Electric fence

We rely on electric fencing to contain our 70+ goats and other livestock. Goats, true to reputation, are extremely difficult to contain. Although we don’t use solar energizers, I have some suggestions regarding your fence issue. Fence issues generally boil down to two key issues:

1. Having enough joules to keep adequate voltage on your fence. This is determined by both the size of your energizer and the load (grass, etc.) on your fence.
2. Having an adequate grounding system to transfer the voltage through the animal back to ground to complete the circuit.

I would start by testing your ground. You can do this by purposely shorting out your fence by laying a bunch of polywire on the ground or even driving a steel stake partially in the ground (away from your grounding system) and attaching it to your polywire. You can then measure voltage on your ground (i.e. read the voltage at your ground rod). I shoot for 300 volts or less but anything under 500 volts should be adequate. If you are above 500 volts, you need a better grounding system.

Once you have a good ground, make sure your fence is isn’t shorted out anywhere (i.e. walk your fence). Now read your voltage. If it is adequate (minimum of 3000 volts), you’re all set. If lower, I suggest a more powerful energizer.

I realize that you have a light indicator for your tester, I suggest borrowing or buying a meter that reads voltage in order for you to figure out what is going on.

Good luck.

George

A few more thoughts: check power in several locations. Our fence makes a loop out from the barn, around the field, and back, so the “far” and “near” ends (as measured in wire from the fencer) are quite close to eachother and so easy to compare. If I can see a voltage drop between them, then I know that I have either a short (or many, when the grass grows up) or poor conductivity. If they read about the same but a physically far point shows a drop, then the ground is the problem. We’ve got soil that stays moist always, so haven’t had much problem with grounding, but in dry soil (i’ve heard) even with good grounding there’s a limit to how far the electricity can travel through the ground – since it’s the water in the soil that is the conductor. And if the top six inches are bone dry, no amount of grounding at the other end is going to give you a good shock in the field without a seriously powerful fencer.
-Tevis

Have you tried pouring five gallon bucket of salt brine around the grounding rods? Doing this seems to maintain better conductivity between the rods and the earth as salt water is a better conductor than plain water and it will draw moisture to the imediate area around the rods.
Barring any other problems with your system this has helped me during dry times of the year.
Another common problem with grounding rods is the lug not being tight enough to promote good conductivity. Sometimes you have to really crank on it. This can be checked with an ohm meter.

We use electric fences to keep the horses off the hay ground. Dont use rope but use the inch and half tape.. It seems to flap realy badly in the wind and usualy breaks the plasic clips eventualy.. so I put 4 or 5 twists in each span and it stopped the violent flapping.Got the idea thinking about those tall metal chimneys you see in factories that have a slow spiral running up the outside to stabalise them in high winds… The things you think of when out fencing !!??:rolleyes:
John

Hi Jean,

Here’s a copy of “how to test your grounding system” from the Powerflex website. They have some good ideas in their tutorial section. It’s hard for me to imagine you “easterners” would have trouble grounding at all, let alone this time of year. Wyoming (or Idaho) in summer – sure thing!

Good luck Jean.