# Strand Electric Fence



## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Hey guys! It’s been a while. Things came up and we kept getting delays on our barn building, but we seemed to have finally, finally gotten our act together and it should be built by mid or late July

So now we are taking a serious look at fencing options. Specifically electric fence, but I have a couple of questions.

Keep in mind I know nothing about electric fence and my knowledge of electricity extends to having a sister who is considered smart in the realm of science so anything I don’t understand on the subject I can ask her.

My first question is does poly wire carry enough charge to keep goats in? I haven’t really seen it recommended for goats so I was just wondering what the downside to poly wire is?

Can I put up a steel or aluminum wire fence without wooden corner and end posts? Basically can I entirely use t-posts?

Lastly, how hard, exactly, is it to put up an electric fence? As I mentioned earlier I have absolutely zilch experience with electric fences, and as an averagely capable, pretty ingenuitive, quick learning, nineteen year old female could I do it by myself? 

And if you personally don't think strand electric fence is a good option for goats, please tell me. I'm considering all options.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You really do need wood posts. I believe the charger is the important thing to have a high enough charge.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

Whether poly wire will keep them in or not mostly depends on your goats, your charger, how high the fence is and how many lines there are. 

Pretty sure you have to have wood corners for an aluminum/steel fence. T posts just aren't strong enough. 

You could probably do it all yourself, especially if you went with the poly wire/t post option. Help is always great, but I put up fencing by myself all the time. 

Electric is definitely the easiest and cheapest fencing option, and it's kinda hit or miss on whether your goats will stay in or not. There are some things you can do to make sure it goes well though. 

Do whatever you need to do to ensure new goats get a nice zap before they try to escape. We usually keep a close eye on them for the first few hours and if they haven't gotten shocked yet, we push their nose into a hot strand. It might seem cruel, but it's the best way to ensure they stay in the fence. Make sure they have enough to keep them somewhat occupied, be that browse, a large pen, hay, things to play on, etc. 

And above all else, do not get Nigerians The little brats can escape any kind of fencing ever made, especially electric. I have heard some people say they stay in just fine, but I have yet to meet one of those.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

We use poly wire electric fencing for our goats and cows. Most of my goats will stay in 3 strands, but sometimes I have to resort to 4-5. :/

Right now I have 4 strand electric fencing up, and I can put everyone in there except for 2 young doelings and 1 bratty Mini-Nubian (I think she gets her naughtiness from the Nigie side, my Nubian does have always been perfectly behaved when it comes to staying in fencing!). 

If it’s permanent, you will definitely need wooden corner posts at least. Mine is never *truly* permanent and usually gets moved (depending on the area and number of goats) every 1-6 weeks. 
Where I have them right now, I probably won’t have to move them for the rest of the summer. And they’ve been there since April. They just can’t keep up with all of the pasture and forage available, but I’m happy with that because then we can rotate the cows through it afterwards, and that will help with the fight against parasites. 

I don’t know if you can put up everything by yourself - meaning digging holes and putting the wooden posts in - but you should definitely be able to put up the t-posts, wire etc... I do it by myself all the time, although putting in multiple t-posts can be pretty tiring. But I only put t-posts in after every 2-3 plastic posts (you can get the plastic ones from premier 1).


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Since hot fence doesn’t have to be overly tight you could get away with just t posts put it will also depend on the ground. Ours gets very dry and hard during the summer.....like to the point I have to really pound and cross my fingers just to get a t post in. It’s basically pounding threw rock. Once I get that sucker in though it pretty much stays. If you are pretty wet all year long or your ground is nice and soft you might have to keep resetting the corner posts. But it might be one of those you don’t know till you try so a good corner post would of course be best.
Polly wire- yes you can use it. I do not! You will get more distance out of the fence with the actual wire. Basically picture electricity going threw one single wire with the normal wire compared to that Polly wire which has a bunch of little wires in it. It is also needs attachments to splice the wire and with normal wire you basically twist them together. 
Will they stay in? Mine do but I also bought the meanest charger I could find lol I agree with above just get the zap down first thing and as long as the wire packs a good enough punch they will stay clear if it. I have normal fencing with just a strand on the inside and in the spring I fence in the yard with just 3 wires and they don’t even attempt to go near it. Goats are smart though and they do know when it is grounded out and will take advantage of it.


