Homesteading - Solar Fence Charger

What type of fence do you run for livestock? I run high tensile electric fence for ours. I was told when I first started running fence that high tensile electric would not hold hogs especially not one with a solar charger. Well I fence hogs, goats and cattle all on high tensile electric fence.

We have not ever had a hog or cow leave the fence and most of the goats will not but we have had an occasion goat slip out. Mainly this happens with the smaller kids that slip threw between the hot and ground lines. I have found that most peoples mistake is not good enough grounding especially around here. The ground is mostly sand here which can dry up and not ground a fence very well. Many people also don't use enough ground rods. Usually what I see is only hot line fences and then when the fence is not grounded well the livestock will slip right threw. This last reason is why I do high tensile because larger livestock like hogs and cattle can have a hard time slipping threw even if the fence is off. It is also why I run a 7 strand hot line and ground line fence. The lower power solar chargers do not produce the high powered pop that hard line chargers will produce but they can be used almost anywhere that hard line charges can not.

We use the Parmak 12 volt fence charger for our fence and the only problem we have had is when the hogs toss mounds of dirt up over the bottom hot line. When this happens and grounds out part of the fence power the hot lines independently do not produce very much pop but the hot and ground lines together will still really hit and has dropped me to my knees once or twice.

The cattle and hogs will not even go near the fence and even moving them from one fenced area to another can be a task because they don't want to pass threw the gate area because they are afraid to get hit. The goats on the other hand, with their thick hides and horns to lift hot or ground lines, will sometimes slip threw. Not really a problem for us since all they do when they get out is panic and try to get back in again.

I have heard such bad things about solar chargers but I have had nothing but good results. The advice I have is buy an extra battery to keep charged just in case your main one runs down and also run a proper hot and ground line fence if you have sandy or dry soil. If you do these things the Parmak 12 volt will work just fine. We even use the Parmak 6 volt on our cattle since they are easier on the fence line. I have had no problem with it keeping in my red angus bull that trashed a cow corral and carried it half way across the yard.