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The Grazing Grass Podcast features insights and stories of regenerative farming, specifically emphasizing grass-based livestock management. Our mission is to foster a community where grass farmers can share knowledge and experiences with one another. We delve into their transition to these practices, explore the ins and outs of their operations, and then move into the "Over Grazing" segment, which addresses specific challenges and learning opportunities. The episode rounds off with the "Famous Four" questions, designed to extract valuable wisdom and advice. Join us to gain practical tips and inspiration from the pioneers of regenerative grass farming.
This is the podcast for you if you are trying to answer: What are regenerative farm practices? How to be grassfed? How do I graze other species of livestock? What's are ways to improve pasture and lower costs? What to sell direct to the consumer?
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0:00:01 - Cal
Welcome to the Grazing Grass Podcast, episode 103. You're listening to the Grazing Grass Podcast, sharing information and stories of grass-based livestock production utilizing regenerative practices. I'm your host, Cal Hardage. On today's show, we are going to talk about the equipment I use on my farm. I've used a lot of different types of equipment over the years and I'm going to tell you what I like to use, what I buy, as well as a couple brands that I avoid. Granted, I'm using my experiences. Your experiences may differ, but it has taken me a while to settle on these, so I hope this is beneficial for you.
Currently, I have three types of energizers. The first one I have is just a little Gallagher Solar, I want to say like an S15. It's not very big at all and I have a very specific use case for it. If you listen to the podcast for very long, you know on my dad's farm we have permanent pastures, subdivisions, so I'm able to go in and I can string up a single polywire from one side of the fence to another. And that little Gallagher solar-powered energizer works really good to power that single stretch. I have powered more stretches with it, but I quickly run to the end of it maintaining a good charge because I want it to put out a few kilovolts, so those animals know not to touch it, and it works really good in those cases. And I just ground it to the fence.
Now, granted, when you're grounding to a fence, you think, oh, this fence has a lot of posts in the ground, a lot of connections. It's going to be a great ground. Be careful with that, because the ground is, as far as I'm concerned, the most important part of your fence. If you're hooking that clip to a T-post, make sure that T-post isn't all rusty. I prefer to hook it to a wire that's nice, galvanized, and it'll make a better connection there If you connect it to that. It's got a lot more points to connect to the T-post and go into the ground. I think that just works better rather than a single point on the back of a T-post.
To be honest, that's not my preferred way. I have some little three-foot ground rods that are a T and they go right in the ground. I much prefer to use those, if I can, occasionally I don't have one with me or something along that line and then I will hook that clip to a tee post or to a wire. I just want to make sure it's making a good connection. And then one thing I do suggest test that fence every day. In fact I didn't put down on my list a fence tester.
A fence tester is highly valuable. In fact I use a SpeedRite remote. Even though I'm not using SpeedRites most of the time, I like that. It gives me a digital display of how many votes are going through that fence, of how many votes are going through that fence and if there's losing some along the fence somewhere, it tells me what it's losing and the arrow and points that way. They are expensive and I think Gallagher has one that will do the same thing.
I just haven't used it. I started with SpeedRy or StayFix remotes and I have just continued to use them, even though I'm not necessarily using their energizers all the time. For the other properties we lease, I don't have those short runs. I have much greater runs of fence. In fact, in both of the long-term leases I have a high tensile wire put up that I use as a feeder wire. Basically, now as I've done that, I should have put up that feeder wire in a different place, at least on one of the properties. But that's a learning experience. The feeder wire carries it on places that I have short term. I don't have any high tensile up, but I do use my same Energizer setup that I'll talk about in just a moment.
So on those high tensile feeder wires, I have a Cyclops solar box. It's probably got some kind of technical name. I probably should have looked that up. It uses a Cyclops charger in there. I think I have a Brute or a Champ and the box is built. It has the solar panel mounted on it. It's got the solar charge controller inside it. You just have to pick up a marine deep cycle battery. Okay, works really good. It has been my favorite.
