Whack !

S
I've been working on the electric fence system.  If I started fencing again today the whole she-bang would be electric.  As it is, I just added offset hot-wires to my conventional fences after they were built.

The system is energised by a mains power energiser in the tractor shed.  Until now the line has gone out from there and off around the whole farm.  This means that every single paddock has been electrified - all the time.  There are a couple of problems with this.  For one ... you can't climb through any fences.  More importantly, a fault anywhere in the system causes the performance to degrade - and it can be  hard to find where the fault is.

Usually the problem will be a kangaroo having flicked the hot -wire over the top barb when it jumps over ... but where?  You just have to work your way around the farm looking for it.  That can take some time - and it is pretty frustrating.

A few weeks ago I came up with a better plan.  I now have a 'main line' that follows my internal race system.  The main line travels on an insulator through a spare hole in the star posts.  That way it is pretty much immune to kangaroo interference - and the whole main line is perhaps 15% of the length it was previously.  Then I've also split the main line into 3 separate parts.  I've then got switching that allows me to energise part or all of it.

The beauty of the main line system is that I can now energise only the individual paddocks that actually have stock in them.  I do this through a switch at each gate way.  So now when a kangaroo hooks the hot-wire over the top of the barb at the back of paddock 42 ... it won't matter.  Until it comes time to graze 42, I won't even know (or need to know) that there is a problem.

Up to now my fence tester has registered a reading of around 6.5 when the whole system is clear and working.  Once I got the main line up and energised that reading went to 9.9!  And this strength is maintained when one, two or three paddocks are switched on.

The other thing I've had to do is to dig the main line under all my gates - and also take both a earth wire out everywhere I go with the main line.  Why I need to do this is beyond me, but I was never any good at physics.  My fencing advisor tells me that this helps the strength of the belt an animal gets from it.

This afternoon I wanted the cattle to eat some grass around the Billabong ... so I decided to add a hot wire around the inside of that fence.  While I was doing it I managed to place a spanner on to the main line - when it was energised!

I can now attest to the strength of the jolt - because I got a beauty.  I've had quite a few electric shocks - but I can only remember one other that knocked me side ways.  That was at Alfa Lea in about 1968 - just by where the old shearing shed now is.  I'm going to remember the one I got today just as clearly.

My eldest son was out working with me when it happened.  He heard my yelp - and was appropriately consolatory.  After he thought about it for a while, he did say that he thought the cows were probably laughing.
S