Portable Electric Fencing

Electric fence is a psychological barrier, not a physical one: it works because animals learn to respect it, which means it only works while it is actually delivering a shock. Most electric fence failures on farms are not broken wire — they are earthing, vegetation or an energiser sized for a shorter run than the one it is powering.

What decides the specification

• Energiser output against the real fence length
  Size on the total wire length including every strand and every spur, not the perimeter distance. Then allow headroom for vegetation touching the line in summer.
• Earthing
  The most common cause of a weak fence. Earth rods, their number and the ground they are driven into complete the circuit through the animal — a short earth in dry ground gives a fence that tests fine and teaches nothing.
• Power source
  Mains where it exists, solar where it does not. Solar sizing has to cover your shortest winter days, not your average.
• Species and strand height
  Cattle need fewer strands at greater height; sheep and goats need more strands lower down. Goats in particular will find the gap.

Train the animals first

Animals that have never met electric fence will walk through it. Introducing a group to a well-powered fence in a small, secure area before relying on it in an open paddock is the difference between a fence that holds for years and one that gets tested every week. This is a management step, not an equipment one, and it is the step most often skipped.

Read before you order

See electric fencing and solar fence chargers for energiser sizing and earthing, and portable corrals and temporary fencing where a physical barrier is needed instead. Full range at livestock fencing and corral panels.