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

Hahhaha! We have nigis.. and tried puttin them in with the pigs.... cosmo was over that buggar in a heartbeat. Ours arent used to pigs and they scared him. But just the goaties out and he is fine in the poly wire. It IS five ft high though. We also use the netting for the goaties. That stuff is the bomb! Like you we make sure all of them get bitten by it and they stay well away from it after that. I think cosmo goin through the poly was just that he was hell be t on gettin away from the new creatures.

Our charger is named the charger of death here..... the guys when settin it up the first time ... notice i said GUYS.... yep... were dumb menz and had each touch it..... what do they really THINK is gonna happen when that lil nifty tester is readin 6000+ volts of current through it anyway?!?!?! It.will.bite.you.fool.and.make.you.wee.yer.pants.as.you.dolt.laugh. Lol! Two grown men..... they said welp... now they pulse and it wont keel us. Eesh!


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

hmm, I hear you Suzzane Tyler about the Nigerians. I am still considering them. Does anyone else here have Nigerians and electric fence?


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## WhiteFeatherFarms (Jun 29, 2017)

Oh the little escape artists!! After many fencing debacles I’ve had I do use an electric fence with poly wire & it works magically! Also, the back part of my pastures are just t posts, but once my goats have gotten bit once, only a couple have really tested it! In a couple places I have it zig-zagged, but it works. One other thing I learned the hard way, when you buy the plastic things you run the poly through, there are these super easy to use bright yellow screw-one ones that fit the posts perfectly & don’t kill your hands! I’ll try to post a pic for you tomorrow, I’m telling you the first ones I used were so hard to put on the posts I felt like a 90 year old woman with arthritis after fighting those things! Happy goating!


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

WhiteFeatherFarms said:


> Oh the little escape artists!! After many fencing debacles I've had I do use an electric fence with poly wire & it works magically! Also, the back part of my pastures are just t posts, but once my goats have gotten bit once, only a couple have really tested it! In a couple places I have it zig-zagged, but it works. One other thing I learned the hard way, when you buy the plastic things you run the poly through, there are these super easy to use bright yellow screw-one ones that fit the posts perfectly & don't kill your hands! I'll try to post a pic for you tomorrow, I'm telling you the first ones I used were so hard to put on the posts I felt like a 90 year old woman with arthritis after fighting those things! Happy goating!


Ooo crisscross is a good idea, I wouldn't have thought of that. I would really like to see pictures of your set up that would help. I am now wondering does anyone know if polywire is cheaper than just wire?


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

MellonFriend said:


> Ooo crisscross is a good idea, I wouldn't have thought of that. I would really like to see pictures of your set up that would help. I am now wondering does anyone know if polywire is cheaper than just wire?


It isnt much cheaper if you look at yardage vs length. The poly comes in smaller rolls i think. If you are doin permament paddoks i would do wire and if temp the poly. Poly is SO much easier to roll up than wire wire.


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## HaulingOats (Jun 26, 2018)

MellonFriend said:


> Hey guys! It's been a while. Things came up and we kept getting delays on our barn building, but we seemed to have finally, finally gotten our act together and it should be built by mid or late July
> 
> So now we are taking a serious look at fencing options. Specifically electric fence, but I have a couple of questions.
> 
> ...


All


Sfgwife said:


> It isnt much cheaper if you look at yardage vs length. The poly comes in smaller rolls i think. If you are doin permament paddoks i would do wire and if temp the poly. Poly is SO much easier to roll up than wire wire.


all I use Is electric fence and it works amazing! Keep in mind they had to learn it was electric and were very young when they were introduced I would definitely use wood (cedar) posts don't waste your time and money on those t bars, I use 6 strands of the cheapest wire I could buy, the bottom 3 strands are 3 inches apart and then I move to 6 inches apart for the next 3 and posts are 10 feet apart, once they've been shocked a couple times and learned what the electric fence was I've never had an issue, (aside from shocking myself many times)


