Fencing smarts from the Emerald Isle
While a leading New Zealand brand seems to have a stranglehold on the local electric fencing market, a company from the Green Isle seems to be making significant inroads, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere.
Four years after he quit farming, Tim Deans, an engineering-savvy guy, has emerged from his Rangiora workshop with a new electric fence add-on.
His creativity was spurred by poor fencing on his property.
A need for temporary fencing and gates prompted a design that uses existing hot wires and pig-tail standards, but adds an element of greater security and versatility in awkward shaped areas.
Hence his patented Wack Y Post, with a central insulated sleeve that slides over then pins to conventional Y-section steel posts.
This in turn carries a stainless steel plate with wire guides and hook points for reels and gate fasteners. The layout of the plate allows ‘hot’ wires to be run in any direction and if required be run 360 degrees without intersecting.
The insulators are made of recycled plastic and the carrier plate is made from 304 grade stainless steel.
Deans says using the Wack Y posts for temporary fencing can increase overall strength and security. He says Y-posts driven to about 400mm gives a fence line more stability than a run of pigtail standards.
“This means that using the Wack Y Post system for key locations or direction changes, with pigtails for the straight runs, makes for a very secure fence,” he said.
The posts have been tested holding dairy heifers, horses and ponies and “always maintained their integrity”.
The fitment also allows units to be ‘stacked’ one on another to create a multi-strand fence if required, limited only by the length of Y-post.
Orange insulators make the fence easy to see in long grass and gateways.
The four guideposts and ring connector on each assembly make direction changes easy, eg around awkwardly shaped areas such as paddock corners or ponds or watercourses.
Used for feed breaks, Wack Y Posts can be run in lengths with intermediate breaks or to suit smaller mobs.
A partnership between Canterbury milk processor Synlait and the world's largest food producer, Nestlé, has been celebrated with a visit to a North Canterbury farm by a group including senior staff from Synlait, the Ravensdown subsidiary EcoPond, and Nestlé's Switzerland head office.
Canterbury milk processor Synlait is blaming what it calls "a perfect storm" of setbacks for a big loss in its half year result for the six months ended January 31, 2026.
More of the same please, says Federated Farmers dairy chair Karl Dean when asked about who should succeed Miles Hurrell as Fonterra chief executive.
A Waikato farmer who set up a 'tinder' for cows - using artificial intelligence to find the perfect bull for each cow - days the first-year results are better than expected.
Fonterra says it's keeping an eye on the Middle East crisis and its implications for global supply chains.
The closure of the McCain processing plant and the recent announcement of 300 job losses at Wattie’s underscore the mounting pressure facing New Zealand’s manufacturing sector, Buy NZ Made says.
OPINION: The good news keeps getting better for NZ dairy farmers.
OPINION: With export of livestock by sea dead in the water, opponents of the Gene Technology Bill think they can…