My neighbors tresspassing, hay eating, dewberry tramplin' cattle have taken down the fence yet again. I was looking at fencing things and I was wondering if anyone here is familar with New Zealand electric fencing and it's applications for goats and cattle. They are just not paying attention to the wire even though I have survey tape tied on all over the place. I tried to hang the fence with some slack in it, and that worked better than the tight fence, but evidently not well enough! Actually, I may be blaming them when it could have been deer, but deer don't usually run right through the fence. Anyway, thanks for your input-as always!!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 02, 2002

Answers

I am not sure what you mean by 'New Zealand electric fencing', is this a brand name? A great aid to education is hang something 'tasty' on the hot wire, one sniff is all they take! I dont have any experience with goats, cattle are quick learners if the fence is operating correctly and as for deer, well Have a look here Doreen



-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 03, 2002.

The above post is pretty much what a New Zealand fence is. A New Zealand fence is not a brand name - it is a type of fence. They have several (usually between 7-9) strands of electric. They are used to keep mostly to keep preditors away from livestock as opposed to keeping livestock in (although I know people who use them as goat fencing and for cattle who insist on seeing the world). It takes a strong charger and this type of fence is quite expensive. It takes differant types of electrical wire and charged differantly at differant points and a pretty big investment. But, I have never heard of anyone who didn't like it!

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

Thanks for the link to the deer page. I have one question though....On the ground wires, do you attach to t post insulators like with the hot wires and go to actual ground at some point, or just leave the grounds on the posts and never actually go to ground? I sure hope you understand that question!

It sure must be less expensive than woven wire fencing. For the back part of my property it would be close to $400 for materials in woven. Hope I can keep that horned wether in with this type of fence!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), February 03, 2002.

Doreen, this is the concept we used for our goat fence. Our grounded wires are wired directly to the metal posts, but, our land is consistanly damp where the posts are pounded in.

I can tell you from experience, touching one ground and one hot at the same time is not anything you will be forgetting anytime soon!

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

"For keeping predators away from livestock?" They must be really good fences if they keep predators away from livestock in NZ. :)

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 03, 2002.

John, my arm, shoulder and neck are still spazzing from accidentally touching it 3 days ago and our fence charger is powered by a half drained car battery.

Can you imagine the kick it would have with a 110 weedburner?

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

Laura, the biggest predator we have in NZ is probably a stoat!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), February 04, 2002.

Okay I get it. Weasels aren't much of a threat to livestock. I'll tell ya, my chickens don't go near that goat fence, though.

-- Laura (Ladybugwrangler@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.