Hi folks! Anybody use electric fence for mini cows? Can you buy a mobile set up that really works and doesn't take all day to move? I have an old set up I tried using for sheep with a solar charger but it only worked as long as their fleeces were short. Appreciate any advice! Thank you!
Electric fencing for mini cows?
- Thread starter Ead
- Start date
Lazy Gardener
Super Self-Sufficient
Check out Premier 1. I don't know why their portable fencing wouldn't work. But, you'd have to train them to it. Contact @Beekissed . She does mob grazing with hair sheep. I think I speak her mind when she says the net style fencing is a PITA and not worth the money. I'm sure her system with sheep would work with mini cattle.
- Thread starter
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farmerjan
Super Self-Sufficient
Most all cattle here are trained to a 2 wire electric fence... mini cattle would just need it to be a little closer to the ground than full size cattle... Many people use electric for rotational grazing. If you get one that won't respect it, they need to go somewhere else, if you plan to use primarily electric. We don't use alot due to the deer CONSTANTLY running through it and tearing it up.... but we do use it for temporary splitting up fields to graze in sections or such.
The netting is ESSENTIAL if you have predator problems and don't use LGD's or other means of deterrents.
I have standard Black Langshans and New Hampshires at present . My son has Old English Games in both bantam and large fowl. I am looking for some bantam Langshans and New Hamps, as well as some welsummers again. For years I had large SC Light Brown Leghorns for show also. I love their color but need the brown egg layers and want dual purpose type breeds so the excess roosters are worth killing to eat.
Where are you located @Ead ? Put it in your profile, general area or state so we have an idea of climate and other things when you post. Helps with answers sometimes.
The netting is ESSENTIAL if you have predator problems and don't use LGD's or other means of deterrents.
I have standard Black Langshans and New Hampshires at present . My son has Old English Games in both bantam and large fowl. I am looking for some bantam Langshans and New Hamps, as well as some welsummers again. For years I had large SC Light Brown Leghorns for show also. I love their color but need the brown egg layers and want dual purpose type breeds so the excess roosters are worth killing to eat.
Where are you located @Ead ? Put it in your profile, general area or state so we have an idea of climate and other things when you post. Helps with answers sometimes.
Lazy Gardener
Super Self-Sufficient
I have a core group of hens that were bought 4 years ago to give the genetics that I want to breed forward: Doms, Barred Rock, Buck Eye, EE, and Black Australorpe. My goal is to produce a mixed color flock, non feathered feet, small comb that produces a colorful egg basket. With occasional input of BR or Doms, I can produce my own Black Sex Links that have hybrid vigor and do not have the associated reproductive issues of commercial sex links. Every year, I add a few new birds, and replace some of the older ones with birds hatched from my own flock.
Ducks are: (1) Welsh Harlequin, and (3) Indian Runner, with (1) Khaki Campbell drake. I'm really enjoying their input to my yard. Last year, I hatched 3 batches of ducklings, sold all but these 5. Ran them in a "duck moat" around the garden until late fall. Hope to do the same with them this summer. They are messy, but absolutely wonderful at pest management. I'd love to put in a little pond to catch the run off from the yard, and give them some improved habitat.
Ducks are: (1) Welsh Harlequin, and (3) Indian Runner, with (1) Khaki Campbell drake. I'm really enjoying their input to my yard. Last year, I hatched 3 batches of ducklings, sold all but these 5. Ran them in a "duck moat" around the garden until late fall. Hope to do the same with them this summer. They are messy, but absolutely wonderful at pest management. I'd love to put in a little pond to catch the run off from the yard, and give them some improved habitat.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
She's right....the electronetting is a pain to move and use, though many think it isn't. I use a high tensile fencing on the perimeter and use polybraid and step in posts to make temp paddocks to move the flock through the paddock every 2-4 days.
I like the Timeless fence posts that are predrilled and shaped like T posts, easy to pound in with a T post driver, for my perimeter fencing. We made a water wagon with a float system to deliver the water into a trough on the side....isn't hard to make and move. We like the Taragate reel for the polybraid but there are other geared reels out there that may do just as well....I wouldn't get the economy reels as they don't hold up even for one year.
Make sure you are getting polybraid as opposed to polywire....better conductivity, less fraying, less tangling, lasts longer.
Look up Greg Judy on YT....he's got some great vids on getting started with rotating cattle through paddocks with this equipment, how to train them to the polybraid, etc.
