I'm using this portable electric fence

Hi permies - haven't logged on for a few weeks and the site seems to be really developing.

I thought you'd like to see this site: http://www.gallagherelectricfencing.co.uk/

We've just bought one and started using it to graze 6 ewes on our garden lawn. We've been so frustrated that our lawn, unmown since October, has been flourishing lushly while our orchards have been eaten down to nothing and can't recover in our TERRIBLE British spring (we've escaped the late heavy snow down here in the south east but it's as cold as Christmas). We heard warnings from old boys that our sheep wouldn't be held in by electric fencing but this is designed with them in mind and has been incredibly successful.

It was invented in New Zealand and I was converted to the idea of buying it when one of the testimonials on the NZ site mentioned how it kept in "Houdini sheep"! Ours are not Houdinis - they're big old in-lamb ewes who luckily are easy to lead with a bucket of feed past our veggie plot and have learned very quickly how nice it is to spend the day in the green green grass of our home. Then they just follow my husband back again all docile at the end of the day. (I actually think they are in love with him.)

The thing can run on mains or solar but we have the rechargeable battery which is really convenient and is recharged in the garage where the PV does the work.

Cheers all, Rosalind

I have recently bought 2 164' sections of this. I have a 12 volt fence charger and battery in a plastic box on a garden cart. I can fence an 80' square in the time it takes to walk around it twice and roll the cart over and hook up the wires. About twenty minutes!

http://www.livewireproducts.com/products-page/electric-netting/42-x-165-quick-ground-netting

I think this is the same stuff

http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=409&cat_id=53

Hi Doug,

Not exactly the same product but very similar in ease of use by the look of it. We did look at using ordinary plastic (non-electric) netting, which would keep in sheep like ours, but firstly it's hideous, secondly it's harder work to erect, and thirdly we have one horned ewe who would probably get tangled in it.

This stuff is great as although it's nice if you have two pairs of hands, you can actually get it sorted on your own. Our lawn was never very smooth and beautiful - we have quite a lot of it and are not that interested in maintaining it (fruit and veg always win out!), so the bit at the back is being trained as a wildflower meadow. Some parts will always have to be mown but this is working well for us, especially as the pasture grass is so exhausted this Spring. We've had the sheep off the small orchard for 3 weeks and *nothing* has grown there, it's just too cold.

That netting stuff looks good for smaller stock too, lambs etc.

Cheers

Rosalind