Electric Fence Guys

[Big Snow Man]

I was thinking about e fencing a plot this year but after talking to another plotter he advised against it. He said if you can’t monitor it ever day your asking for trouble with limbs coming down from trees and grass shorting it out its a big headache. This guy even bought a over sized (50 Mile) solar charger and didn’t have the kick to keep them out either. I live about a hour away from my woods which is not real close. He suggested just to increase the population of soybeans seed and let the deer thin them out. Any thoughts or suggestions from you veterans who have been down this road before.

 

[ghilliehunter]

Snowman, We put in a soybean/corn plot without fencing and it was eaten to the ground(2 acres +/-). We put it in a smaller soybean plot with e fence and it worked great. On the perimeter, you have to spray gly or mow around the tape or braid to keep from grounding out. Go for it.

 

[Big Snow Man]

Did you have much maintenance to do during the growing season

 

[ghilliehunter]

Not really, other than spraying with gly to kill everything next to fence. Used plastic step in posts for the straight runs and metal posts for the corners. Maybe we got lucky. Inside fence is 2 strands, the outside is one strand, middle the height of the inside 2. This 3D effect tricks the deer into thinking they can't jump across it. I witnessed a few touch the outside strand with their nose and get shocked, that really does the trick.

 

[Bill]

I didn’t tell you this but gly and diesel sprayed under that fence is a one and done deal ;). No more weeds for a while.
Probably don’t even need the gly but I was tired of a shorted out fence.....

 

[BobinCt]

I wish there were food plotters near me cuz I’d love to help them out. Don’t have any around me that I know.

 

[Wild Thing]

Many of us have had good success using solar powered E-Fence - Just do a search here to find other threads about E-Fence. Yes, you may occasionally have a branch fall on your fence which will put you out of business until it is removed, and yes, you need to either spray or weed whack weeds under the wire to keep them from shorting it out but otherwise, it is very effective.

 

[Suburbhunter]

http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/e-deer-fence.9046/

 

[roymunson]

We did it 2 years ago w/ 5 acres of beans, but the 5 acres were the back end of a 50 acre field. We put fence on the 3 perimeter sides and left the open side to the bigger field open, didn't get much browse there as they could only enter by traveling thru 50 acres of beans, to get to our beans.

That was a good muzzleloader field... I miss those days.

 

[Tap]

For me, shorting out by weeds has never been enough of an issue that the fence didn't still keep deer out. It could be that deer learn all they need to know about my fence within the 1st week or 2 that its up?? IDK.
Even when I get some shorts, my fence still shocks to a certain extent.
I don't ever leave an uncharged fence up for an extended time. I don't want deer to ever lose their fear of it. My fence goes up right after planting and I completely remove it when its time to let deer eat.
I usually do an acre of sunflowers and sunn hemp, peas, etc and there is no way I could grow a mature plot without a fence...too high DPSM here.
I'll gladly maintain a fence in order to have a nice summer plot.