Eagle Beans, Corn, lots of Deer - Transferred from QDMA forum

[yoderjac]

They have spools that are made for reeling in the electric fence wire. Rural King and Tractor supply have the available. I have 3 gallagher reels and 1 off brand reel.

Does the wire stay on the reel for storage, or do you put a spool or something on a reel and then roll up the wire on to the spool, pop the spool of and a new one on and roll up more fence?

 

[yoderjac]

Get a reel, I didn't and it was a MESS. I built my own (1X1 s with a drill bit on one end attached to an battery drill) and it wound it up like a charm, but I didn't put "ends" on the spool so it rolled up in 3 min, but it was a nightmare unwinding it off the spools with no end caps.
I believe the turbo wire is used for "Optics" over tape. Its thin, nearly invisible and creates an optical issue as well as makes it more difficult for them to navigate. People always wonder why deer don't just jump the entire thing, because they surely can ; its set up with specific height and distance and type of wire because of the optical issue and their brain says step over vs jump over it. When they step over it, they can't navigate the space or optics of the wires.
Curious, why did you choose 4ft vs 3ft ?
Your set up is one that would be really cool to put a plot watcher over to see how they react. You could watch the entire thing with one camera, but if its night time feeding, it would miss it.

Banc,
I read all I could on the Gallagher-style Efence. A number of guys who used it for several years reported they felt 3' was minimum and thought it was more effective with 4' spacing. I was using 4' step-in posts, so it was an easy guide. If it doesn't seem to work, I'll adjust it.
I have a BuckeyeCam Orion XIR roughly in the middle North-South wise. It senses the entire way across the field. If deer are using it, I'll know it. They tend to meander when the feed, and it is unlikely they would escape the black flash camera. It is also real easy to spot any browsing damage.
All,
One more question as I plan for next year. If I put up semi-permanent posts for the 4 corners of the outer fence, can I simply use bailing wire run at a 45 degree angle and put and put an insulator on the end to support the corners of the inner fence? I could then use a step-in just to enforce the height off the ground and all the tension would be on the semi-permanent post.
Has anyone tried something like this?
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

It stays on the reel for storage and the gallagher ones even have little handy hooks on them where you can just hang the reels on something. A metal 55 gallon barrel works nicely. You can put your step ins on the inside of the barrel and hang your gallagher reels on the outside lip of the barrel. I spent an afternoon with the gallagher rep and he showed me a few neat tips.

 

[yoderjac]

I was thinking more about seeing their reactions to the fence as they approach and potentially touch it. I doubt you'll have any breach it.
I went redneck with the 4 corners of mine, treated 2X4s with screw in insulators. They take the majority of the tension. The tensioners work really well to take up all the slack, think I paid $1 each for them , clip them on and twist the dial for perfect tension.

Did you do that for both the outer and inner fence?
I was thinking of just putting in semi-permanent posts for the outer fence that would support both. It would look something like this:

The black lines would be some kind of bailing wire or something with the oval on the end representing some kind of insulator The turbo wire would run through the insulators. The tape would run (properly insulated) around the post. The idea is that the semi-permanent post would take the tension on all three conductors and step-in posts could be used only to maintain proper height.
I was wondering if anyone has tried this?
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Jack, I have not, but that could probably work.
I guess my question though, would be why not go ahead and put in the posts for the inner fence as well.
With only the bailing wire holding the position of the wire on the inside, I would imagine you would end up spacing your plastic posts closer to the corners. That being the case, it seems that any cost benefit of not bying more t-posts would be lost, being they are about $4.50, while a plastic step-in, in the $2 range.
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As for your earlier ? about running insulated wire, I imagine you could effectively do so, but I'm not sure how long a reel of insulated wire you can get... and it seems its kinda pricey, if I remember correctly.
Another option would be 8ft tall t-posts with the wire ran up-top, out of way from a passing deer, tractor, or man. This is how my grandfather used to carry electric from one side of a field to another. But there again 8 ft t-posts are not real cheap either, these days.

