Electronet Fencing

[Iceblink]

In another thread someone mentioned Electronet Fencing, so I thought I would share my experience.

I don't like it.

There, but now here's why;

1) I do have to mow down to the dirt to keep the fence from shorting out, and the charge still isn't very strong.

2) The whole point of having grazers on pasture was so that I wouldn't have to mow. I have to set up the fence, walk around and stamp out a path, take the fence out, mow the fence line, set the fence back up, take it back down and re-mow the areas that still touch grass, then re-set it back up, then set up the grounding post and battery. It's a lot of work for frequent moving. I practice intensive rotational grazing, and move it about once a week. If it were to stay in one place all summer, it might be easier. But then it wouldn't have to be portable, would it?

3) The net and posts seem flimsy, and if one breaks, it seems like it might be really hard if impossible to replace. They blow in the wind a lot and fall down or ground out often. Yes, it is very windy here, but still...... It's almost impossible to keep the net from sagging.

There are types with the wires closer together than mine, but I wouldn't count on them keeping rats out. One of my goats figured out on the first day that she can go under the bottom wire and not get shocked. I'll bet a rat would figure that out pretty quick.

4) It was expensive. Once I figure in the fencing, the grounding rod, the wires, the energizer, and the battery (I bought a solar powered one) it was about the same price as putting up woven wire fencing for a much larger area.

5) It isn't strong enough (material or shock-wise) to deter a determined predator.

 

[Buster]

Once I figure in the fencing, the grounding rod, the wires, the energizer, and the battery (I bought a solar powered one)

And therein lies your problem. Solar powered energizers are too weak according to my research, especially for goats or horses. I'm using an AC unit with 14,000 volts and 3 joules.

 

[kcsunshine]

Buster likes his meat fried.

 

[freemotion]

I'd like to see some fried rat here. I got five in the water bucket in the coop, now all the rats avoid that bucket. Not a rat in a week, and I caught the five in two days.

 

[pioneergirl]

Something else to consider.....the wires that are woven into the material of net/ribbon fence are super thin. If you roll it up too much, or even stretch it too tight, those tiny wires will break. This has happened more than once to not only my neighbor (who spent 2 hours rounding up his horses out of my pasture after they got out) but SEVERAL people in my area.

Personally, I bought a $10 roll of wire, found a charger for $25 that sends a continuous surge (as opposed to a pulse) and have it in 3 strands around my garden. Nothing gets in. JMHO

 

[patandchickens]

Electronet is great for what it's meant for.

It isn't great if you require something other than it is designed for. E.g. if you don't want to mow where it'll go, then obviously it isn't a good choice (If you're moving the fence every week, why are you having to move it *to* mow, though? I would think you'd just mow where it'll go NEXT, then move the fence, easy enough)

It's not designed to keep out rats, I wouldn't personally expect it to. (Practically nothing keeps out rats, anyway ) And it DOES have very much higher resistance than (say) a wire fence, so you DO need a really good energizer on it.

The uprights are not at all difficult to repair/replace if need be, although I haven't personally needed to. YOu just 'sister in' another fiberglass post or plastic step-in post, no big deal.

To get them to stand up to wind better, you need to set up the fence with only straight lines and corners (no curves) and then use a tentpeg or step-in post to anchor one or more guy wires (well, I use baler twine ) to tie back the corner posts. It can still get taken down by VERY heavy wind, but will be ok in normal wind.

There is no reason to ever BE rolling the stuff up, that is a sure way to ruin it.... it is meant to be FOLDED, not rolled. If one of the horizontal electric-twine strands is damaged in one place, it is not difficult to repair. I can't speak to other brands, but the Premier brand electronet is made so it *cannot* be "stretched too tight" unless a person's doing something really weird to it (it isn't meant to be high-tensile, it is just supposed to be tensioned enough to take excessive sag out of it).

My only real beef with it is that the poultry electronet (unlike any of the other types) has the bottommost energized wire *so* close to the ground that a lawnmower isn't really enough to keep it from grounding out badly, I need to use a stringtrimmer and really scalp where the fence will go, which is a bit annoying. The other kinds have their lowest wire higher up, though.

JME,

Pat

 

[Buster]

Personally, I bought a $10 roll of wire, found a charger for $25 that sends a continuous surge

AKA Grass Burner.

 

[pioneergirl]

Sorry Pat, I'm not an expert on it, just reporting what my experience is. I'd venture to guess that folding is much worse than rolling, but hey, we all do things different and really, I don't think we're going to be tactically folding a fence just to make sure its ok. Anything that fragile doesn't belong in my yard. Anything so technical I don't need either, JMO. Again, I'm no expert, but maybe some people her are.

Buster....you got it right! If I'm spending money on a fence, its going to keep everything in that needs to be, and everything OUT that isn't supposed to be there! Netting and ribbon, I have no need for.

JMHO

 

[patandchickens]

I'd venture to guess that folding is much worse than rolling

Premier (the mfr of the fencing I have) VERY SPECIFICALLY instructs you never to roll it, only to fold it (I am not sure folding is the right word, you gather the posts together with the netting forming a stack of folds between them), because rolling is known to damage the twine and voids the warranty.

I do not know what the instructions for other brands say, but since the stuff is all made basically the same I have trouble imagining it works any different. It is NOT designed to be rolled.

Folding is actually much, much faster and easier than rolling. Check out Premier's website, somewhere in there they've got installation pics/video that illustrates what I mean. It is really SUPER easy and fast.

Electronet is excellent portable crossfencing, or discouragement for dogs in a relatively low-dog-pressure environment. Anything else, it isn't INTENDED for.

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[Buster]

I don't know how well it works for other purposes, as I haven't tried it yet, but it is excellent for portable poultry pens. I have one setup, but I definitely plan on multiple setups.

The advantage of MiG for poultry is that it keeps the birds from using the same ground all the time, and this stuff is better than tractors. A tractor must be moved once or twice daily (depending on stocking rates). This only needs to be moved every 5 to 7 days. Plus, the birds get a lot more room to move around than they do in a tractor.

The weakness of total free range is that the birds quite often use the same areas all the time. That's fine for my few layers for home purposes, but eggs I want to sell or birds I'm raising for meat for myself or others are going in the netting.

After their brooder days, I start them out in tractors until I feel they are big enough they won't fit through the holes of the netting. This gets them out on the grass and used to the tractor as home and shelter. Once old enough, I surround the tractor with the netting and open the door, placing food and water out into the miniature yard (unless it is predicted rain). I move the tractor once during the week to keep them from pounding down that area, and move the feeders and waterers a couple times.

The entire perimeter of my small 8 acre property is field fence with two strands of electric running at the bottom, one line about nose high to a coon, the other to my dogs. The dogs keep predators out, the electric keeps the dogs in.

I then run the netting off of that perimeter fencing, then a line farther out when I want to get to the center of the paddock.

This allows me to use a single charging system for the whole place. I have placed the garden in the corner of the front of the place and ran a single line to cordon it off with two gate systems, one large enough to drive my truck through. Because all the animals here are now so well trained to electric, that is pretty much all it takes. One touch of 14,000 volts, they learn pretty fast.

The purpose of my netting is MiG, for the taste of my birds and eggs, and for the health of the soil.

When I do get larger animals, I will likely use polywire running on a similar system to my poultry netting.