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## purplemountain (Jun 2, 2014)

We used all t-posts, but also incorporated a few sturdy trees in our woven wire fence. I didn't want to deal with keeping the grass back on electric fencing. Plus we have a lot of little and city kids visiting and don't want to keep shocking them. Too bad my electric charger could cover 2 miles, but it sits on a shelf now. There are t-post connectors that can be used for corners or gates. We used them in several locations and they have not shifted after 5 years. It was the easiest fence labor-wise and we plan on moving the fence when we build our barn, so wanted flexibility. Funny, I love my nigies because they are easy keepers and generally quiet and easy tempered. My neighbor had a saanen that would jump a 6 foot vertical fence. No problem with the Nigerians escaping add long as the gate is chained. They did figure out how to open a dog kennel latch. Smarty pants.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

purplemountain said:


> Too bad my electric charger could cover 2 miles, but it sits on a shelf now.


Oh boy, too bad I don't live closer to you I'd love to take that off your hands.


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## WhiteFeatherFarms (Jun 29, 2017)

So, as luck would have it, we're doing some concrete work this weekend & have had to change some of the electric fence to keep the goats out of the way. We're putting a goat house, water & feed on concrete to keep things clean back there! Anyway, I've been up to some real redneckery for this temp fence, but it works, so that's what matters! Also, I took pics of the insulators that attach to the t-posts, the yellow ones are AWESOME, the white ones are terrible to put on (I may not have been doing it right or something-not really sure)! I've used all poly wire so far, so I don't have experience with anything else in that regard. Good luck!


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Wow, I am surprised at how far apart your wires are I would have figured they needed to be closer together. You would need to have strands closer to the ground if you had kids in there right?
That tree step up is definitely something I could do with mine...

As another question, this seems like this should be obvious, but on uneven and sloped terrain how do you figure out how much fence you need?


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## WhiteFeatherFarms (Jun 29, 2017)

You def would need it lower for kids, I’ve not used electric for little ones before, so others may be able to tell you better. I can’t really say how to calculate on uneven terrain, I’m in the Midwest, so while we’ve got some timber, no hills over here! If it were me I’d step it off, figure out how far apart you need posts & add a few to keep from having to run for more mid-project!


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

When I get back home (we are on vacation right now) I will take a few pictures of my current electric setup.

When we were rotating the goats on our cows' rye grass pasture last February/March, I used electric hog netting (we had pigs a while back, and still have the poly wire netting we used for them). It is very quick and easy to put up, and it's what I've used the longest for the goats. I don't have enough of it, or I'd probably use it everywhere. Also, the woods are fairly thick around here and so it's harder to put up the netting in there, but out in the open it's very easy.




























It's barely 3 feet tall, but it kept everyone in, including the kids.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Goat_Scout said:


> It's barely 3 feet tall, but it kept everyone in, including the kids.


Wow, just goes to show you, You gotta do what works for you. Three feet that's amazing.
You have beautiful goats by the way. I love that brown La mancha.


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Another question I have is do I have to have the solar charger in direct sunlight all day? I have a spot that I know gets sunlight nearly all day and in winter it definitely would, but morning sun in the summer is really what it would be missing.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

The best sunlight exposer is best, missing morning sun is OK, if that is the case.


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## Erin1981 (May 11, 2018)

Hello. We are going to be setting up a electric fencing very soon. Would someone mind taking a picture of how they have there charger hooked up to the fence ect ?


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## MellonFriend (Aug 8, 2017)

Would it help to get a larger charger than I need?


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## WhiteFeatherFarms (Jun 29, 2017)

I am so jealous of the electric netting, I’d like to add some of that in my future fencing! It seems like it would be really easy to me! The charger has to be plugged in, ours is hung up under their enclosure & then goes out from there. The confusing part for me was understanding how to set up the ground wires, if you have any electricians around, ask for help! That’s what I did & I still don’t totally understand it, but got it done! Personally, I got the strongest one I could find just so I knew I wouldn’t have to upgrade in the future, or for a long time at least!


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