Canesisters 2023 journal - turning my Disasters into Delights

[Baymule]

Stop looking at fencing the WHOLE place ALL AT ONCE! It’s overwhelming and depressing. Start looking at ONE roll of wire. If you put T-posts 10’ apart, that’s 33 T-posts. Of course it doesn’t work out that way, with H braces at both ends and one in the middle, but you get the idea. Stop looking at the whole picture and feeling defeated. Start looking at the small picture. You can do ONE roll of wire. You can buy 5 T-posts at a time. Buy a couple of big wood posts for H braces at a time. When you get a nice pile, assembly begins. And—BONUS! You’ll already have a H brace on one end for the next roll of wire!

One bite at a time.

 

[Mini Horses]

I'm doing my re-fencing -- one section at a time!! While ongoing, a strong hot wire helps. Much of what I'm using was bought one piece, package, roll, post...at a time. A bigger area here than yours but, in sections. As I can afford it.

Another thing -- you can use field fence, waaay less than the goat type I need. I have some of that in places with heavy hot wire. It was fine for horses!! . Maybe $150 a roll less. A strong hot box can be bought on Amazon, with interest free monthly payments over say 4-6 months. That could be your safety net for a start, needed anyway. Big roll of new hot wire and most cows will stay in, $30-70.

Yeah -- we're giving options we understand.

 

[canesisters]

I still can't see how I might be able to field fence the pastures.. it just really feels like it's out of my reach financially - and physically. It would certainly not be that pretty, tight, straight line of fence.....
But getting all the ancient & frayed poly-braid stuff gone might be able to happen this summer.

 

[farmerjan]

A half mile of electric wire, 14 gauge, is less than $75.... If you have an electric charger now then it can be put on it... If there is a "questionable area" like where the fence is not good behind it, then you can run 3 strands on some electric fence posts... the thing is that Wire will carry the charge much much better than the polybraid. Set it back from the fence already there and let them get a good shock from it. Eva needs to learn a little respect for the fence. That is her problem, she has not gotten set on her a$$ to teach her some manners. It's not being mean, it is simply that she is typical "youngster" and they think they can do what they want and it is a big game to them.... she needs to get a big "WHOA" in the form of OMG that thing actually bites..... and she will learn a little respect. The ones that don't learn, go to the stockyards and become someone elses' problems...

 

[canesisters]

That's pretty much my plan at this point.
I've cried enough! Time for action. Starting at the charger & working my way around the fence lines. Replacing insulators & polybraid as I go. I'm sure that I'm going to have a BUNCH of questions as I go...

ALL of my fence is electric wire. The only section that is anything else is the very short piece of yard from the house to the paddock. That is cattle panels - which might get pressed into service along with every gate and pipe panel I have creating a tiny dry lot for them until I can get at least 1 pasture to carry enough charge to knock them on their a$$!

Just so yall can have an idea what I'm talking about...
charger in the barn (red lightening bolt)
immediately goes under a gate & around the paddock
arrows are 'direction' of the electric charge
north pasture is on a 2nd feed from the charger
south pasture is 'backup' and is often divided into 2 or 3 sections for use when the north one is overgrazed
hay feeder is the brown blob in the N pasture fence line

 

[farmerjan]

Get one lot HOT... and if you have to feed an extra roll of hay, then you will have to do that... Then go to the next one and get it HOT.... they have got to learn some respect for it and it has to knock them on their knees to teach it... Make it 2 or 3 wires so they can't reach under trying for some other grass...
Is the charger big enough to handle all that wire? We have one that is great for a certain amount of wire and then just fizzles out when we tried to add a 2nd area... Joules is first... distance is 2nd. And with electric fence the biggest PITA is making sure there is nothing on the wire reducing the charge. One reason I really am not a fan of electric... too much constant maintenance of making sure it is not grounded out... we have too many places and too much deer problems for electric to be practical many places we rent.

 

[canesisters]

I'm honestly not sure how to tell if the charger is enough.
That's been a concern... is it not zapping because I've just got too much wire? some places have 2 lines, some 3.
I DO have the ability to add a 2nd charger in the other side of the barn that could charge JUST the north pasture.....

 

[Baymule]

A second charger might be needed.

 

[farmerjan]

Get the brand of charger, it should say on it what it is... if the Joules is low then it won't power but so much. That may be your biggest thing... and if you have a cut off switch on each of the different wires to certain pastures, you can cut off where they are NOT and all that power will go to the one place they are. Cut off switches are not very expensive.... we have them at a place we have 3 wires all along the drive way... and can cut power off to certain wires so that we also can check out where it is maybe drawing the power down. Do you have a fence tester? I know they cost a little more but get one that has at least 5 lights... I don't know anything about the digital ones so can't advise on them... I have one that has 8 lights... it tells volts... and the more lights, more volts, the more ZAP....

 

[farmerjan]

Never put 2 chargers on the same wires, it can cause them to actually short out... different chargers, different circuits.