[Bionic]

Can anyone advise what the cheapest way to do electric fencing is please.

I looked at some bits and pieces in the agri merchants yesterday and and it was going to cost a fair bit to set it up.
If thats the only way to do it then I will still go ahead but don't want to spend money unnecessarily.

thanks
Sally

[robert waddell]

what bits were you looking at

[Bionic]

Robert, I knew you were going to ask that. To be honest I got a bit confused but I did take away a Rutland catalogue.

It seems there is a choice between mains and battery operated energisers. The cheapest battery energiser is £122.40. The batteries are then £105.06 for a rechargeable one. I suspect I will need 2 of these.

Then there are posts to get and a choice between wire and tape. It looks like I also need an earth stake.

All in all it looks like I will be coming in somewhere over £500.  If that is the real cost then I will pay it but I just wanted to know if anyone else had a cheaper option.

thanks
Sally

[robert waddell]

mains is better unless you have power cuts       both types need an earth rod this is a must  electrical wholesalers supply these as well copper coated mild steel   the earth rod works better if the ground is moist        with mains you will need a lead out wire if you have a stob and wire fence you can fit insulators to the posts then you will have wire tensioners  butterflies for stob and wire fences work just as good   wire is better than tape  also you will need a tester or you can test it yourself this is the only way to check if the earth rod is working
try not to have the wire running close to other wires or it will earth out and you will need eyes like a s**t house rat to detect where it is touching many a day i have spent walking miles to check where it is earthing out only to discover two wires touching    with battery one they lose the charge quickly when earthed      have fun 

[Smalltime]

I got one of these, I expect its not the greatest but it was the cheapest I could find if that helps. They have gone up by £3 now but still at £37 seems pretty cheap. A 1.2 joule output should deter most critters.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Fence-Energizer-EL85-PADDOCK-Mains-230-volt-/220990467231?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33740eec9f

Unfortunately the url links have been tampered with by the moderators and no longer work so try going on ebay and copy in:

Electric Fence Energizer EL85 PADDOCK Mains 230 volt


You can do the wire tight in flexible plastic pipes round wooden posts if they are dug into the ground properly, an idea I am planning to use having had a good look round the pheasant pen hidden nearby in the woods. Will have to buy a proper earth rod, not sure how much that will be and may get some metal electric fence posts as they are quite cheap if you look around. Its not that much if you are careful. I salvaged the wooden posts as well tbh so hopefully will not need the electric fence posts but it may be necessary. I am only doing a small area though so I guess it depends on how big an area you need doing.

[Eve]

We bought 60 plastic stakes and 600m of tape for around £100 last year. Energiser was around £75-80 new a few years ago. Had to buy a car battery, too. 

[Anke]

If you can - go for mains operated. Much better kick, doesn't run down and doesn't get knicked... our pigs have never tried to escape through the wire... and they do test it for us regularly

[shropshire_blue]

Having just gone through this process myself, here are the things I kicked myself about:

1) Plan it out first, make a list of what you will need - length of string, no of insulators, handles, stakes etc

2) shop around for prices - I reckon it's cheaper to go mains if possible unless you already have batteries and charger.  I started with a borrowed battery energiser from a local dairy farmer and fixed a broken one he had which he let me keep.  Cost of batteries was more than mains unit, so I upgraded.

I ended up paying the following:

£0.70 each plastic stakes (cosmetic seconds)
£16 box of 100 ring insulators with drill attachment (local ag merchant is £8 for 25)
£27 each for 1100m roll of polywire (local ag merchant is £25 for 500m)
£1.16 each for round wooden fence posts direct from saw mill
£14 for 1m galvanised earth stake
about £30 for lead out cable.

3) If you can afford to, buy everything you'll need at once - if I had bought big boxes of insulators and large rolls of polywire initially, rather than buying from local guy at 3x the price I could have saved myself a fortune.

4) If you're just doing the pig run, and have a mains energiser, it would be worth putting a switch on the fence, so if you need to turn it off while you're in with the pigs you don't have to run all the way back to the barn.

5) buy a tester and use it - then you'll not be awake all night wondering if you connected the fence correctly!!

Hope that helps...

[arl]

Hi Robert
Havnt heard the shithouse rat term used for so long it sent me into hysterics,where have thes good old sayings gone? Still chuckling
Arl

[Small Farmer]

Spent the last 8 years fixing the fencing the friendly farmer put in for me when we moved in.  I think a cheap fence gives you a hobby for life because you're always fixing something or finding the livestock that have wandered off when the fence earthed out or the earth stake dried out (see Roberts note)

A wire fence properly tensioned with good insulators will last for 20 years.  Cheap tape and insulators will suffer UV damage in less than 3 years.   I buy a mix of Gallagher bits from Mole Valley and Horizont insulators from Paddock Perfection (ebay) because they work and carry on working.  A big box of insulators and a tool so that you can use a power drill to instal them is a good idea.  Little baggies of bits from the local feed merchant are an expensive route.  It is hard to know what to buy at the outset though.

It's not the voltage alone but the energy in the pulse measured in joules that determines effectiveness.  A serious mains energiser will zap the vegetation as it grows while a modest battery job will simply lose power through the grass.  Wire has lowest electrical resistance, string has highest and rope and tape are in between, so you can run wire with a lesser energiser.  Better though is to have the biggest clout you can afford so that the stock respects the fence.

[robert waddell]

arl they are dead and buried with the old people that used them
the first mains fencer we bought was about 1800 volts a spider earthed it out and the bull walked through it that one was replaced with a 7000 volt unit he stayed a meter back from the fence after that    you get to know the loudness of the tick from the energiser if it is earthing out as in wire to wire or wire to vegetation sods law has an effect on fences as well if you are going out or to a wedding or whatever that is the day it will fail we have learned the hard way strim before these days of pleasure that way you are safe 

[lill]

yep robert nice to see you saddled up with the strimmer, a sight not to be missed 

[Pasture Farm]

This is the one we use
 http://www.farmcareuk.com/shop/product/Mains-Powered-240v/hot-shock-n50
It goes for miles and is earthed all over by wet grass and vegitation the furthest point from the unit still gives a real crack at night i can see the sparkes wher it earths down. A real animal

[chickenfeed]

sods law has an effect on fences as well if you are going out or to a wedding or whatever that is the day it will fail we have learned the hard way strim before these days of pleasure that way you are safe 

dont you just know it we had a dexter in the middle if a neighbours beet field waiting for his lady angus friends to join him just as we were leaving for hatfield last year white jeans and cattle just dont mix

[princesspiggy]

if u have existing fence, u can insulate the wire from the post by sliding over a slit piece of water/hose pipe and nail that onto the post. saves buying insulator nails etc.