I do have two of those. One of them I'm having a little bit of trouble with, but it's. I'm thinking my solar charge controller needs changed out. I think it's messing up. I've got to do some testing and see it. I'm bad news on it, though. I put it in back of my pickup, had a trailer on and I cracked the solar panel on there, so I've got to buy a new solar panel for it. But that was user error and that happened last week.
In addition to the Cyclops, which I use all the time on the home farm, our dad's place, I have a Stayfix or Speedrite Sorry, those two brands combined. I have a Speedrite that plugs in and we use it to power some lines here. I don't use it very much because I've had a lot of trouble keeping it going just because I'm running that hot wire right against a bob wire fence or a goat wire fence, field wire fence, and just keeping that wire off the fence has given me some trouble with the upkeep of that. It's actually something I need to work on a little bit more and it'd make dividing dad's pastors up a little bit easier than maybe even using that little Gallagher. But that little Gallagher solar charger works really well. In the past I've used some other brands, those three brands I've been the happiest with.
I have tried to overpurchase on Jules. The Gallagher solar charger is not an overpurchase, it's a little tiny one. I think Dad and I was talking about when we purchased that one Dad's much more. They shouldn't cost that much. I'm more like let's buy as much as we we think is reasonable to handle everything we need. And that's what I love about those Cyclops solar boxes with a brute or a champ in those. They just work so well.
And both those properties are around 80 acres, just so you can give an idea. And I've got one feeder wire and then I'll run. I may have up to five or six reels running off that at a time and one of the places I may run up to four deals of electro netting off it. So they do a really good job with that, even though the electro netting causes a lot more spots for it to ground out. Just talking about the feeder wire I have up, it's this high tensile 12.5 gauge wire.
For the line post I use Pasture Pro. They work really good as long as there's no force left or right on them. As long as they can just stand up and they hold the wire off the ground, they work great. If it's pulling a direction on it they'll bend over a little bit, so I do not use them for any corners or change in direction or my end post. And for my end post I'm using, I want to say, inch fiberglass that I pounded into the ground and when I pound it in I don't pound it in straight up and down, I pound it with a 10 degree leaning back away from the fence. At the end of the fence it's leaning back 10 degrees. Go in a little bit of angle. That way when it pulls it straightens up just a little bit. When I do a change of direction around a corner I just lean it back into that corner. So both wires are pulling it forward and that works reasonably well. I put them in the ground, drill a hole in them, connect them with just some soft wire, some belling wire. On the Pasture Pro I drill a hole and sometimes I use cotter pins and sometimes I just use some kind of soft wire or belling wire to hold it up on the fence. On the fiberglass poles I paint them with white enamel spray paint after I get them in place. Works reasonably well. Now, when we move on beyond those high tensile wires, I'm using my reels and I'm putting out some poly braid.
I'm using tread end posts and I am a huge advocate for O'Brien Tread and Posts. I've used a number of other Tread and Posts, usually locally sourced, and I think I could look at them wrong and they would break. I have since gone to where, if I need some Tread and Posts, I just buy a box of 50 O'Brien tread end posts from Ken Cove or American Grazing Lands or Powerflex and get them here. It has worked so well, I think out of however many hundred. I have one with one broken clip, and that was. The clip was up and the wire got twisted around it and I was pulling on the wire and really I don't I really don't know how I put that much strength on it, but anyway it broke off that little bit Still usable. I do have one that smashed, but it still works great. Otherwise, it's amazing. They can bend over, they pop back up. I think they're really worth the investment.
If you are going to use Tread Post, go ahead and spend the money for O'Brien's. You'll be happy. You did, in fact, some of these things Energizer, spend the money for it. Tread Post, spend the money for it. Polybraid, I think you could get by it a little bit cheaper. You could get by with a little bit cheaper reels, but I'll tell you what I go ahead and use on those. So when I'm putting up those temporary runs, I'm using O'Brien tread end posts.
