Tech Talk: Proper Power Fencing Installation
Lee Ellsworth 00:00
In the digital world we all live in with our phones. Now you can get apps to where you can see what your fence is doing. You can set it up where it can send some alerts. So if you're traveling or whatever, or you get up in the morning, or you're drinking your coffee, you can actually see what the voltage is on your fence with certain energizers. There are apps and there's wireless things and blinking lights and sirens. I mean, there's lots of things electric fence can do now, with the technology that's become available that makes our lives a lot easier, being able to see what's going on remotely from a fence.
Shaye Koester 00:39
Hey, hey, it’s Shaye Koester and I’m your host for the Casual Cattle Conversations podcast where we connect you to ranchers and beef industry enthusiasts who can help you build a more profitable operation and improve your lifestyle. Are you looking for a community of ranchers who support and challenge you to be more profitable and proactive? Then sign-up for our monthly RancherMind events. RancherMinds are mastermind events for ranchers to come together once a month and find solutions for their own and the industry's challenges. Stay connected by following @cattleconvos on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and never miss an episode or event update by signing up for our newsletter on www.casualcattleconversations.com/newsletter. If you get value out of this episode or any episode drop a comment or tip me by using the link in the show notes. With that let’s see who our guest is today and connect you to a new resource to improve your own operation and lifestyle.
Shaye Koester 01:35
All right, Lee. Well, thank you for joining the show today. And you know, we've chatted on the phone a little bit before but I'd really like for you just to briefly share with my audience, you know, a couple sentences, what is your role in the beef industry today?
Lee Ellsworth 01:50
Well, I have a handful of commercial cattle myself, but so everything that goes along with that, but I am a territory manager for Gallagher. So I play a pretty good-sized role with a lot of producers, helping them design and set up systems to solve problems. A lot this year with the drought is you know, trying to stretch their grass as far as possible and implementing systems to help them do that.
Shaye Koester 02:21
Yeah, absolutely and unfortunately, a lot of areas in our country are facing drought this year. And like I guess we talked earlier, that is just a part of ranching, it's bound to happen at some point. Now, today, we're going to just kind of quickly talk about power fencing. So when we're talking about power fencing, what does that mean? I mean, what is power fencing in your own words?
Lee Ellsworth 02:46
Well, there are really three ways to look at power fencing or electric fence. Power fencing is kind of the term we try to use because it sounds less scary to the general public than electric. But of course, there's permanent, there's temporary, and there's offset fencing that you can use. Put a power fence on an existing fence on some lease ground where it's fallen down, or some old fence to where you can plug holes for little to no money to get the most out of your fence. So always look at it, in my opinion, just depends on the situation.
Shaye Koester 03:26
Do you want to describe a little bit each of those three ways and just go into a little more detail on what each of those terms looks like?
Lee Ellsworth 03:32
Sure. So of course permanent fence would be just like you'd put up a barbed wire or woven wire fence. You have your brace assemblies, and you're going to stretch multiple strands of wire, and it's meant to be there for long-term, you're going to use high tensile or steel wire. And it's just meant to be there. Temporary is going to be your poly wires and your poly tapes. There's going to be some stepping posts or something that's, you know, temporary. And you're going to use in a smaller area or something that's designed to be moved off. And so you're not going to want to have to deal with your heavy steel wires and driving a lot of posts and things like that. It's meant to be temporary and easily moved. And then offset fencing would be where you took an existing traditional fence of whichever you want barbed wire, woven wire or board. It doesn't matter. And you're going to put a bracket on it of some statute, and you're going to put a single or two strands of hot power fence wire down it to protect it. Keep animals from reaching through rubbing or rubbing on it, leaning over, you know, even if it's a brand new fence, it's going to extend the life of it because they're not going to be pushing on it. It's also useful in the offset situation if you're trying to separate pastures where you're not having commingling with a bull or some heifers or things like that. Or you don't want your neighbor's bull over there sniffing on your cows and things like that, that works great in that situation.
Shaye Koester 05:08
Well, thank you. I appreciate hearing that. Because a common theme on the show is, there's more than one way to do something and not the same system is not going to work for everyone. So I appreciate hearing those different methods. So when we look at power fencing as a whole, what tools or technologies are critical to making sure that implementing power fencing is a success for ranches?
Lee Ellsworth 05:34
The biggest thing I hear in 15 years working for Gallagher, I get more calls or more questions or more issues are caused by grounding. Improper grounding of an Energizer is the biggest common denominator of issues. And it's more prevalent in the summer and in drought situations. Because the earth is not as conductive when it's dry dirt or, you know, the grasses, and it's flush and things like that. So grounding is the cheapest part of the of the power fence system. And it's the part that gets shortchanged most often.
Shaye Koester 06:18
Well, awesome. And I know that's something that we've talked about on the show before actually, probably be about months, a month or six weeks before this episode gets released. But that was something that was really talked about, and I know something that my family uses a lot of power fencing. So that's something we have to watch, too. So when you look at that, so you talked about the ground, that's critical. So on the energizer side, how do producers know what type of Energizer is going to be best for them?