Cave,
Thanks for the reply. The reason I'm reluctant to use corner posts on my inside fence is not the cost, it is access. The 4 outside posts don't create much of an obstruction for tractor work in the field. The fence will be very temporary (probably will go up right after I spray the beans with gly ~ 2nd week of June and go back down in early to mid-July). I'll also want to rotate the field into other crops that don't need an e-fence from time to time. My fields are small, around an acre. It seems to me that the inside posts would be a pain in the butt and just asking to be hit by a bushhog or something.
My thought was that when I take the fence down, I'd just fold the bailing wire up and clip the loop to the outer post.
I would probably use step-in posts very close to the corner for height enforcement as you suggest. I used step-in posts for the corner of the inner fence this time, but they are bending pretty bad under the tension of the wire.
As for the wire connecting fields. I have not priced it. I just assumed at $200 for the ParmaK, the wire would be less expensive if the Parmak can handle the total distance. I shouldn't have a problem making a water proof join of the wire if necessary. I don't think I can run it above ground. This is on a pipeline row and they occasionally have big equipment run up and down it without prior notice. I'd have to be a lot higher then 8' posts.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Manual testing is always fun! :D :D
A short piece of romex with ends exosed makes for a good tester provided you have a metal post or neutral wire to arc against....arc length is 'visually gauged' to the meter reading. Light meters are a PIA unless it's dark! :rolleyes:

I did. I put my 3ft instead of 4ft and haven't really found a problem getting around them. I do have orange tape of them. The wire method may work fine as long as there is a step in fairly close on each side.

I'm headed up check mine out shortly this morning, its been 4 weeks since I've seen them and 8 since they've been planted. Been horribly dry so not sure what to expect.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, it has only been one week since the fence went up. It may be a little hard to see from the pictures but the protected beans are clearly responding. All three fields are located on a pipeline ROW.
Protected field:

Field 100 yards south:

Field 100 yards north:

All fields planted the same day with the same rates and same beans.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Looks good Jack. Your protected beans will respond very well. We came back last year about this time and protected a 1 acre plot that had been planted on the 1st day of May and were only about 6 inches tall because of grazing and we kept the fence up until early August and those beans got over 3' tall and made a lot of pods. When you wind up your polytape and polywire be sure to wind tightly. We just reused some of the tape from last year that was wound loosely and it was a nightmare!! We had to cut and retie many, many times.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, perhaps I should have stuck with the original 3' spacing rather than going with 4' as others suggested. The fence is putting out about 3,000 volts. I did not get a chance to bait the outer tape with peanut butter. This deer has been inside for two nights now:

This single deer is not yet putting enough pressure on the beans to hurt them, but I'm afraid she will train others...

 

[yoderjac]

Hard to say how she is going through. Scout the tracks.
If she is walking through, add a middle wire and connect to the neg terminal on box. Wire spacing should be 10" so they touch the neg and a hot wire.
1 should not be an issue. I had nine when the fence went down on vacation! :rolleyes:

 

[yoderjac]

I got her two nights in a row. I did not see here entry point anywhere. I was thinking of adding a third wire to the inner fence next year but maybe I should do it now. I was thinking of putting it on top to make jumping less attractive. We have had plenty of rain, I don't thing grounding is an issue at this point.

 

[yoderjac]

Well, one more week has gone by. Fortunately, there are no pictures of deer in the field this week. Maybe she was lucky the first time she got in and out and then got zapped the second time.
Here is the progress:

Compared to:

 

[yoderjac]

I'm not sure if it is my imagination or what, but it seems to me like mixing corn with the beans has some protective value. I get pictures of deer in this field each and every night, but the beans look in better shape to me than in the fields with no corn.

 

[yoderjac]

Jack fence seems to be working well for you. I've had alot of issues with fence this year! :rolleyes: They wiped the 1 ac plot clean last week. May try an angled outer fence in combination with the verticle inner next year. Your beans look good...other than a few row skips! :D ;) JK

Care to share?

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, the row skips are related to the Kasco Versadrill. I found my center walking beam is slightly bent. This causes trash to catch between the mud scraper and the seed tube clogging the tube on occasion. Of course the other place I get skips with a 3 point hitch mounted drill are places where the drill doesn't follow the contour of the ground. My hydraulic toplink with chain should cure the latter problem. I've ordered a new walking beam for the center row.
I wonder what these would look like now if I put the fence up at the start instead of an after thought.
Are you protecting all your beans? I would guess the effectiveness of my fence is also related to the amount of beans outside the fence. I did 7 acres total and only have 1 acre protected.

