# ElectroBraid and calves



## Red Bank (Apr 28, 2019)

Long story short we quit boarding horses after 18 years and so I thought I would try some cows. Our pastures are fenced with 4 strands of ElectroBraid. Three hots one ground. I bought two 8 month old heifers from a friend that recommended I stall them for a week before turning them out. Well today we turned them out and we had to cut power to the fence and take a section down to get them in the pasture. Before I could get the power hooked back up one of them went through the fence and was loose. I got the fence back up and hot again and we got the calf back in. My question is will the calves keep challenging the fence if we lose power? Or will they settle in and resign themselves to the pasture? I have seen other fences that wouldn’t take a lot for cows to escape from and didn’t think our fences would be a problem. But the selling point on using ElectroBraid for horses is that it will give and pop back if a horse challenges it. I just thought 4 strands will keep them deterred but I guess I have a lot to learn about cows.


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## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

It depends on which strands are hot and which are ground for the calves to make a connection.

Once they get snapped it takes some time before they would make the effort. I use to have a hot wire across the driveway and when I took it down they still would not cross it. I was think it took cows about 6 months before the ventured down to the gate and the horses were about a month. Or the other way around.

Dry weather will sometimes not make a good ground. Test with you tester where they went thru.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

If you are sending 5500 volts down the line and have excellent grounding they will respect it at all times after getting bit a few times. Occasionally my fence will drop to as little as 1000 volts (a tickle really) due to a limb or ground out issue and keep an entire herd in.

I don't have wild cattle but helps to keep them well fed so they don't try to eat outside the fence.


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## Red Bank (Apr 28, 2019)

We checked the fence before and after we put them in. After they were in they tried is a few times and got lit up. My fence tester was lighting up all the lights and my probe wire was shorting out through my gloves so I got lit up as well. There was a little devilish satisfaction watching them try it after chasing them back in.


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## Cozyacres (Jul 16, 2009)

I have found that calves not born on the farm and taught by the mother cow about electric fence need to be trained first in the barn.

I usually take a fence wire and some posts and set up a" learning center" in the barn, where they can test the fence and get zapped a few time to respect the fence, after a few days of training, I let them out, they usually stay away from the fence,

I never had any get out after i started doing this.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

I definitely believe it's a learned trait. New born calves walk right through my hot wires, but only for a couple of days/times. The cows, won't even try, if the fencer is off for a week or two (somebody who remain nameless forgot to check  ). A couple of month old calves will be out, is how I know fence isn't powered up, via deer damage. Seems that young deer can't jump the wires as well as the moms. Usually happens during the busy hay season for some odd reason. 

Larry


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