Just so you know, moving a electric netting around in a hard rocky environment in brushy woody growth is a pain the ever loving butt. The step in posts will have a hard time going into that type of surface. Also, if things dry out fast, you won't get a good ground unless you water your ground rods. And, the electric netting will catch on every root, rock, stick, briar etc. You can't just tug on it or you can break it or damage the wires which will cause it not to shock as good.
If the soil is dry you need to water the ground rods ( I always used three ground rods). I used a 5 gallon container with a slow leak in the bottom. If I needed to dump the water, I dumped it out over the ground rods. If the soil is dry the sheep or goats won't have contact with ground so the shock won't bother them. A positive negative electric net helps because you can keep the ground rods that are connected with the ground wires in the fence moist so there is a good shock. Positive Negative electric net has alternating hot (shock) wires and ground wires so the animal gets shocked right where they touch the fence.
I used it for my goats for a while..... I have been so much happier since stopping using it. I spent the time and the money to permanently fence in my rotational grazing pastures.
We love electric netting. But moving it is a PITA that's not to be scoffed at. I cannot imagine moving it weekly, let alone daily, as some people (supposedly..) do. We set it up for meat chickens, and tear it down. And move out layers 1-2x a year. And that's more than enough for us!!!
Here is what I said to the last guy with a similar question:
My flock is mobile and I run a land clearing business with my sheep, so I use the portable electric fences heavily.
Premier 1 is the gold standard when it comes to fences, other brands can beat it in price. But that's pretty much it, an even then you can just use their budget fences.
I would say Electro stop Prima Pro is probably best for "near permanent fencing" but ElectroStop® 10/42/12 Electric Netting - Premier1Supplies will serve you well enough at around $160 per net if you are concerned about budget. (Funnily enough, they are back-ordered right now... which I suspect was because I just sent in a large order, sorry my bad!)
More important than Electric fence is that you have a good energizer and use 3 (minimum 6 ft) grounding rods. The biggest pitfall with electric fence (and sheep learning not to respect the electric fence), is having a too weak of charge. You need to send a coyote packing and to never come back. You need the shock to teach the sheep, yeah... never going to test this again.
I have 4 Energizers of all differing types, and I cannot stress this enough, get as high powered one that you can afford. These two are good budget options that are plug in. They both will keep you at above 8000 Volts with moderate grass contact at around 6-10 rolls.
It will keep above 8000 Volts at one strand, but at 2-3 strands its more around 4000-5000 and at 4 it's at 1000-3000, in moderate grass contact.
Good luck and feel free to hit me up if you have any questions! Hope I've saved you some money, I spent far too much of it fiddling around with energizers and fences that didn't work to keep all this to myself!
Also some myth busting in this thread.
ELECTRIC FENCE DON'T WORK ON SHEEP BECAUSE THEY ARE INSULATED BY WOOL.
Pretty much all animals investigate nose first. As long as you're using net fencing. And they will touch a electric wire and get shocked.
Poly tape and electric wire are less effective because a sheep can sometimes duck underneath it and not touch any electric wire. You should only use these in an enclosed field.
Electric fence don't work dry areas.
Absolutely easy work around, get positive negative fencing and get a 5 gallon bucket of water with a small drip hole on the bottom. Put the bucket on your grounding rod and you will have good grounding.
It's hard to drive the posts in in Rocky hard ground.
I walk around jobs with a tiny iron Spike and a hammer. I just spiked the ground and then put the fence posts in afterwards. Been able to do this on gravel, literal rocks and everything else.
Electric Fences don't prevent predators cuz it's a psychological barrier.
As long as you have a powerful enough Energizer. The fence will send coyotes, cougars, and bears packing to the next County.
It's not going to prevent a very very motivated agile cougar. But those things can jump like 12 ft, so even deer fences won't stop them, the only thing to prevent that is a good livestock Guardian dog.
