the output to situation. Well, I'll look at the unit and see if they put this info on it or the manual. Thanks again for all your "output" !

michiganfarmer · #23 08/09/07, 09:11 AM

I bought a fence tester last night. It has lighted numbers on an increasing scale up to 7000 volts.

When I tested the fencer control box I put the tester on the hot terminal, and the ground rod that dad has been keeping wet. The tester went to maximum voltage.

When I tested from the fence to the wet ground rod the tester maxed out again. when I tested from the hot terminal, OR the fence to any of the fence posts the tester barely registered anything.

My conclusion is that the soil is to dry to create a grounded condition for the cattle, and without being grounded they will not conduct electricity just like birds on electric wires, anf therefore will not get a shock.

genebo · #24 08/09/07, 09:49 AM

Just like Michiganfarmer discovered, the charge is highest when connecting the meter from the hot terminal to the ground terminal of the charger. That's what you do when you run alternating hot/ground wires along your fence: The ground wires are connected directly back to the ground terminal of the charger. POW! maximum shock.

By alternating the hot/ground wires, you force an animal that tries to go through the fence to touch one of each hot/ground wires. The bottom and top wires should always be hot.

In addition to the ground wires being connected back to the ground terminal of the charger, they are also connected to the ground rods that you drive into the ground. That way, you get the best of both ways: hot wire to earth gives a shock while hot wire to ground wire gives a better shock.

You should be driving 3 or more 6 feet long copper coated grounding rods near the charger, to ground it. These rods reach down deep enough to find moisture. The moist earth down there can conduct low impedence shocks a long distance. The problem with drought is that it lowers the level of moist part of the earth, so that the shock has to travel down through dry dirt to reach the moist earth. This weakens the charge.

The connection that an animal makes between a hot wire and a grounded wire is not affected by weather. Only things like thick wool on a sheep can protect them from that shock. Cattle, goats, dogs and people soon learn to stay away from those fences.

Genebo
Paradise Farm

Hammer4 · #25 08/14/07, 09:34 AM

I'm another one who adds a ground wire or two to my electric fence and tie it back to the ground rod at the charger....I don't do it so much so the animal has to hit a hot and ground wire to get shocked, though it does that as well very nicely. I do it so the size and length of the grounding field is extended along your entire fenceline...so any place an animal is standing on the ground and touches a hot wire, that animal is literally standing right next to a ground rod...so it shocks very well all along the fence, regardless of how dry it gets.

I know others disagree and maintain that an animal has to hit a hot and ground wire to benefit from the additional ground wire...but having that ground wire out along the length of the fence when you are attaching it to a metal t-post, makes for a wicked shock out at the end of the fence, even in the driest of summers.

hoofinitnorth · #26 08/14/07, 07:54 PM

See this related thread:

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=200829

Especially my post in that thread as I don't see the answers here to some of those questions.