The Electric Fence Grounded Out - Solved It!

As we drove into the driveway from church today, I looked out in the pasture and saw our two little bulls, Junior and Astro.  They were in the wrong paddock.  How in the world did they get through the electric fence?  Two strands of electric fence, actually.  The animals have been trained (by being shocked) to be fearful of the electric fence.  They normally keep their distance, but today, they went through the fence like a hot knife through butter.  Either the charger stopped working or the fence is grounded out somewhere.  I had to find it.  I went to the drawer that holds all my fencing materials and picked up my electric fence tester and headed out to the pasture.

My normal course of action is to walk out and trace the entire electric fence, looking for a place where I can find that the 'hot' wire is touching the fence wire, or a t-post, or maybe a limb has fallen across the hot wire, grounding it.  As I started walking toward the perimeter fence that runs north and sound and then east and west, I noticed that an oak tree in the neighbor's yard had fallen.  It is a water oak tree, one that is susceptible to borer beetles and rot.

This could be where the problem lies.  I walked closer to the downed tree.  You can begin to see the cross-fencing.  Oh, no!  Did I have a big fencing job today that I wasn't expecting?

Fortunately, the tree didn't fall across the fence, but fell against it.  The fence was still intact and standing, but we needed to investigate further.

As I surveyed the scene closer, I think I can spot the problem.  The treetops poking through the fence appears to be pushing through, perhaps touching the hot wire.

Here is a close-up shot of the problem.  This is just one of many places where both branches AND fence wire is touching the hot wire.  In these cases, the fence is "grounded out," and this results in the electrical charge going into the ground and not down the fencing.  This is precisely why the bull calves were bold enough to go through the electric fence.  No electric charge to pop them.

I had also brought an ax out with me and I began to chop all of the branches that were pushing against the fence, throwing them back across into the neighbor's yard.  With more chopping, the fence began to be free of all of the branches causing our problem.

At last the hot wire that runs along the perimeter fence was freed!

One last thing to do.  I hooked up my tester to see if the fence was conducting a charge.  Yes!  All five lights were flashing, letting me know that the problem was solved.

I put the bull calves back where they belonged.  They'll test out the fence soon enough and will be shocked (pardon the pun) to discover that the fence works again.  They'll once again build a healthy respect for the fence and stay where they are supposed to stay.