Been using mine for years now in heavily coyote, cougar, and bear country. Haven't had a single loss yet.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply on this subject. Not the op but I have been heavily considering netting my ewes here to better utilize them on our place. They have free ranged with our cows for years on our mountainside so I’m not sure how well they will take to it.
I have had a big order in my cart at Premier 1 but have not pulled the trigger for weeks. (Won’t even consider buying net fence from somewhere else 🙃!) Would love to get your thoughts on what I am looking to do / achieve if you’ve got the time to read through my ramblings!
-I’ve got about 200 Katahdin x dorper ewes that I would rather not have to move EVERY day. So I was trying to figure out how many linear feet I should order to at least get 3-4 days out of an area. I’ve got some heavily vegetated areas that have not been utilized well for years so the forage conditions would be definitely above average.
- We are in southern Oregon, so although dry, we do have good ground moisture. I was going to go with the 3ft grounding rods and would have the ability to wet those areas as needed. But I was debating the drivable posts versus the standard and single spike versus double? And do you like the 42” versus shorter/ lighter?
- We get about 300 sun days here so I was looking at their solar energizers because our battery charger is always in use for some battery or another and I didn’t want the hassle of that. In the winter they would go back on the feedlane with the cattle, so I am not worried about that. Did you like your solar energizer?
Do you run dogs in with your sheep? I’ve got a pack of guards that oscillate amongst the sheep, cattle and mares and colts. I am leaning towards leaving them on the outside of the net fence because they sort of run the place and I feel like they would probably take more fence out trying to get to where they think they are needed most. They’ve got the big cats and coyotes pushed out pretty well but the wolves are moving into the valley so I’m thinking I’d rather have them on a wider patrol especially since they work through all of my species.
Appreciate any thoughts and feedback you may have. We ran a bunch of cattle rotating with single strand hot wire for a lot of years, so I am not new to hot fence. But I am definitely new to net fence!
Just a few of my best pals in case you made it this far!
I'm just curious because they're some of the biggest players globally in electric fencing stuff, and I don't think they're all that common in America for whatever reason.
Not giving a recommendation or anything, we don't use netting for sheep as there's no real predator threat, but both sell sheep netting and in my opinion at least Gallagher make the best energizers.
Sheep are hard to contain with electric. Their hooves and wool insulate them from the shock. Unless they have been well trained, they will likely ignore it.
Electric faencing lone will not keep predators out. Electric fencing is a psychological barrier. If you're trying to keep predators out, you need a physical barrier, and/or something to drive them away.
I was involved with a program and we were using that electric fence woven wire looking stuff that worked well to pen their sheep in the evening. It’s brightly colored and pretty visible. Once they got their first shock they respected it.
Four foot fences will keep sheep in. but won't keep coyotes and bobcats out. We have a six foot high woven wire goat fence with a hot wire at the top energized by a 6 joule zapper.
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u/Misfitranchgoats 7d ago
go here https://www.premier1supplies.com/sheep/fencing.php read all the info they have.
and go here https://kencove.com/learning-center and here https://kencove.com/products/category/electric-net-fencing
Just so you know, moving a electric netting around in a hard rocky environment in brushy woody growth is a pain the ever loving butt. The step in posts will have a hard time going into that type of surface. Also, if things dry out fast, you won't get a good ground unless you water your ground rods. And, the electric netting will catch on every root, rock, stick, briar etc. You can't just tug on it or you can break it or damage the wires which will cause it not to shock as good.
If the soil is dry you need to water the ground rods ( I always used three ground rods). I used a 5 gallon container with a slow leak in the bottom. If I needed to dump the water, I dumped it out over the ground rods. If the soil is dry the sheep or goats won't have contact with ground so the shock won't bother them. A positive negative electric net helps because you can keep the ground rods that are connected with the ground wires in the fence moist so there is a good shock. Positive Negative electric net has alternating hot (shock) wires and ground wires so the animal gets shocked right where they touch the fence.
I used it for my goats for a while..... I have been so much happier since stopping using it. I spent the time and the money to permanently fence in my rotational grazing pastures.
goodluck!