Ensuring your fence is operating safely and effectively at all times is essential to prevent animals from wandering and to protect your crops. Gallagher offers a range of monitoring devices that allow you to maintain your electric fence performance and efficiency.
Not only does electric fencing keep domestic animals or livestock contained, but it also has various other important uses, including keeping unwanted animals out; separating different groups of animals; allowing rationing of crops and pasture; and ensuring animal and human safety by fencing animals off from eroding areas, trees, rivers, and roads.
These are all important applications that depend on consistent, reliable electric fence performance. Power fluctuations or interruptions can occur due to animals breaking through or other items making contact with the fence wire, earthing the current.
Depending on which products you choose, Gallagher North America can enable you to monitor your fence on and off-farm. These systems also detect and regulate current fluctuations so your fence’s performance stays within the required levels.
Fence tools and testers are more useful accessories to have on hand when building, maintaining or checking an electric fence. Gallagher has two fence testers, both available from your local Wilco store. The Fault Finder is an ‘all-in-one devices’, each featuring a voltmeter, current meter, and fault finder. The Volt Meter measures volts only.
Fault Finding Tips
Here are some key things to check when tracking your fence’s fault.
Is the voltage across the energizer terminals greater than 3000 volts? NO
- If not, consider whether the voltage at the point you’re measuring on the fence has previously exceeded 2500 volts. If not, the energizer you’re using is probably inadequate – but check for shorts first.
If the fence has previously exceeded 2500 volts, has the fencing network since been extended?
- If it has, this is another indication that the energizer you are using may not be adequate for the job. Again, check for shorts first.
- If you haven’t extended your fencing network, check for fence shorts such as faulty insulation, shorts caused by accidents, vegetation or a faulty energizer.
Is the voltage across the energizer terminals greater than 3000 volts? YES
- If so, and the ground voltage is more than 200 volts, you may have a faulty ground system. Use the fence tester to isolate where the grounding fault might be.
If the ground voltage is less than 200 volts, you may have high resistance on the leadout, fence or joints. Again, check these and adjust accordingly.
