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THE ELECTRIC FENCE, FRIEND OR FOE?

Whilst I was away during the war somebody invented the Electric Fence. When I returned it was in its infancy but thriving. In ’48 when I started farming on my own account fences could be picked up for eight or nine pounds at farm sales, but the batteries were always useless. The old glass accumulators were still in use for the rural wireless and they made a good substitute. You could get three linked together and they would fit into the compartment at the back..., or the battery that wouldn’t start the car would hold enough charge for the fencer. Then came the rechargeable dry batteries and eventually the throw-away dry battery.

The advent of the transistor took the audible tick out of the fencer and it was replaced by a flashing light and another type of throw-away battery. I’ve watched the pony listening for the tick before he tried the fence but he doesn’t bother now. There’s no doubt that the modern fencer is far more efficient in keeping animals in their place but the cost of batteries seems to increase monthly.

The invention of the electric fence changed the shape of farming for the stockman. The company which exploited it created a whole new system of grassland management. I doubt if it was deliberate but it came to stay. Over thirty years in fact, but now, like all fashions it is on the wane. It created a demand for porcelain and later, plastic for insulators. For steel and again, later, for plastics for fencing wire and posts. Modern reels and fencing ‘string’ are a fraction of the original weight.

Equipped with all this paraphernalia the cowman, the pigman and the shepherd altered his whole system. Particularly the cowman. The boffins thought up improvements like back fences and later, paddock grazing. All through the summer the ground was fertilized, chain-harrowed and rested for three weeks. Ideally these jobs were done daily over the area fed off the day before. The stockman, particularly the dairyman, became a slave to the damn thing. It had to be moved before each grazing period. “Will somebody move the fence before the cows go out?” If the cows hadn’t got enough they were quite likely to get through the fence but you try to get them back. You always ended up by giving them more than you intended in the first place.

And then there was the shock when you accidentally touched the live wire or your ‘assistant’ switched the thing on as you were fastening the other end to the hedge. The Vet calved a cow out in the field at dusk and then relieved himself in the hedgerow. He didn’t see the wire in the dim light. “I thought I’d lost my manhood ...,” he said.

I’ve farmed for thirty years and the whole time the Electric Fence has been a vital part of the farm equipment. Until this year that is. Now I’m doing what my Grandfather did. Turning the cows out into the field. Set Stocking they call it today but whatever they call it I like it. No more worries about the fence. Have we got a battery if that one runs out? Will that bloody Polly get through and lead the others? Will the long grass in the hedgerow short out the spark? No more. One fencer lies in the shed and the other lends moral support to a weak hedge that my neighbour will not make. The cows have the run of ten acres, fourteen acres, it depends if the gate is open or shut. Each cow has the choice of the whole area instead of the acre or so I would have allowed her in competition with the rest. They are consequently more contented and milk yields have maintained a steady level the whole summer. Mind you, there have been no high peaks but neither have they slumped into a gloomy trough and taken a day or so to get over it because I didn’t give them enough grass. A few hours a month to put on some complete and the job’s done. If you misjudged the growth rate when fencing the grass became unpalatable before you had crossed the field. Although on flat ground it would go into hay or silage it was more difficult on steep land. The dung is spread over a wider area so there is not such a high percentage of unpalatable grass to be trimmed off.

Driving from Dorset to Pembroke at ‘turnout time’ this Spring convinces me that the Electric Fence has had its day. More than half the herds I saw were ‘free-ranging’. I think the thing’s on its way out and I can’t say I’m sorry. It was comparatively expensive to buy and maintain. It was never one hundred percent successful and in any case, the blasted thing bit me more than once! No, I’m not sorry to see it go!