Phil,

Good questions!  To insure I supplied you with the correct technical information, I asked Erwin Quinn, president of Gallagher USA, to address your question.  He replied…

We have a general rule of thumb regarding energizers and wildlife, and that is to use a minimum of a 1 joule, low impedance energizer.  This is the “general rule of thumb” because we deal with wildlife in different environments, with different population densities, with different human interaction experiences and with varying successes or failures with previously tried fences or exclusion devices, so we deal with a world of exceptions.  If we have food plots exceeding 15 acres, or extremely high deer populations, or drought conditions where the food plot is the only green vegetation in existence, or deer that have successfully breached prior attempts at fencing a food plot, we then need to move up in energizer power.  In all cases we want to avoid solar or battery energizers that go into a sleep or night mode to preserve battery life at night because almost everything we want to control is nocturnal and we need maximum power with minimum pulse interval at night.  110 volt, battery or solar, doesn’t make any difference because a joule is a joule regardless of what electrical source it is generated from; but the lowest cost per output will always be 110 volt.

Your question regarding which conductor to use is tied for the #2 reason for food plot failures.  #1 is energizer selection, #2 is improper grounding and/or the use of an inadequate conductor.  Because it is the fence is the conductor of the “shock’ that is going to make the fence work?  You want the most highly conductive product available.  Polywire has become a generic term for anything containing an electrical conduction filament, with no requirements on its conductivity or standardization on its construction.  As a result, there are “polywires” on the market with three conductive filaments and others with up to eight filaments; some are stainless, some aluminum, some copper, some mixed metals.  Don’t buy anything with less than six conductive filaments and whenever possible use the “turbo” products which are 40 times more conductive than polywire.  Because the initial success of a food plot fence is its visual awareness to the animal being controlled, which in turn stimulates the inquisitive nature of all animals, we want to use 1/2 inch tape in the external fence of all applications.

Thanks for your interest!

Thanks Erwin for addressing Phil’s question.

Growing Deer together,

Grant