Solar powered electric fence

mamabear · #1 04/20/07, 08:17 AM

I want to fence off my garden area with an electric fence to keep out critters including my nosy cows. It is a ways away from electricity, so solar powered will probably be my only option.
Any suggestions on the best type to get to keep out those larger animals? Thank you for your help.
mamabear

dnw826 · #2 04/20/07, 08:54 AM

Taking notes!

Wolf mom · #3 04/20/07, 09:02 AM

There's been a few threads on this topic lately and many more in the past as this is a popular question. I'm sure if you google it you'll find a lot of information to answer your question and more...

mamabear · #4 04/20/07, 09:15 AM

Thnx. I'll read the other post then.
mamabear

Macybaby · #5 04/20/07, 09:25 AM

Hmm, was just talking to a coworker about this subject this morning. We have used a solar fencer for the horses, but now have a plug in unit. Coworker told me the solar would not be enough jolt for the cows. Other than that, she said she has not problem using the hot wire. She also said using a grounding wire with the hot works better with cows. This is where you have one wire attached to the posts and then the hot wire a bit higher on insulators. That way the cow is more likely to make a ground connection because they come in contact with both wires. She said that the hooves of cows seem to act as better insulators than with horses, and they don't seem to get zapped as easily. Nor does it seem to faze them near as much.

Now, some of this may be due to our location. We live in a very dry climate, and the dryer the ground, the harder it is to get a good jolt through the line. Many summers she had to water the ground around the ground rods to keep the fence working. If you are in an area that is much wetter, it may not be an issue. In WI (were it was a lot of swampy area) I saw a lot of farmers use solar for temporary fencing. I also saw a lot of times where the calfs would all be on the outside of the fence, and the cows resting on the inside. Then when the calfs got hungry, they'd just go back under the fence.

As her older barbed wire fence is deteriorating, she's been using more and more electric fence. She also said if it goes down, it's likely her cows will figure it out immediatly, and make a break for it (she raises range beef, so they are pretty skittish). She also said that calfs walk more on their toes, and that seems to insulate them - so they walk right under the fence. Once they get heavy, they walk a bit more on thier heals, and then they get zapped.

Then she related about watching two escaped calfs case her dog around the front yard this morning. At least they are old enough the cows don't worry about them. Otherwise the calf goes under the fence, and the cow goes through it to get to them. She lives west river, where it is open range. She has her cows fenced, but at least when they do get out, it's not such a big deal.

I'm going to be doing fence repairs later today. We only have horses right now, but want to get a few cows so I want to make sure I don't put up something I'll have to replace. Though I'm always repairing the hot wire LOL!! Deer take it out all the time.

Cathy

mamabear · #6 04/20/07, 09:40 AM

I have some barbed wire, so I'll probably just fence in the garden area with that. I can always put a hot wire around the top to keep them from leaning over if I have to.

I plan on letting the pigs do my ground breaking for me, so I'll just use a temporary hot wire set lower to the ground for them and then build the other fence around it when I'm ready.

Thanks for the information, Cathy.
mamabear

sewtlm · #7 04/20/07, 02:15 PM

If you follow the manufature's directions for grounding my solar will really zap a cow good. We even use ours for sheep but I have 3 ground rods in a 20 foot space and then have other grounding rods skattered around all according to what the company suggest.

If you try to take shortcuts any fencer will not work correctly.

Okie-Dokie · #8 04/21/07, 05:20 AM

We have had such good luck with Solar powered electric fencing that we wouldn't go back to any other. Works great on our cattle.

Cornhusker · #9 04/21/07, 09:29 AM

Here's a good site that sells and explains electric fence.
http://www.premier1supplies.com/c/fe...battery-solar/

Tana Mc · #10 04/21/07, 10:34 PM

We have almost stopped using the plug in chargers. Something about our location is very inviting to lightening and we have lost several chargers ( as well as phones, answering machines and modems in the computer). All the old timers talk about the number of livestock that has been struck over the years in this area.
Anyway, we don't seem to have any trouble with lightening zapping the solar chargers. I think that we are up to 4 or 5 different sizes of solar chargers. We use them to keep goats off of the woven field wire, two strands fence the entire horse pasture, and the temporary pasture for the weaned bottle calves. One strand encourages the bull not to roam for new romantic encounters.
We use so much electric fence that my teenage daughter asked for a digital fence tester for Christmas -- and got it. I checked the short fence tonight and it was pegging at 7.6..... could probably blow sparks if something touched it! The most important thing about any electric fence is to have it grounded VERY WELL. This is not something you can do a half hearted job with and expect it to work. The ground rods need to be deep and in rocky ground, I have used a bottom strand of wire attached directly to the metal posts as a back up ground. If it very dry, you will need to wet the area around the ground rods (we use more than one) very well.
Once animals are trained to it, most will respect it even if it is off but..... there are always a few of every species that will test it.
Tana Mc

PyroDon · #11 04/22/07, 03:54 PM

we have a little cheapy solar charger nothing fancy its a solar-shock .
To solve the grounding problems we have in mid summer we run two wire the hot wire on top and a ground wire about 8 inches lower the ground with is simply wrapped around each rebar post , this is in addition to the 8ft ground rod .

farminghandyman · #12 04/22/07, 10:42 PM

I would not wast my money on one, but then the ones I have are over 10 years old and they were not worth ----- when I bought them even tho there were both over $100 each.

unless electricity is not available,

they may be better now but I would want a money back guarantee.

mamabear · #13 04/23/07, 08:15 AM

Thanks for all the wonderful replies. We will use this information to make our decisions. Y'all are great!
hugs,
mamabear

agmantoo · #14 04/23/07, 11:14 AM

As for performance the AC supplied units are considerably above all others in output. The DC supplied units(think car battery) outperform the solar units in output by at least 500 percent. Solar units that are self contained are at the bottom as far as output. The shock from an energizer needs to be significant enough to imprint on the animals mind. Cattle are among the most difficult to contain. The AC units are the cheapest to operate (couple of bucks per year) but are more subject to failure with lightning coming down the supply lines. Warranty is a concern on AC units but they will give service on large pastures, up to 200 acres. DC supplied units have the problem of recharging the battery but perform well with a properly charged battery on smaller pastures, 20 or less acres. Solar units cost more to operate as the battery will have to be replaced at about $25 per every 12 to 18 months. Anything less than the 12 volt solar units are useless in over 5 acres for cattle. 12 volt solar units are marginal up to about 10 acres. Solar recharging is a major convenience.