Goat Fencing Question??

[jodief100]

What about weed load? Are y'all spraying around your electric fence or how do you handle it?

That is one of several reasons I don't like it. I use electric for temp fencing a lot. Quick to set up and tear down. I don't like permanent electric because I don't like to spray.

I also don't like constantly having to stay on top of the charging or the costs associated with charging (either on the electric bill or in new batteries).

My neighbor has electric fence and cows. I frequently have more of his cows in my field than he does.

 

[glenolam]

Maybe his isn't strong enough for the cows - I know that I made the mistake of buying a low voltage charger because I thought I could get away with it since I was only fencing in 2 strands on about an acre.

The lady at Tractor Supply laughed at me! (In a nice way)

Since mine is such a small area with a big charger, the weeds don't bother the wire too much. I do have to patrol the fence line about once a month, but it's very wet where they live and those big skunk cabbage plants grow and are easy to break.

My wire even burnt one right down to nothing because it touched the fence for so long.

I believe that if you buy a charger that's strong enough and you've got enough juice in your charger/outlet, weeds generally aren't a problem.

As far as the increase in elecric bill/batteries, it doesn't cost us much (if anything at all) as far as an increase in our bill to charge up the car battery. And those things last for years - or at least ours has - it's actaully a battery from a car that was junked and I took it to Wal-mart to have it tested and they said it has a few years left!

 

[mully]

What about weed load? Are y'all spraying around your electric fence or how do you handle it?

That is one of several reasons I don't like it. I use electric for temp fencing a lot. Quick to set up and tear down. I don't like permanent electric because I don't like to spray.

I also don't like constantly having to stay on top of the charging or the costs associated with charging (either on the electric bill or in new batteries).

My neighbor has electric fence and cows. I frequently have more of his cows in my field than he does.

With the right kind of fencer you do not have to worry about weed load as the fencer fries the weeds...no it will not start a fire With 5000V goats respect HT fencing and i have made one small repair in 5 years. IMO it is the only way to go. Goats love to jump up on wire fences and after awhile they look mangled and to keep the farm looking nice you end up replacing the wire.

 

[willowtreeacres]

Thanks everyone for the info! It gave me lots to think about.

 

[lupinfarm]

We have a strong fencer so weeds don't usually make much of an impact, but we do probably... twice a month, lift the bottom wire and hook it onto the next insulator up (fencer OFF) and weed wack under it. I hate the look of ratty weeds

 

[CuddleBug Ranch]

I use an electric fence for my seven goats ranging in size from pygmy and nigerian to Nubian. They used to run through and hop over the fence all the time last summer, but for some reason this summer they aren't. I suspect it is because I still give them some hay at night instead of depending solely on the grass. I have a weed chopper fencer that is probably close to being as old as I am, (47) and as long as I mow around each side of the electric fence, I have no problems with it shorting out. I was using a Polywire and found that when the weeds touched it, it burned through it, so I went back to a 14 gage aluminum and only charge the middle wire out of three strands of wire. My goats have been good this year and stayed where they are supposed to be. Our electric bill goes up in the summer do to other reasons, so I can't say for sure how it affects our electric bill.

 

[dianneS]

What about weed load? Are y'all spraying around your electric fence or how do you handle it?

That is one of several reasons I don't like it. I use electric for temp fencing a lot. Quick to set up and tear down. I don't like permanent electric because I don't like to spray.

I also don't like constantly having to stay on top of the charging or the costs associated with charging (either on the electric bill or in new batteries).

My neighbor has electric fence and cows. I frequently have more of his cows in my field than he does.

There are lots of solar fence chargers. TSC has one that I'm planning on getting. It does up to three miles of fence and it supposedly burns off the weeds too. Its only about a hundred bucks. I'm running electric fence to keep my horses butts off of the split rail, so I only need one or two strands! I can't wait to get set up so they stop rubbing their tails off!