How much electric tape & posts will I need for 4 acres?

RubyFrench

RubyFrench

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Hi all, me and a couple of friends are moving onto a 12 acre plot end of July, it is split into 4 paddocks, mine being close to 4 acres,

obviously I will want to be sectioning it off, but have never had the pleasure of dealing with electric tape before. Just wandering if anyone had a rough guide as to how many posts and how much tape I would need?

I've seen bundles of 2 x 200m electric tape on ebay for £20, thinking that would be enough? but have no idea how many posts!!!!!

Thank you for any advice you can offer me :)
 
You'll have to work out what your area will look like. Will it be a square, an oblong, a squizzy-wizzy shape?

How many runs of tape are you going to do - two, three, or four?

What height poles?

Is your horse respective of electric fencing?

What power unit will you be using?

As to poles, if I remember right, we had ours roughly ten feet apart.
 
oh yes forgot to say, it is roughly a square shape....

will be using 4 foot poles, and 2 runs of tape. don't know what power yet, that's next to buy on the list, but think my boy will respect the tape even without power to start with, he is pretty good :)
 
You will really need to stride out/measure exactly where you want the fence and to get the distance right, this will then give you the length of fencing required and will have a bearing on which energiser and battery set up you need (different ones do different lengths of fenceline). I personally wouldn't buy cheap electric fencing off ebay, the metal strands break too easily and then the flow is lost (I know this from experience!!).

There are many different types of fencing - wire, tape, rope - think about how windy your site is as to which to choose and whether it is going in front of a post and rail or sheep fence or if it is the only barrier. If it is the only barrier I would actually go for at least 3 rows of electric fence, just looks and feels more substantial.

Also - make sure you have plenty of wooden posts with insulators, especially at the corners as the plastic ones just don't hold up to the strain. I prefer to have all wooden posts but you could have mostly plastic with a few wooden ones for straining.

finally from me - it really isn't safe to leave a horse in a electric fenced field if there is no current running through the fence. No horse will respect this, as soon as they realise there is no electric on, they will be through it or under it and quite possible very tangled up :)
 
You need to have the poles no further apart than 3 feet (1 Metre) and reverse the poles so that on one pole the tape is connectedon one side and the next on the other. This will prevent the wind from dislodging the tape. As regards the tape make sure you buy good quality tape from a reputable feed/merchant tack shop. Many of the tapes sold on e-bay are inferior and do not allow the electricity to pass along it. (Inferior metal or none at all)!
Keep the grass or anything else clear of the tape so that the current does not go to earth.
Make quite sure that you have third party public liability insurance to no less than £10,000,000 per horse for all your horses (many policies do not provide this level of cover) as in the evnt of your horses escaping (for whatever reason) you are responsible for any accident caused.
Tip! As a Gold member of the British Horse Society you get this level of cover.
Also ensure that your horses are Freezemarked in the event of them being stolen they can then be easily identified. (Ensure your horses record on www.nednline.co.uk is updated to include your horses freezemark number).
Good luck!
 
You need to pace the field out to get an idea... if the leccy fence is going to be a secondary fence (i.e. inside another one) you will get away with posts every 5 metres or so (so divide your length by 5 and that gives you a fair idea of the number of posts you'll need) and I'd reccomend you tie your corner poly posts to the main fence posts to tension them (I use bailer twine for this!)
 
Exactly as wheels said. Especially the part about no electric connected. It doesn't take them long to work that one out and escaping is bad enough but electric tape cuts through flesh like cheese wire if horse gets tangled in it. Several times I have seen horrendous injuries because owners insisted. "he'll be fine, he respects electric fence"
They know if it's off.!!!
 
asabove ^^

i didnt have it connected as mine was inside a big field (my own field) but the little sod would barge through it when she realised the grass was actually greener lol :D


dont know about size but i know of 200m for £9 round here... and posts are approx £1 each :)

have fun :)
 
I don't think we've ever put our poles three feet apart, they've always been further, but with the tape wrapped to prevent slippage.

Definitely have the hooks on the poles facing in opposite directions (alternating). Helps to stop it coming off in high winds.

Definitely don't put it up until you have the power unit and battery. As someone else has said, horses will quickly learn that it is flexible. Once they start tying themselves in knots, that tape digs in deep, cuts, and gets wound around legs :(

The power unit and battery will have to be strong enough to send power through the entire tape's distance (there and back, not just the length of the fence from one side to the other).

Hope this helps, and that you have a lovely time in your new field :D
 
There's some good advice above - and a bit of not so good.:D

1. Don't wrap tape around posts - the tape will burn out quicker - and it makes it harder to tension.

2. Use wooden posts with insulators for your corners - plastic posts are fine on the straight bits.

3. The BEST supplier of quality electric fencing IS on E-bay - and own web-site - Paddock Perfection! Great prices, fast delivery, good advice!

4. Invest in a GOOD fence tester - it will help you find faults quickly. A self-earthing one is easiest (and less likely to break down!) This is the best I've found - and I've gone through a dozen of the ruddy things! http://www.electricfence-online.co....lectric-fence-tester-with-digital-477731.html You need to test regularly - at the unit, along the fence line, at the end of the fence line, and the return paths. You need at LEAST 3v to keep horses in!

5. To subdivide 4 acres efficiently needs a decent battery unit with GOOD earthing! And you need to check your earthing in dry weather and chuck a couple of buckets of water around the earth stakes every week in dry weather (not a problem at present!)

6. Avoid knotting tape - use proper aluminium connectors. Knotted tape can burn out in less than a week in wet weather!

7. You'll need plastic posts no more than 4 yards apart - closer on exposed sites. One acre is approx 70 yards x 70 yards (or total to go around - 280 yards.

8. Unless you want to spend a lot more on posts, don't use 40mm tape - it really catches the wind. 2 x 20mm runs is plenty for most horses - excluding Shitlands and stallions!
 
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