Training difficult animals to respect a fence

I have often been informed that a certain horse is totally impervious to an electric fence and will simply wander through the fence that is keeping others in quite comfortably. This applies also to other varieties of animal, in particular deer or impala.

There may be several reasons why this should happen and may be broken down into physical attributes or behavioral instincts.

Physical attributes includes horse with long thick coats or wearing blankets, sheep with long woolly coats. These all create an insulating barrier that require a higher voltage to bridge. This will be achieved by using a higher running energiser or maintaining a full 6000v on the fence. A tester is vital for this situation.

Behavioral instinct is normally the domain of high jumping antelope such as impala, springbok and deer where they do not investigate a fence but simply walk up to it and jump over. An electric fence relies on the psychological imprint it creates with the shock rather than the flimsy construction to function. Here it is necessary to attract the animal onto the fence by use of bait. This draws the animal onto the fence and generally use his nose and tongue to investigate the attraction. The large number of nerve endings in these organs are severely stimulated by the shock and the animal rarely returns for a second.

This method may be used for nearly every type of animal but should not be used on those animals that are normally inquisitive and easily controlled anyway

Hull University have completed a study on the new 125m (410ft) turbine at the Croda Europe plant in Hull assessing the effect they have on the wild life. The fear is that birds are flying into the spinning blades. Initial assessments were not considered successful even if no dead or injured birds were found below the turbines as fox spoor was prevalent. The assumption was that these foxes were picking up any birds struck by the blades.
In order to completely satisfy the study objective it was decided to fence off the turbine to eliminate the fox as a factor. This was done using poultry netting coupled to a Hotshock energiser. During the study period from 2008 - 2009 NO bird carcasses or evidence was found.
















"No evidence of fox prints at all were found whilst the fence was up and operational, the ground was soft for the majority of the study (sometimes frozen however), and so I would assume that tracks would have been easily visible. Before the erection of the fence, the site was covered in fox spoor and so the fence has appeared to certainly deter if not eliminate the foxes entirely from the area within the fence." Anna Phelps.B.Sc (hons), M.Sc. Researcher

Coupled with visual observation noting that birds did not fly into the blades and were quite obviously taking avoiding action before getting too close to them.

"The project demonstrates successful cooperation between industry and environmental/conservation science, working towards a sustainable future for our local environment."

Bears and Electric Fencing.

Bears present a substantial problem to outdoor activity in the regions that these animals occur. A recent contract to protect drilling rigs in Siberia required considerable research to establish the best solution. The bears were interfering with activities and raiding stores on the rigs to an extent that a major petroleum company wanted to humanely exclude them from the area.

After reading research results from the National Wilderness Education trials and other sources a three or four line system would provide the best protection for the least cost, however the customer decided that the more expensive wolf netting coupled with solar powered high energy energisers would be preferable from a maintenance angle. In my opinion they were not sure of the effectiveness of the line fences despite being shown all the documentation on fences. I personally had never seen a bear so accepted their requirement.

The Wolf nets and Electric fencing energisers were delivered from the UK at a delivery cost greater than the cost of the materials. After a very long but interesting journey to Siberia (I now know why the area is avoided) to train the personnel and set up the systems they were seen to be immediately effective and eliminated bear attacks. Three bears tested the equipment on the first night and were repelled.

The solar electric fencing systems should be effective as it is envisaged that the netting will be dismantled over winter as the threat from the bears disappears once they have gone into hibernation. The batteries would probably not survive the extreme freezing over the winter if left outside anyway.

Photography

It is not often that I highlight a photography website but sometimes a series of equestrian photographs will make you pause and take a longer look to appreciate the composition and the unusual style and technique of the photographer. Some are pretty standard but others are taken from unusual angles and the use of black & white highlights the composition.

Electric Deer Fencing.

Highlighting the Techniques using Electric Fencing to exclude Deer.

Deer have become an increasing problem in nearly all areas of the United Kingdom and the deer population is thought to be higher now than at any time in history. Coppice re-growth and natural regeneration of trees is impossible in many places without fencing or other protection. In some areas Muntjac deer are causing significant damage to the ground flora of woodlands. Deer fencing is erected for any of the following purposes:

1. To exclude deer from woodlands, including plantations, coppiced woodlands, newly planted amenity woodlands and those where natural regeneration is needed to maintain or extend woodland cover.
2. Exclosure fences may also be needed to protect high-value horticultural and agricultural crops.
3. To enclose deer in a farm or park.
4. Exclude deer from private property.