 

[yoderjac]

Fenced all but a half ac or so. Weather stress is the main problem here (both for plants and deer). One will hit the fence and tangle wires and that shuts down the system...they everybody comes to the party. :rolleyes:
With the drought conditions, I don't think it will matter...deer will get in there and the plants are not growing and can't recover. Added more posts and watered the ground rods last weekend...maybe that will make a difference.
Can't complain too much because deer are getting good nutrition when they need it most (native habiatat has shut down).
Each time I have to fix fence another broadhead gets sharpened! ;) :D

Never Mind the row-skips Jack! :p (geez gallow)
Those protected beans look like they are recoup-ing great!
And it looks to me like your overall row-planting is improved from last yr.
I actually found a versa-drill a few weeks back, but have also been looking at a tye-pasture pleaser.
I may have messed up, cause the Kasco drill went GONE fast.
It was out of state, and a short width model, so I hesitated... but it looked like it was in great shape.
------------------------
As for beans in the corn, I'm sure the corn has protected the beans to some extent. Also, I think the beans get some serious shade, and most of my large seeded annual legumes always seem to look more robust under my live oak trees. I think it gives a break from the heat of the sun.

 

[yoderjac]

Cave,
Thanks! I added a homemade foamer to my Versadrill this spring. It made a big difference in fields with trash. It made it much easier to line up the passes.
Even with the issues of spraying after the corn starts getting tall, I think I will be adding corn to any unfenced beans in future years.
Dgallow,
We have had near perfect rain this year. I think you're right, in drought years, it is gonna be very hard to protect beans. It is amazing how much a deer will tolerate when it is hungry!
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

I've posted all the individual pics earlier. I decided to make a composite to make it easy to see the effects of a fence. Field G4 is the fenced field and G3 is the unfenced control field about 100 yards south on the pipeline.

As you can see, I don't have pictures of the control field each and every week, but there are enough to get the idea. In the future, I'll add to these as the summer goes on.

 

[yoderjac]

Fenced all but a half ac or so. Weather stress is the main problem here (both for plants and deer). One will hit the fence and tangle wires and that shuts down the system...they everybody comes to the party. :rolleyes:
With the drought conditions, I don't think it will matter...deer will get in there and the plants are not growing and can't recover. Added more posts and watered the ground rods last weekend...maybe that will make a difference.
Can't complain too much because deer are getting good nutrition when they need it most (native habiatat has shut down).
Each time I have to fix fence another broadhead gets sharpened! ;) :D

Which vareity did you plant this year? Is anything flowering?

Last year, I tried Big Fellow, Large Lad, and Managers Mix. Because of the browsing pressure, I saw no difference between them. I just couldn't get them along far enough for differences to show themselves.
So, I figured that until I could catch up with my deer densities, I would just buy one of the less expensive varieties. I planted all Big Fellow this year. As of last weekend, nothing was flowering. I'll get more pictures when I get down to the farm later today. I'll let you know if they started flowering this week.
Thanks,
Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Fenced all but a half ac or so. Weather stress is the main problem here (both for plants and deer). One will hit the fence and tangle wires and that shuts down the system...they everybody comes to the party. :rolleyes:
With the drought conditions, I don't think it will matter...deer will get in there and the plants are not growing and can't recover. Added more posts and watered the ground rods last weekend...maybe that will make a difference.
Can't complain too much because deer are getting good nutrition when they need it most (native habiatat has shut down).
Each time I have to fix fence another broadhead gets sharpened! ;) :D

Some here last year...no apparent difference without browse pressure. This summer with droughtly conditions and browse pressure...advantage LL and BF.
4818s in the MM were flowering last weekend....with heavy browse pressure (no leaf) and drought I expect them dead this weekend....1" rain on Wed may prove me wrong. My cousin drilled 5519s pure stand June 1 for hay...no bloom last weekend....in another two week they should flower. His soil is poor with weeds/grass encroaching and I was honestly surprised as what I saw in some areas last weekend.
Thinking last year, LL and BF started bloom around Aug 1 here.
Next year we will be straight LL and BF. Trying for bloom as late as possible to get around 'normal' summer dryness with a full season dryland bean.
Considering the pressure, your beans look good! :)