Electric Netting Fence. . . Mobile/Permanent
I have two sets of electric netting fence. One has been setup in the same spot for about four years. The other is moved frequently, maybe every three to four days. Both serve their purposes perfectly.
We chose to leave the netting fence up permanently on one area of our property because of a rockpile. The thought of securing wire fencing and fenceposts was going to be more than a day’s backache and some words that shouldn’t be repeated. I hoped netting fence would be flexible enough to follow the pile of rocks up, across, and back down the other side. Maybe the posts would be light enough to anchor with some rocks? And, I was right. We set it up and haven’t moved it in four years.
My set of netting fence that I move is my mobile grazing paddock. I use it during the day for my horse and two goats. Their permanent fencing mainly surrounds woods. So, my movable fence goes to the grassiest areas in the front yard and garden. It helps keep the hay bill down!
I hook these fences to my charger that powers my permanent wire fencing. At each end of the fence, there is a metal piece you can attach to the charger or another fence. I either use a piece of permanent hotwire or my fancy red coated alligator clips. The alligator clips are nice for when I can’t reach the larger metal end piece. They easily clip to the horizontal hot netting strands. The fencing does not need to be attached at both sides. Eventually I would like the solar charger for my mobile netting fence so I don’t have to run a wire.
Moving the fence takes me around fifteen to thirty minutes. If I’m moving directly adjacent to the last grazing area, and there’s only grass, its easy! But lets be realistic, most of the time there are trees, shrubs, weeds, plants I don’t want demolished by a large herbivore, other fencing, sheds, etc. When moving it a bit of a distance I roll it completely up. But usually I pull up 4 poles at a time and move them all in groups until I get a general outline in the new grass. The most helpful thing is staking the two ends where you want them and working the fence out from there. Sometimes I will have the two ends meet but a lot of times I use a shed or other permanent fencing as one of my sides.
How do you use your electric netting fence? Leave me a comment below!