Where they choose to feed, rub, walk and breed is a habit learned over time and reinforced every time they do it safely. To exclude a deer herd from a food source, area or trail to which they are habituated forces the herd to break this habit. Thus the first day, week and month of denial of use (by a fence) is the key period. Once the habit is broken, the change in routines and location is easier to maintain. However, you are only fencing out the animals desire so don't expect success in persuading a starving deer herd to feed elsewhere if your site is its only food source. The greater the desire - the more substantial the barrier has to be.

Full-height (1.8m) wire netting for deer fencing was designed for deer farming, and is not always suitable for woodland exclosures or other uses. The rolls of netting are extremely heavy and require machine access along the fence line, and the netting is difficult to fit neatly on undulating ground. Traditional Deer fences can be a significant source of mortality to low flying ground nesting birds, particularly capercaillie and black grouse.

There are four basic approaches to controlling deer damage to woodlands, which may need to be used in combination:

1. Fencing or tree guards. Netting or mesh fences are necessary, as deer can push between the wires of line wire fencing. Muntjac can push under netting, which must be lapped or buried as for rabbits. Tree guards must be of sufficient height and robust enough to resist damage.
2. Providing alternative grazing and browsing to divert attention away from the areas you want to protect.
3. Culling of population. Culling has to be organised on a local area basis, as deer will rapidly move into woodland where culling has taken place. Contact the local Forestry Commission office as there may be a deer management group in your area.

4. Electric Fencing is highly effective and being intrinsically lighter than conventional fencing is substantially cheaper and easier to erect.

Note that deer can easily injure themselves by attempting to jump normal stock fences. Standard height stock netting fences topped with one or two lines of barbed or plain wire, giving a total height of about 2m, are a frequent cause of injury. As the deer tries to jump, its leg can get entangled in the top wires, where it dies a lingering death.

Electric fences deter the deer's brain instead of the body and siting and erecting the fence should bear that in mind and should be managed with an awareness of how a deer herd interacts with your area and the new fence.

Permanent Fencing.
These generally utilise wooden posts combined with suitable ring insulators. Plain Hotstop wire is the most suitable due to its longevity and most important, its excellent conductivity. The number of strands depends on the type of deer being excluded. Muntjac Deer are small (size of a medium dog) at 50cm, through Fallow Deer 100cm to the taller Red Deer at 130cm. The first wire goes in at that height as that is the nose height at rest and the nose is what animals use to investigate un-familiar objects.
Muntjac have the habit of going under wire so put in 2 lines below that and one 20cm above. So for Muntjac spacing would be 15,30,50 and 70cm above ground.
Red Deer have a habit of jumping so 5 wire fence is preferable at 50, 80,110,130 and 155cm.A total exclusion fence for deer would therefore be a combination of the two and require 7 strands. (It is important you read the section on Training the Deer)
An additional improvement developed in Australia is to slant the fence towards the direction from whence the deer approach, this probably replicates the 3 Dimensional fence talked about later

Deer have a natural insulation due to the hooves and hair and this has proved to be a problem in the past. Electric fencing has in the past been thought to be not totally effective but this has been rectified by new technology and improved exclusion techniques. It is recommended that the hotShock or HoriSmart energisers are used. These run at higher voltages than standard models to enable them to bridge this natural insulation. (Again the section on Training the Deer is important)

Temporary Fencing
Poly Posts are very useful in temporary situations. They are very simple to use and are quite adequate. Use the longest available, especially for Red Deer and at 150cm above ground they are adequate for most situations. The ends and corners still need to be wooden posts to enable you to tension the wires adequately. For temporary fences,Poly Twines or Electric rope is preferable to wire as they are easily handled and easily wound onto reels for transporting to another site.

3 Dimensional Fences.
There are reports coming out of the USA where an additional single line 1 meter on the pressure side of the fence greatly improves fences that are less than 150cm high. The principle is based on the belief that deer have less than ideal depth perception so are more tentative with wide fences rather than tall. Leaning the fence towards the deer probably replicates this effect.
This theory has recently been exposed as possibly incorrect by a trial in Allegheny hardwood clearcuts in northern Pennsylvania where "two fences were used to prevent browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). A five-strand vertical fence, 58 inches (148cm) high, and a "figure four" three-strand fence, 43 inches (109cm) high, were used...... More than 33 percent of all the seedlings in the unfenced portion of one clearcut were browsed annually while inside the fence no browsing was detected. At least one deer penetration occurred at each fence, but the effect of browsing on forest regeneration inside the fences was negligible. The "figure four" fence was not as effective as the five-strand vertical fence in preventing deer browsing."

Training the Deer.
Remember we need to change the deers habits built up over a period of time. There are two methods of increasing the effectiveness of the fence. The first is by clearing the brush about 3-5 meters away from the fence. The smaller deer have an inbuilt tentativeness crossing open areas that is reinforced by contact with the fence.

