Barbed or electric fence

Dunedin wrote: »

Cut/strimmed down a number of ditches recently and they all need fencing now. My mains electric fence gives a lot of bother up and down and not realible

Would folk go for electric or barbed given I have a clean slate. About a third of it is a mearing (bordering with neighbor) and thinking that three row of baarbed might be the safest there.

I'm going to be putting up a good bit of fencing this year myself, I'm going to put 3 strands barbed wire and one electric, or possibly 2 barbed wire 2 electric.

If your mains fencer is not reliable maybe it's time to replace it or at least check connections / earth rod.

Don’t go with3 strand go with 4. With 3 they can put their head through while scratching and it’ll go slack

bogman_bass wrote: »

Don’t go with3 strand go with 4. With 3 they can put their head through while scratching and it’ll go slack

Would prefer 3 strand myself or even two against a ditch.


If ditches are straight consider concrete strainer posts with struts.


My electric fencer wires are generally strained to concrete posts - very easy to tighten over time.

Dunedin wrote: »

Sur maybe around 9 Saturday morning. If I’m not around, just belt ahead and let me know when it’s sorted.......!!!

Right.
Sure, you keep holding your breath there lad.

Bass Reeves wrote: »

Electric fence all the way. Barbed wire fence is 4-5 times the price. Biggest issue with electric fence is lads will not do a deecnt earth system. 3-4 bars and linked right with proper galvanized eklectric fence wire. keep wire and posts out from ditch so hedge cutter can work inside it. Barbed wire is a nuisance and gaps will always be created

My grandfather fenced a field with thorny wire and it's as good as Fort Knox. Right in the middle of the ditch. I don't know what year he put it up it but he died in 1968.

I have to disagree with anyone who thinks that barbed wire is better than electric fences. The sheer cost alone is prohibitive. As I stated in an earlier post get your earth system right. I did not realize the benefit until I replaced mine a few years ago. Previous it was a single bar I replaced it with a earth plate and three bars now it drives the 5 leds on the tester all the time.

You will fence and paddock a farm cheaper than you will do bounds only with Barbed wire. It is immaterial which you are using posts are critical. However PDM and octo post are no longer what they were 10+ years ago. They have changed from the original cresote to a newer weaker version. Keep the posts out from the ditch so that a hedge cutter can clean behind every few years. The real advantage of electric fences is moving stock you can move cattle right across a farm using pigtails and a few reels

With electric fence not only will the cattle be on your farm they will also be in the field where you left them not in the ajoining field. But the real benefit is paddocking and running cattle in the biggest bunches possible so as to maximize grass output

Dunedin wrote: »

Starting to lean this way too. I seem to spend more and more time ensuring the mains is working. I have 4 earth rods probably connected by an electrician, no leakage anywhere and yet the power seems to be up and down.

No doubt electric is fierce handy for paddocks but working towards baarbed for perm and boundary fences

The very same as myself.

That's what I eventually am working to do here. Sheep and barb for the boundaries and electric for the paddocks. I don't have sheep. Just don't like work and spraying ditches. And piece of mind if the electric does go that there's not a 4 a.m. call that there's stock on the road.

With strainers and tractor driven post drivers and wire tensioners now there's no excuse now for bad sheep and barb wire fencing.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

The downside to external electric fencing is, stock from your neighbours can break in from the other side. Say you stop a field for silage, you will need to keep that part of the fence on all the time and so have to keep grass cut back from it.

Fairness we’ve had this where neighbors stock push threw hedge inside electric fence.

Still, it kept them back until home was patched up.

Had cattle chased here on rented ground one year, however bad it was taking regular wire off of cow's barbed would have been desperate. Can't stand the stuff, regular wire and a good electric fencer all the way

memorystick wrote: »

What's the penalty?

Dead trees unfortunately . The wire will eventually cut through them heart wood and weaken the tree to wind etc . If you have good trees I wouldn't do it that way tbh. Electric fence is what I would suggest - keeps stock away from fence. If it's a bound ditch then certainly used barbed wire to stop stock from elsewhere which might gain access if the fence was off for whatever reason.

memorystick wrote: »

Never had it here.

Maybe you dont get the winds we do I dunno?

In the last storm but one - bounds ditch had a number of bigger trees came down to my side. Cutting them up several we found had wire embedded in the wood close to where the trunk broke. It must have been put there before my time anyway.

Barbed wire is the bane of hurley makers all over the country. Destroys chainsaws, cutting blades in timber mills etc.