Deer Damage and Electric Fencing

venery

Well-Known Member
Couple of questions members might be able to give their advice/experience on :_

1) In a wood with clear fell which is going to be restocked with a predominantly normal resident roe population and a few transiting reds, which of 3 coniferous trees (Norway Spruce, Sitka spruce and Douglas Fir) are likely to be most attractive to roe (browsing and fraying ?) and what damage might reds do to young trees given browsing and fraying is unlikely with plenty of good grazing about.

2) One option being considered is to erect a 1.5m four strand electric fence with Douglas Fir as the restock. Is this an effective deterrent to keep out roe and reds?

Normal deer fencing or tubes is not an option.

I must admit i have not come across electric fencing for deer outside deer farms.
 
Way back in the mists of time when I worked on a deer park we used to keep Red deer out of plantings with a single strand electric fence the same as you use on cows.

It worked for us it might not work for you.

They never did work out how to jump it.
 
I shoot a farm in Cornwall,which is single strand electric fence, every fence is wrecked by the deer, most of the horse paddocks in the new forest are trashed daily by fallow , reds will lay up in the new planting so you will get fraying if there are young stags about. Only my opinion but electric fences are next to useless for deer.
 
Some of the large angus glen grouse moors are using eleccy 'NZ style' fencing to keep reds out very well, i'm talking big areas here, tens of thousands of acres.

There original ones where 6ft ish with a second single strand 2m out,
Now they just have a slightly higher 2/3 strand eleccy fence (be lucky if 1m high) and again a second 1 2m away from it. I think u will need to work of a mains supply to get the 'kick'

Seemingly the deer don't like to jump into the eltro magnetic field? between the 2 fences. The SAC trialled this fo sheep years ago with 2 knee high strands which also worked and that was with hill blackies.
Not sure on why but it does seem to work up there anyway

It does work up there even when neighbouring estates are culling up against it deer rarely jump over it. But it may be different if it was trees/shelter on the other side (on the moors just heather both sides) but if plenty of other woods nearby it may be enough to keep them off?

I'd imagine ur douglas wil be most vurnerable (dinae plant much of that locally) follower by norway then SS

Taff are u talking about those stupid white ribbon type horse fences of a battery? And are u sure they're on? Know a few horsey folk up here only turn them on for the first week or so then horses never bother the fences
 
The horse paddocks are generally the White tape type, the one in Cornwall is mains high tensil wire as NZ style. Fallow seem to be the worst for damage, they get used to the fences.
 
I have found electric fencing to be a waste of time for all the species of deer & antelope I keep or have worked with.

Sharkey
 
I'm surprised by that, that moor in angus has fenced of something like 30-40 thousand acres and not a deer on it. Most off the neighbours use the fence as a 'culling aid' and even then its pretty rare to get any jumping over. Althou ithink 1 day thay had a mass break in but deer were being cullrd hard next door, think they had them all shot out again in a matter of days
Think some of the neighbouring estates are now copying them.
And not a cheap idea to even start thinking about fencing off 10's of thousands of acres of inaccessable hill ground.

The boy that looked after fences/stalker did say u still have to keep an eye on the deer and occasionally 1 will try to jump over but u just have to shoot them quick. But he manages 30 odd thousand acres himself, althou has 10+ keepers all keeping an eye out too
 
We successfully keep 5 species of deer behind electric fences. All permanent high tensile multi line fences. We use powerful energisers unto 18 joules. The majority of horse fences are around 1-6 joules.

Regards

Ed
 
Look how high the fence is, any fence high enough will keep deer in, also those are farmed deer, not quite the same as sayin to a wild deer don,t jump my standard electric fence.

Make your bloody mind up, in your first post you said "Only my opinion but electric fences are useless for deer"

Regards

Ed
 
If it's high enough why have it electrified, I have fallow behind a fence as high as that and I don,t need electric, they even feed out of people's hands, the OP was talking about fencing to prevent damage to new plantings, not farmed deer, so I have made my mind up.
 
To add to my post just to make clear for this 'NZ' style (not sure if that is the correct term) u need 2 fences running parralell to each other. on their own the deer would easily jump the fence but for some reason don't seem to like to jump inbetween the 2 fences. From wot i can gather the secret is having the fences just far enough apart that deer would have to jump/land in between the fences, so don't have to be very high

Thoose fences have been up for quite some time probably something like 10-15 years now with only the expected maintenace, tightening wires and checking for obstructions/shorts etc. As someone who does a bit of fencing i was amazed that it actually worked as it was so low

As i have said no mean feat to have 30-40 '000 acres of deer free ground when ur neigbours have plenty. And these are wild highland reds, but mibee there tamer than ur lowground variety as it definately works up there

Bloody good photo that cyberstag. How high is that temp fence? I take it u do not energise the bottom wires to stop it earthing
 
If it's high enough why have it electrified, I have fallow behind a fence as high as that and I don,t need electric, they even feed out of people's hands, the OP was talking about fencing to prevent damage to new plantings, not farmed deer, so I have made my mind up.

A 1800mm 6 line HT fence will keep very persistent WILD reds/sika/fallow in or out.

Regards

Ed
 
Many thanks for all the replies. Looks like proof is going to have to be in the pudding! If fencing goes ahead i will give some updates.
 
I stalk a farm which grazes sheep for two months each year,the sheep keep the Roe away but the single strand electric fence keeps the red out for a a few weeks but once they bet used to it,game over.My theory is its hurts there nose at first but they dont notice it anywhere else............??
 
I would have thought that a very large area of electric fencing would be a nightmare to maintain. Especially if there's no access to mains electricity. It's bad enough with one or two strands keeping stock to one part of a field, or around a reasonably sized pheasant pen. I would have thought that it would have to be checked pretty regularly. Unless it was built in some substantial way and if you're doing that, you might as well just erect a deer fence and be done with it.
 
Two of the farms where I shoot roe have a problem with bucks pulling fencing down once they are in hard antler.
 
Understanding electric fences helps in most cases, they are often poorly erected and not used to best effect, I remember tales from a couple of kiwis that had travelled the world demonstrating electric fencing techniques , my favourite story was keeping wild elephants out of sugar plantations, aparantly only needed a single strand hot wire as nelly is very curious they would reach out and touch the hot wire with their trunk, but it didn't take long for them to learn to pull the posts out and step over..
 
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