Electric Fence for Food Plots

[billkay]

Anyone use solar powered electric fencing to keep deer out of their food plots? I need a system that can contain about 8, non-contiguous, but close, acres. Any advice?

[dbHunterNY]

8 acres isn't bad as long as you keep the grass off it. that will kill a solar powered fencer. more work but put two strands. one 2' high and another 4' back and 3.5' high. numbers are approximate. they won't jump it.

[wtnhunt]

For deer I would suggest going with three strands Bill and make the highest strand at the top of your posts, the higher the better. Deer jump our electric fence that keeps our cows in here all the time, but it is only about 3.5 feet high. You need one strand low enough to zap them if they try to go under it about 18 inches or so and then one more in the middle. As Dan mentioned be sure to keep the vegetation off the wire.

[billkay]

I'm thinking of solving the jumping issue by running 2 strands on an outer pole and a single line on an inner post about 3 feet inside. The fencer says it can handle tall weeds but is that just a selling claim? I really only need this to exclude the deer till the beans can sustain the heavier forage. The beans were only about 2 weeks old when the deer destroyed them already this year. I'm going to plant 1 more time, if I fail again, it will all become clover.

[wtnhunt]

Weed clippers work to some extent Bill. My charger is an old 110 unit I rebuilt a couple times now and it will burn down grass that touches it so long as it is not a lot of grass or weeds at the same time making contact. In my experience with chargers you can run into trouble if you have too much grass or weeds touching your fence at the same time as it will potentially short it out and prevent the charger from working.

Far as a 2 post deep fence if I am understanding you right, deer can jump high and a long ways too. If deer make it in between you would have deer tear your fence down. They hit my fence in my side pasture all the time, have had to patch it up several times. Watched them out the back windows too many times to count try to sneak under it, which was why I suggested 3 strands.

[archerjg]

Instead of the solar powered one you might look into one of the battery powered ones that will do something like 30 miles. That is what we have for the cattle and it is encompassing around 20 acres. We had a lot of problems with the solar powered ones only lasting about a year before the battery inside would no longer hold charge and it is cheaper to buy a new unit versus an internal battery. We switched to a deep cycle battery and the battery powered unit and all is well. Just a thought.

Archerjg

[billkay]

One problem I didn't mention is that these fields are about 400 miles out my back door, its almost going to be a set it and forget it thing. How long will that fence run on just a deep cycle JG?

[hoosierhunter]

Electric Fence for Food Plots

Deer have horrible depth perception. That is the reason for a double perimeter fence. They can jump it but don't know they can. See grant woods website for details. 8 acres is a ton to fence off. When thinking about it why fence off 8 acres. Usually a 3 acre plot is big enough to withstand normal deer herd pressures even in high population areas.

[dbHunterNY]

Deer have horrible depth perception. That is the reason for a double perimeter fence. They can jump it but don't know they can. See grant woods website for details. 8 acres is a ton to fence off. When thinking about it why fence off 8 acres. Usually a 3 acre plot is big enough to withstand normal deer herd pressures even in high population areas.

Pat has the idea. that's where i got the 2 runs of fence. here's what he's talking about...

[hoosierhunter]

Electric Fence for Food Plots

I'd also recommend roundup along the entire perimeter. No sense to do that much work and then take a chance with weeds.

What are you planting? I'd recommend 1/3 to 1/2 clover minimum.. If you want beans that's where you need at least 3 acres to withstand the browse pressure. Also make sure to plant 100% plots and not mix too much together. You will get better production this way.

I've also found that it is necessary to do a total kill prior to planting. Wait 7 days and disc or retreat depending on results. Unfortunately just discing will result in wasted work because weeds will still over take your plot.

[wtnhunt]

Dunno about Grant Woods suggestions on fence regarding deer depth perception, but I can tell you that if you get deer between those two runs they will tear it down rendering it useless. I understand the idea behind it and seems it should work, but don't know that I would go to that much extra work, that is a lot of extra t posts to drive. There is always gonna be that chance you have deer run into the fence anyway, but in my opinion trapping a deer between two sections would seem to increase the odds of a failure. You might want to tie highly visible flags to the fence where you know there is heavy deer traffic. Once the deer learn the fence is there they should not bother it.

Agree with what is posted above on killing the vegetation. Usually try to get two shots of herbicides about 10 days to 2 weeks apart here to kill new growth from seed that is still in the ground. Definitely want to spray a perimeter line where your wire will be as well.

Never tried any solar chargers, but assume like anything else there is potential for issues and you can probably do everything right and still have unforeseen problems. Might be a consideration to go with the deep cycle fence unit mentioned above and add in a solar charger panel on a wooden post to maintain the cell.

[billkay]

All these fields were planted. Probably about 20 acres in total. These 6 acres of Real World Soy Beans were destroyed. The deer walked up and down each row of the 3 upper fields and bit them off at the ground. Turkeys accounted for some of the damage too. There was 8 acres of these beans, about 4 acres of clover, 6 acres of alfalfa, and a couple acres of other things that have yet to be planted, ie barassicas, etc.

[RangerClay]

I'd also recommend roundup along the entire perimeter. No sense to do that much work and then take a chance with weeds.

That's what I would do. However you may need to go back and spray again after a couple months for late blooming weeds.

[wtnhunt]

No doubt turkeys can be hard on plots trying to establish. I think turkeys were as hard on our beans in the past as the deer were. That said, we have had really good results with eagle beans, but our deer density is probably not as high as it sounds like yours is and deer here have a pretty good amount of available food.

[hoosierhunter]

Electric Fence for Food Plots

I'd recommend depridation permits with that much damage. First time I've said it, but some serious reduction must occur.

[archerjg]

On a good deep cycle 2 weeks to a month as long as nothing is pulling it. That is on the fence we are running which is a 4 strand hi tensile. Two hot and two ground strands and it backs the cattle up. Deer do not like getting into it either. We usually set it and forget it just check it about once a week.

Archerjg

[Tominator]

I use a solar unit, but not nearly 8 acres. I agree with William on the double perimeter. I run 3 strands, 1 high for the deer, 2 low for the coons.

In my experience, the deer will come up to the fence, probably sniff it, get zapped and they run off. I don't think they have the cognitive ability to weigh the options of how to get in like coons do. Coons figure it out sooner or later, deer seem to leave it alone once they get zapped.

I agree with the roundup on the perimeter too.