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Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Here's a picture I took on a back road the other day showing why I feel it is important to electrify the center wire on a barb wire perimeter fence. Not my holsteins by the way. Putting up a good fence is expensive and a lot of work. No matter how good the grass on heir side of the fence they always want to push through. Two calves had their heads through the barb wires.... Jim at Dawn edit: this fence pictured has insulators on it but was not electrified.

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

I always run a wire about a foot inside the barb wire fence. Keeps the cattle from pushing on it so much i have to restretch wire.

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

On older fences built before I started electrifying the middle wire I use 5" standoffs to the inside of the fence and really like that better. On one old, leaning fence with very weak posts I use 9" standoffs to keep the cattle from getting anywhere near the fence. Do you use completely separate posts or step-ins inside the barb wire? One advantage to the standoffs is that they do let cattle get in to keept the grass downunder the standoffs. I'll see if I can find a picture of the 9" standoffs on the weak old fence. Jim at Dawn

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

i usually use step ins about 18 inches or so inside the wire. For me anyway, it seems i get far fewer shorts in my fence that way.

RE: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Might not be a bad idea to electrify the bottom wire also.

RE: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

ive tried that...seems like the bottom wire always shorts out, especially if the cattle dont clean out under it.

RE: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

For me the idea of keeping miles and miles of electric fence working would be a nightmare. Tight barbwire spaced narrow works for me. Hot wires on old or marginal fence on occasion, but no way would I try to do the whole farm that way. Roy

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

i guess im lucky in that respect, i only have 30 acres of pasture..lol

RE: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

I'll agree to that, I could spend more time messing with keeping one hot wire hot yearly as I could to have all new 5 or 6 barbwire fence or 48" wolven and a barb at top.

RE: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Here's what I did on an old fence last year and seemed to work keeping them back but still cleaned out the grass under the wire. Being this old fence is along a road, I did not want them pushing it over and getting out on the road. These are 9" HD standoffs from Premier. Steadyman, that is a very telling picture. I find that with the hot wire on standoffs and a very hot charger they will not get under even the bottom wire. I usually set the hot wire about 32" above the ground - nose height. Jim at Dawn

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Wouldn't work here, if a wire barb won't keep them in they either need to be moved or need to be sold. If we electrified the inside of every barb wire fence it would be over 100 miles. We either have 3 strand electric or 4-7 strand barb wire the only time we have doubled up is if you have bulls in a smaller pasture that need to be held in and that is a once in a decade type of deal. Of course there isn't s fence on earth that can keep every single yearling steer in a pasture.

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Not so much a matter of keeping them in as it is keeping them from pushing on a fence. I am electrifying the center of 5 wires on all new fences. Costs almost nothing additional to do this when building a new fence. I added the super standoffs to this particularly old bent-over fence along the road where I have rented a couple acres. I grubbed out a lot of trash underneath, tightened up the old wires with the gizmos show, replaced some clips, etc and added the one hotwire inside. Would I do this on 100 miles of rangeland fence? Heck no. But if I was building new rangeland fence I would make the center wire smooth and on insulators. jmho. Jim at Dawn

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

jim that old fence looks new compared to many of the old fences in this area lol.

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Hey that is the "after" picture....I put a heck of a lot of work into it to get it looking like that. You should have seen it beforehand - except you couldn't see it under the brush etc and bent over as it was. That's one reason I put those mega standoffs on it - did not want to see ANY bovine pushing on it! Jim at Dawn

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

I run a center hot wire on all of our 5 barb fences so that I have current available for single wire division/grazing fences.

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

That is another benefit to electrifying the center wire on a 5 wire fence. Do you still use barb on the hot wire or smooth? I have both and will never again make a barb wire hot. All new fences will have a 12 ga smooth as the center with 12 ga Red brand barb as the other 4 wires. Jim at Dawn

Re: Why electrify the middle wire on a barb wire fence

Center hot wires are all smooth, 12 ga. wire. I try to avoid electrifying barbed wire, in order to avoid hassles.