Lee Ellsworth 06:49
Well, you got to look at a couple of different things. First, look at the size of the area you're going to be fencing. Also, when you think about the size of the area, you're going to be fencing, are you going to add to it down the road. You don't want to go by a fence or an energizer for the piece of ground, you're gonna fence this year and the next year add on more or something to where you just buy one that's big enough for what you're doing. Now, think to the future. Because you can't have too big of an energizer. So if you think down the road, you're going to be tying into it and adding more ground or more area and building more fence and wanting to use that same Energizer, think about that. So that you're not shortchanging yourself and having to go back a year, you know, a few years down the road and start over with a bigger Energizer. You also have to think about if you can plug in, or if you need a solar unit. So if you can plug in, it's going to be you're going to get more bang for your buck because you take the batteries and the solar panels and things like that out of the equation. But sometimes you get out into remote country and there's not a power source. So solar is your only option. So those are the biggest two things to me is Can you can you plug in? Do you have a power source? And think about the total area that you will be fencing now and down the road so that you can buy the right Energizer.
Shaye Koester 08:22
Well, awesome. So going back to that, you know, the amount of area that's going to be fenced. Is there a certain point where the solution for getting more bang for your buck more power on that fence? Is that you also need to have more of a ground or is that more reliant on the energizer itself? What how do you weigh this, you know amount of power going through the fence as far as you know, the grounding system compared to the energizer.
Lee Ellsworth 08:49
Okay, the larger the energizer, the more ground system you're gonna need. And that's directly related to if you have a big Energizer, you're probably covering a good amount of area. So if you think of your ground system, like a CB radio antenna, the bigger your antenna is, the better signal you're going to get from a further distance, right. So the larger Energizer, the more ground rods you need. Because if that cow was standing all the way in the back 40, that could be a mile away or two miles away from that Energize. You need a bigger ground system and bigger net to catch the electrons coming back to make it all effective. So small area equals small Energizer and the lesser amount of ground rods you need. So, think of it like that. It's pretty easy. Start with three ground rods, and you won't have a problem most of the time.
Shaye Koester 09:47
Well, thank you for sharing that. So you know you already mentioned that grounding was one of the biggest mistakes you know that you hear ranchers make. What are some of those, you know, is there a one or two other mistakes that you'd really like to bring to light today that That are common with the power of fencing strategies or systems, I should say.
Lee Ellsworth 10:04
Yeah. So, steel posts, they're used a lot, and there's nothing wrong with them. Using a quality insulator, if you're going to use a steel post, whether it's a tee post or rebar or pipe, you get what you pay for when it comes to insulators, and insulation properties of them. The longevity of them from sitting out in the sun and cracking and things like that, a lot of people will spend all that money building a fence and, and buy an inexpensive insulator that fails a couple years down the road. And then they're having to go back and replace and spend all the time again and all that stuff. So you get what you pay for when it comes to plastics in the insulator. Another mistake is not having a electric fence tester to where you can test your fence with the proper tool. So that when you reach out to reach out for help to somebody, whether it's calling the manufacturer ofyour energizer or calling the territory manager like myself, you know, if you can't tell me what that fence is reading with a digital voltmeter it's harder for me to help you. Because an electricians meter will not read electric fence accurately. So having the proper tools to provide all the information to get the best help for you.
Shaye Koester 11:29
Well, thank you for sharing that. So is there anything in the power fencing space that you're excited for, as far as any new technologies coming out?
Lee Ellsworth11:41
In the digital world we all live in with our phones. Now you can get apps to where you can see what your fence is doing. You set it up where it can send some alerts. So if you're traveling or whatever, or you get up in the morning and you're drinking your coffee, you can actually see what the voltage is on your fence with certain energizers. And having the apps and there's wireless things and nicking lights and sirens. I mean, there's lots of things electric fence can do now, with the technology that's become available that makes our lives a lot easier, being able to see what's going on remotely from a fence.
Shaye Koester 12:21
Well, that's pretty cool to hear, especially for those folks out there that have rented pasture quite a ways away. You can save some miles and time for them and the fuel prices, that's, that's pretty awesome.
Lee Ellsworth 12:35
being able to make sure your fence is working or get a get an alert if something's down or you know that your voltage fell below your preset level or whatever, it's where you can go find something, fix it before, you know say a cow runs through the fence. You're gonna know pretty quick that your voltage is off. So you can go find it hopefully before something gets out. But you don't need to drive out there every day like we used to have to at $6 Diesel.
Shaye Koester 13:01
Absolutely. Well, Lee, as we kind of wrap up today, you know, I just really like to ask, Where can producers go for more resources? As far as finding these tools and technology learning more about him? Where can those ranchers go?
Lee Ellsworth 13:18
Well, of course, the internet's a wonderful tool. There's all kinds of YouTube videos and how-tos. And of course, you can go to Gallagher's website, and there's instructional videos and downloads and things on there as long as the fence building tool to where, you know, if you really don't know what you need, you can answer a bunch of questions about your footages and things like that. And it'll spit out a material list and give you a starting point. But the internet's a wonderful tool. And then of course, you can always reach out to your territory manager wherever you live. Gallagher has a territory manager in every state. So you reach out to us for advice, and your local extension office and NRCS and things like that is just got a boatload information is available as well.
Shaye Koester 14:01
Well, awesome. Thank you very much for being on the show. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Lee Ellsworth 14:05
No, I appreciate it. Anything we can ever do? Let us know.
Shaye Koester 14:16
And that's a wrap on that one. Be sure to let me know your thoughts on the episode and if you have any further questions around the topic, take care and have a great day.