Red Deer in particular have a habit of not investigating the fence and simply jump over it. This is in common with the Springbuck and Impala of Southern Africa (both of which do comfortably clear a 2 meter high fence) and consequently an effective technique has evolved there whereby the fence is initially baited to attract the target to investigate the fence.

With deer this is done by two methods;-

1. Little metal Bait Caps containing cotton wool soaked with an apple scented essence attached to the fence. (Neat apple cordial works well.) These may be left on the fence and re-baited when necessary.
2. Lengths of kitchen foil smeared with peanut butter, molasses/treacle or syrup wrapped around the wires at strategic positions of the fence. These should be removed and replaced if pressure on the fence re-occurs.

The Deer are attracted to these fences by their appearance or smell and are lured into sniffing the fence with their sensitive noses getting an effective sting from the fence. This then creates the psychological barrier in the animal's brain. This shock is a very strong stimulus and deer learn to avoid the fenced area creating a barrier that they are unable to see and consequently do not know how high it goes. To illustrate this further, foxes, rabbits and badgers do not dig under electric fences for the same reason. The deer seldom attempt a second try. This may sound harsh, but the technique is VERY effective and after the first few animals get a sting the rest will learn from their experiences, termed "Socially Conditioned Avoidance," and the fence will be left alone.
The bait may be removed after about a week. Baiting may be necessary again if another herd comes into the area, the deer begin to test the fence again or after the fence has been off for a while.

Is Tape more visible than wire to a horse?

The question is often asked if horses can see Electric fencing tape better than standard fencing wire and the probable answer based on the human eye is yes, the question whether they can see wire AT ALL is a different one and the answer is generally based on quotes from “experts”. This is much the same as the idea that riders must steer their horses around puddles because “horses can't tell how deep they are, at least that's what my instructor said.” Most likely, the horse will see the wire fence as easily as it will the tape fence.

Good with depth, trouble with depth; colour-blind, not colour-blind; sharp vision, blurry vision – which is it? Answers differ, depending on who is doing the talking. More often than not, the speaker is someone people trust and, therefore, do not question — the well-known clinician, the feared riding instructor, the respected old ranch hand. Unfortunately, some of these authorities base their comments on hearsay, on folklore, on myth. Hearsay is a worry. Generally untested, most likely undocumented, it is the cause of much misunderstanding.

Unfortunately there are no scientific studies done on the exact question of “horses cannot see wire” and conjecture suggests that this supposed poor vision is because of the lateral placement of the eyes limiting the binocular vision of horses. This lateral eye placement, meaning their eyes are located on the sides of their heads, gives them a much larger field of view compared to humans; in fact, when holding their heads level, they possess a nearly spherical field of vision. An advantage in detecting predators, many prey animals have this sort of eye placement. But horse eyes are also placed somewhat frontally, affording them binocular overlap ranging from 55 to 65 degrees. The horse's retina contains a narrow horizontal streak across the centre of the eye densely packed with receptor cells called cones. This provides an elongated band of acute vision over much of the lateral range. Heads bouncing up and down, like a bobblehead dog in the rear window of a car, serves no advantage to horses in terms of keenness of vision. Think about it. How can an animal gallop full speed over uneven ground, screech to a halt mere inches from a fence, easily clear high hurdles, step over rocks and logs, or nudge a friend gently, with inadequate depth perception? Put that way, it sounds rather silly.

The logical extension to the query would be “Why use tape at all” when the only advantage it has is the supposed visibility. Electric Fencing Tape has two major issues with the product;

1. Plastics biggest enemy is the Ultra Violet rays in sunlight. These react with plastic causing them to lose colour and flexibility. The plastic becomes brittle and so break. The surface area of a tape is four times greater than a rope with the similar number of filaments so a greater amount of UV stabilising compound has to be incorporated to extend the life of the material driving up the cost of it.


2. The large surface area causes it to be affected to a greater extent than a rope. The wind causes it to whip around and flap, this in turn applies stress to the metal filaments woven into the tape. This constant bending back and forth will cause them to break so reducing the conductivity of the tape. This is so evident that many manufacturers warn against using the product in wind prone conditions.

There is only one thing to be considered when looking at tapes, rope or twine to use on an Electric Fence: - The Conductivity (the ability to carry electricity) of the material. An Elephant or horse will not be fenced in by plain rope or tapes but apply an electric current and they are easily contained.

The quality of the Electric "sting" delivered to the target is directly dependant on the quality of the conducting material. This is the "barb" that will keep your target animal where you want him. The conductivity of the material is quoted as Ohms per metre (this is a measure of the inline resistance). The higher this figure is - the less of the current that is delivered to that important sting. The lower the Ohms/metre is, the more electricity it will carry and deliver an effective sting.

