Author: William
Date: 05-15-10 13:25
I am constructing a high tensile perimeter electric fence enclosing approximately 50 acres bounded by a state highway and two black top roads. The tract is located about two miles from a city of 35,000 people so there will be traffic. I have a five year lease at no cost other than to help the owner keep his ad valorem tax agricultural exemption. The landowner will not share in the cost of the fence but the tract is adjacent to my place and would therefore be very easy to rotate cattle on and off, etc. so I decided to lease it anyway. The fence will enclose herds of approx 100 head of 500 lb to 800 lb steers most of the time but may occasionally enclose 20 to 30 cows with or without calves. The tract will be subdivided into 5 to 10 acre paddocks. All animals will be well conditioned to electric fence by the time they get there, having been trained to electric fence before turn out and then rotated through 5 to 10 similar size paddocks on their way to this tract. The herds will be present in each paddock no more than a few days depending on forage conditions. Further, herds will only be rotating around the tract for a few weeks before being rotated on to another tract. I have a Tractor Supply Model 50 Hol-Dem 6 joule 100 mile fence energizer and an Intelishock energizer of similar size (I'm not beside it right now so can't give you the exact size right this minute). Both chargers can easily keep an 8000 volt shock on a fence fence two or three times as long.
Because I am paying for 100% of this, I want to save $ on fence labor and material costs but I want to balance cost saving with reasonable safety. I have used 4 wire HT perimeter fence (all hot) and 2 wire HT cross fence with no problem. On the perimeter of this new tract, I'm thinking about using a 3 wire HT fence with wires at 20", 30" and 40". What do you think about going with a three wire fence instead of 4 or more? At what height would you put the wires? I would appreciate your recommendations and suggestions. Thank you in advance.
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