Elec fence ?'s re:goats, northern climate

[apirlawz]

So, I've almost got the 2.5 acre goat pasture fenced (7 wire), but I have a few questions about how to ground the bugger.

I live in an area that will have snow cover roughly 4-4.5 months out of the year, with the ground frozen slightly less time than that, depending on snow cover. I know I should be grounding every other wire in this kind of climate, but since my goats are new to electric fencing, I was thinking about making everything hot until winter, using grounding rods instead...so they learn that all those wires bite! Then, once they fully understand what the fence is all about, I can switch to the alternate hot/grounded wire config for the winter.

Is there any reason this wouldn't work? Any pitfalls that I might be missing?

[arabian knight]

In all my years of having all sorts of animals inside an electric fence I have yet to Run A Grounding wire alongside of the hot ones. I run 2, 3, 4, Hot wires and Have A GOOD ground back at the fencer and The Animal itself makes the ground when touching the hot ones~!
That is why they get "bitten" I don't run any other ground wire at all. Just run the hot as many lines as you want they will feel the "heat" when just touching One Of the Hot ones. Running 2 wires to make that work out, the animal would have to Touch Both wires at the same time which is very unlikely. So all wires carry the currant so that when touched they get zapped, Try it for yourself. Touch Just one hot wire and see just how hot they are lol. My Meter on reading the amount of power is just as High at the Beginning of the fence wire as it is on the end~! And of course you don't have to Complete any wire back to the box. That is the while idea behind electric fence wire Just run one way and does not have to come back as the Ground itself when the wire is touched completes the circuit. And zapping accrues.

[apirlawz]

Originally Posted by arabian knight

In all my years of having all sorts of animals inside an electric fence I have yet to Run A Grounding wire alongside of the hot ones. I run 2, 3, 4, Hot wires and Have A GOOD ground back at the fencer and The Animal itself makes the ground when touching the hot ones~!

I was under the impression that the animal needs to be able to "ground" the current into the earth in order to get zapped, and that frozen ground will impede this...not so?

Originally Posted by arabian knight

Try it for yourself. Touch Just one hot wire and see just how hot they are lol.

Hey now, that's what significant others are for....

[Bearfootfarm]

If there is sufficient moisture the "ground" connection will be made. If youre concerned about it you can run one ground wire around the fence and connect it to additional grounding rods every couple of hundred feet. If you install a GOOD grounding system near the charger that probably wont be necessary. I use 3 10 foot copper rods spaced 10 feet apart with no additional grounding along the fence and it keeps my sheep in. Once they get "zapped" a few times even a piece of string will keep them in. If you get a lot of snow youll probably want to put switches on the bottom wires so you can turn them off when buried.

[fernando]

You are talking about an electric circuit. Charger energizes (creates voltage on the hot wires) the circuit. Goat places wet nose against hot wire. Current flows through goat, into the ground, and returns through the soil to the ground side of the charger, THUS completing the electric circuit.
Howsomeever, the ground portion of the circuit (soil) has inherent resistance far exceeding the resistance of the hot wire thereby limiting the amount of current flow and accordingly diminishing the efficiency of your circuit.
Some feel the purpose of running a ground wire around the perimeter of the fence is to create a situation where the goat gets between the hot wire and the ground wire to receive a shock. Nein. With a ground wire around the perimeter and connected to every t-post, the current passing through the goat must only travel through the soil for a few feet until the closest t-post is reached and then the current is able to return to the charger via the much more efficient wire than through hundreds or perhaps thousands of feet of questionably conductive soil.
It's a lot like your truck battery. One excellent battery cable and one lousy cable just don't hack it. Both need to be up to snuff if you want top performance.

[Hammer4]

Well said fernando...

[debd0712]

When we lived in the Chicago area I used electric fencing for the goats and horses. All wires were hot, never ran grounded wires, only grounding rods connected to the charger. The only problem we had was when the snow was deep enough to touch the bottom wires. I did not use switches (wish I would have) and we were frequently connecting and disconnecting the lower wires in the winter. Goats will constantly test the fence so you can't just turn the charger off, or they will be out.

Debbie

[caberjim]

Originally Posted by debd0712

The only problem we had was when the snow was deep enough to touch the bottom wires. I did not use switches (wish I would have) and we were frequently connecting and disconnecting the lower wires in the winter. Goats will constantly test the fence so you can't just turn the charger off, or they will be out.

Debbie

I have a switch on the bottom wire for snow and for trimming. I have found goats and pigs are pretty smart and once they have learned the fence shocks, they will not go near enough to the fence to "test" it. I have had our electric fence off for days at a time without the goats going anywhere near it. They seem to always stay 2-3 feet away from the wires.

[apirlawz]

I had pretty much taken for granted that I'd either have to use switches or a separate wire for the bottom two wires up here, so yeah, that's going to be done! Now, I just hope the snow doesn't reach past the 2nd wire this winter!