Effect on the Animal
Electric fences control animals by delivering a sharp electric shock.
The shock does not inflict any pain, in the normal sense, or any injury to the animal. The shock causes anxiety to the animal and it develops a fear of the fence.
If animals are forced through electric fences by bushfires or dogs, they are not usually injured.
Advantages of Electric Fences
Electric fences have many advantages:
- a single wire is often enough to keep most stock confined once they are trained to the electric fence. This is useful in intensive grazing situations.
- they are often less expensive to construct than conventional fences
- temporary fences can be easy and quick to build
- the light posts and droppers make construction in steep country easier
- they are effective for all kinds of stock as well as a range of vertebrate pests. Educated stock develop greater respect for electric fencing than any other type of fence. It has been said the only really bull-proof fence is an electric one
- electrification of an existing sheep fence can upgrade it into a cattle fence. Place offset brackets 750 mm above the ground. This prevents cattle from rubbing on the fence and putting pressure on it
- they give flexibility. There is no quicker or easier way to effectively subdivide a paddock for controlled grazing
- maintenance is low. Put time and thought into the initial design of your fence, for example make it easy to track down faults or shorts. Then, once your fence is properly installed and your stock are trained, the maintenance requirement is little different from other fences
- there is less damage to stock. The shock from the electric fence doesn’t cause any physical damage to stock. If your stock are forced through the fence by bushfires or dogs, they are at less risk than with a conventional fence
- you can recondition old fences or strengthen boundary fences by electrifying them
- you can use electric fences to create areas for strip grazing
- they are cheap to run on 240 volt energisers: only $20—$30 per year
- you can switch them off when you don’t need them. However, during periods of vigorous pasture growth we recommend you leave them on
- trouble shooting or fault finding is easy—simply use cut out switches and voltmeters to isolate shorts or faults
- you can quickly build efficient fences across creeks and floodways
- you can build the fence without gates by using lift up or drive over devices
- electric fences have an extended life. Since they are not subjected to the same physical pressure from animals they can last much longer then non-electrified fences
A Few Disadvantages
Of course, there are a few disadvantages:
- they are not suitable for stockyards, narrow laneways or any high pressure areas where stock push each other or dogs could drive them onto a fence
- they are not suitable in places where they are likely to be completely overgrown with vines or other plant material. Although modern energisers can maintain voltages in conditions where there is high leakage, they are not as efficient if the affected fence is several kilometres long
- some use of herbicides or mechanical control may be required to control leakage due to vegetation
- you can’t build them and then forget them—you need to regularly check fence lines just to make sure the fence is working
- you may need to learn new skills to construct effective electric fences of good quality. (Is this really a disadvantage?)
- you need to pay more attention to detail with electric fencing than you do with conventional fencing. Near enough is certainly not good enough
- it was once thought that they were not practical in large grazing areas, especially with sheep. Long lines of fence take time to check regularly and maintain. Moreover, an animal that touches the fence is likely to run through (or under) the fence and not hack into the orightal paddock unless the wire is at the correct height to control it. However, with new energisers and monitoring technology, electric fences 100km and longer are now used in western NSW and Qld for goats and sheep control. As well as these, electric fences are used for cell-grazing systems in the Northern Territory with the only restriction on length being watering points.