For example:- An energizer capable of energizing 9klm with a 0.05 Ohms/m. conductor will be reduced to just 1.3klm if you use a conductor of over 10 Ohms/m. Conversely, when an energizer is used to charge 1.3 klm of fence using a good conductor it will use far less energy than using a poor conductor;- your batteries will last far longer.

Common Mistakes made with Electric Fencing

With 30 years of experience building hundreds of miles of electric fences, I've seen just about every fencing mistake possible. And I continue to see people make many of the same common mistakes.With a little commitment and a modest investment in time to learn how to use this technology, you can save pounds and hours of maintenance time by making the electric fencing work for you. So you won't have to learn the hard way, here are common mistakes that you should avoid:

1. Poor earth grounding. Many people still think you can skimp when it comes to adequate earth grounding. What we must all learn to do, is install suitable earth posts or ground rods Copper or galvanised, and attached with good ground clamps. The electricity must complete a full circle back to the charger through the ground. Poor grounding gives weak shocks.
   
   
2. Inadequate Electric Fence Energiser. A wimpy fence charger gives you a wimpy fence. Don't skimp here because animals will think an Electric Fence is a joke without a strong bite, and they'll walk right through it. The fence itself does not keep the animal in – it is the electronic bite in the fence that does the work. Please buy one that puts out lots of power. During a rainy year, you may have lots of plant growth touching the wires. That's when you will need extra power to shock through the heavy, wet vegetation.
   
   
3. Inadequate animal training. Each and every animal must learn that the fence hurts. There are several methods to do this, Flag the fence for visibility, force the animal to try and cross the fence, bait the fence so he tests it with his nose or tongue.
   
   
4. Fence posts too close together. Posts may be anything up to 15 meters apart. Putting them 3 m apart is not necessary. Posts must follow the terrain and simply keep the wire at a uniform distance off the ground without too much sag. You want the fence to act like a rubber band. When something runs into the wire, you don't want to break all the insulators or knock posts out of the ground. If the posts are spread apart the wire will just bend to the ground and pop back up.
   
   
5. Too many wire tie-offs. Again, fencing specifications may call for braces every quarter mile wire to tie the wire off. But I have found that even 5,000 feet is OK, and actually adds more elasticity in the fence wire. This reduces the chance of wires breaking.
   
   
6. Wires tied tight to each fencepost. To maintain elasticity (the rubber band effect), wires must float past each line fencepost. Often tape is locked into insulators on every post to restrict wind flap but this then causes a lack of elasticity on the wire.
   
   
7. Building new fences near old existing fences. Old fence wires seem to be always moving somewhere and coming in contact with the new electrified wires. This almost always causes a complete short in the fence, and away the animals go.
   
   
8. Bottom wire in contact with heavy, wet vegetation. Wet grass will suck lots of juice out of any fence charger. Attach the lower wires to the live terminal of the energiser separately from the other wires, and install a switch for the lower wires that you can turn them off when the grass is tall.
   
   
9. Poor-quality insulators. Be careful here. Sunlight deteriorates plastic. So buy good-quality, long-lasting insulators. Usually black ones are treated to resist degradation by ultraviolet light. I have found that poor quality insulators crack after a few years in direct sunlight.
   
   
10. Solar panels not directly facing the sun. This seems almost too obvious to be a problem. But a solar panel won't function at its potential if not properly installed. Please read the instructions. Don't just guess if you have done it right.
    
    
11. Kinks in high-tensile wire. A small kink in stiff wire will always break. Also avoid hitting this kind of wire with a hammer, as this will easily damage the wire causing a break. Always cut out a damaged section of high tensile wire and splice it. Incidentally, I have found that a hand-tied reef knot makes the strongest splice.
    
    
12. Installing in-line strainers close together. Wires will flip together once in awhile. If in-line strainers are installed one above the other, they will sometimes hook up. Separate in-line strainers by a fencepost and they will never catch on each other.
    
    
13. Wires too close to each other. Keep them at least 5 inch apart.
    
    
14. Wire stretched too tight. Electric Fences do not have to be tightly strained. Use inline-strainers that pull just enough to get the sag out of the wire between the fence posts.
    
    
15. No voltmeter. Without a voltage meter to check how hot a fence is, you're just guessing. The only other way is to use your hand – that hurts.
    
    
16. Wire too small. The better the conductor in the wire, the more electricity it will carry. Don't skimp. Conductors are measured in Ohms per Meter – the lower this figure the better it is
    

The next time your bulls get in a fight with the neighbours bulls and tear down the entire fence, remember that most animals will learn not to touch a wire with 5,000 volts running thorough it.