Now I do use some ring top posts occasionally, especially if I'm turning a corner or changing direction. I like those and for those I use a Gallagher ring top. I have used a number of different pigtails and I'm just not a fan of any of them. The ring top seemed to be my favorite. Now the ring top. The big disadvantage of it is I only have a single height I can put that wire. That's one reason I like the tread end post. I can lower that wire, I can raise it, depending on my needs at the time. Ring top does not give me that ability but it does provide me a little bit stouter post. For that change of direction, I have recently just purchased a handful of the Gallagher ring top multi-wire ones to see how they work and actually the little spikes on them. They've got two spikes and both those spikes are metal where the ring top that I have has that metal from the post spike but then the other spike that you step on is just plastic. I've not had any trouble with that. But those multi-wire ring top posts are made a little bit heavier. Just my initial reaction. I haven't put them next to each other and I haven't used those multi-wire ones yet.
Something on the O'Briens, as I look at my notes that I didn't cover. You can buy those in a few different colors. I've gone with white. To me that works reasonably well. I have heard some arguments against having white if you're in an area that gets a lot of snow, I would assume they'd be hard to see against snow. Gets a lot of snow, I would assume they'd be hard to see against snow. It's not a great big problem for me. Very rare is the issue. I like the white. It works really well.
One thing I've seen people use the tread-in posts, the ring toffs, the pigtails, to figure out some way to hold the reel at the end of a run. Every time I do that it just does not last. I've tried different things using like three tread-in posts, a couple at an angle or something, or a pigtail or ring top with a tread-in as a brace or even another pigtail as a brace. I've not found anything I really like. So what I use is a Terra post and it is a steel post and goes down all the way down and it's got three little legs out that really hold it stable. They're more expensive than anything else or a lot of other options, but I like them. I think they're valuable. I have a couple of them and I'll probably get a couple more, because that really for me works really well to make that corner or that end of a run right out in the middle of somewhere where I can't hang a post or hang a reel on a fence or something.
I have used and I do have a power post reel stand and one thing I really like about that it actually you can unclip it and it's got a center part that can raise up and down to hammer that into the ground. So if you have really hard ground that is easier getting the ground than the terra post. I don't use it as often but I will use it occasionally. So both of those I really like I'll probably increase the number of terra posts I have and also those come with a hook for one reel. If you're going to do multi-wires off that, you've got to buy a second adapter or second reel holder to put on it for reels. I have a whole bunch of reels and a whole bunch of brands and I have one brand I won't buy again and I have a couple of brands that I prefer. Probably my favorite at this point are the O'Briens. All my reels I say all my reels all my standard size reels are geared so they're three to one. Huge difference when you're rolling out fence and getting it back in.
The smoothest feeling reel to me are the Terragates. But I have had trouble. I've had one ship to me that when I got it the gears inside didn't work, and I had a second one that after a little bit of use the gears inside quit working and then the handle would just spin and it's not doing anything. I had to hand crank it up. I was able to get a hand roll back up and then it started working and I should have known better. But I used it until it messed up.
For me again Terragates. I will not buy any more of those. I've talked to one of the vendors and I've got gears to change it out. But to be honest, I buy those. I don't want to fix the gears on the inside. I want them to work when I get them. So I won't be buying any more Terragates. I will lean towards O'Briens or I really like my Gallagher.
I only have one Gallagher geared reel until last week, but I've only got one that's got all the features like a guard on your hand deal and on your grip and a little lever that holds it onto the fence. I've heard of people talk about how that's really beneficial keep their animals from knocking it off the fence. To me it's just features I don't need. I'm not running into that problem. If I was running into that problem then I would probably want that little latch to keep it on the fence. And what I'm talking about. You've got that single hook up there. It's got a little plastic lever that flips over and closes that gap so it doesn't come off the fence. So to that end, I was at the feed store the other day and they had Gallagher reels and I'm needing another reel and they had a Gallagher Economy reel. So it's a reel without all those extra features that I don't think I need. So I purchased it. Now I know right off I don't think I'm going to like the handle of it, but I'm going to try it and see how it works for me.
So to summarize that my favorite are the O'Brien gear grills. A Gallagher comes in second and there's a few other brands I find okay, I do not buy Terragate gear grills anymore. Also, when you're buying grills, some grills come with a single metal hook. That's what I want. There are some grills that'll have two hooks. I have a couple of those and they are my least favorite. For one, they don't work with my terra post. They work great if I'm running up to a, a barbed wire fence or I'm connecting to my feeder wire. Actually, to be honest, I don't even like them while connecting to my feeder wire because then I wrap the poly braid around it to make a connection and it just doesn't wrap around those two hooks as well as it wraps around a single hook. So I will not buy any double hooked gear drills. In addition to the gear drills, I have a couple of mini drills that are just one to one, so I have those for if I need something really short.
And my favorite right now is the Gallagher mini reel. It's got a pin that works as a stop, which works better than the others I have, and it's orange and, being a Oklahoma State alumna Oklahoma State alumna I am a fan of orange. I don't use those often. I will sometimes use those to cross a gate or, if I need to, if I'm driving cows to cross an area, to block it off If I'm getting cows in. Sometimes I use that reel versus a bigger reel. I don't use them often, but occasionally it's nice to have.
On most of my reels I use a zammer handle on it and that gives me the option of having a dead handle. It's plastic so I can hook it on to the wire and it can be in the plastic so it doesn't carry any current down that wire as I'm doing whatever. Or I can put it in another space and it's metal on the wire and it electrifies that reel. I really like that because it gives me the options of either way, and I do whenever I buy a new reel. That plastic handle I take off and I put that zammer handle on. Now I hold on to the plastic handle because the zammer handle does not work with my terra post. So in that case if I'm hooking up the end of the wire to a terra post, I use one of those plastic handles and then I hook the zammer handle to that. I use one of those plastic handles and then I hook the zammer handle to that. And I know American Grazing Land has that. I'm sure Kenco Pyroflex probably has those too, but I really like those.
For my wire I'm using poly braid. I like the visibility of it. It's a little bit bigger. I have used that Gallagher Smart Fence which is the four wires all put together. It's a really an engineering design marvel how good it works. But the wire is just so thin. I'm not a big fan of it and I've got some other wires that are thin and I don't like those. I like poly braid because they're thicker, more visible. And then I always buy the one with the nine mixed metal strands. So it has six stainless steel strands and three copper strands in it and I really like those and those work really well for me. I'm not partial to any one brand. I've used a lot of different brands. As long as it's the thicker type with the nine mixed metals, I like it. Now, something else that I use, that I'm trying to use, that is still in the early stages. So I'm going to tell you what I'm trying to get to work and you all may be able to help me on this.
When I'm carrying tread in posts and I do a lot of my fences by walking, I've thought about buying a UTV and ATV. In fact there's a question in the grazing grass community about UTVs and ATVs set up. I'm interested to see what you all have and how you have them set up For me. I walk so I carry 10 to 12 tread-in posts and then I've got the reel going and I can do that. 10 to 12 is about the max number of tread-in posts I want to carry in that and it's not real comfortable to carry those.
I was on Amazon one day and came across the firewood carriers and they have some that's just opened in. Both ends are open and you can lay the post in and wrap it around and carry it. I have one. It has worked okay. It's too narrow I think it's 18 inches so I want one that's wider and then the handles are too long. I need them shorter. But that's worked really well. I actually have one ordered that's a little bit different dimensions to see how it works. I will be sure and let everyone know in the grazing grass community how that goes for me and if I like it, if I can find one that works good, but it's really nice to be able to carry that in my hand, not have them under my arm, pinching my arm or my side.
I hope today's episode talking about equipment that I use for fencing beneficial for you. I'm sure you have some other tools that you like. Feel free to share those, especially if you're in the grazing grass community or on the grazing grass podcast, post about it. Let's find out what you're using, what works well for you. So if someone's looking out there thinking I need to get started. What should I go get? Here's our suggestion. Until next time, keep on grazing grass.
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