6 Electric Netting For Advanced Setups For Small Acreage

You’ve mastered the basic square paddock, moving your animals every week or so. But now you see the potential for more—for daily moves that build soil faster, for multi-species grazing that breaks parasite cycles, for using livestock to manage brushy corners of your property. To execute these advanced strategies, your simple, all-purpose netting might not be enough.

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Beyond Basic Paddocks: Advanced Netting Setups

Once you move past set-stocking, you realize a fence is more than a boundary. It’s a management tool. Advanced rotational grazing isn’t just about giving animals fresh grass; it’s about controlling grazing intensity, managing forage recovery time, and using animal impact to achieve specific land-management goals. This requires a fencing system that is as flexible and dynamic as your strategy.

The goal is to match the tool to the task. Are you implementing a leader-follower system with cattle and chickens? You’ll need a different setup than if you’re strip-grazing lambs on high-energy forage for a few hours at a time. The right netting allows you to create laneways, subdivide pastures with precision, and adapt your plan on the fly based on weather and forage growth.

Forget the idea of a single "best" fence. An advanced system often involves a combination of netting types. You might use a heavy-duty, highly visible net for a perimeter that stays up for a week, and an ultra-lightweight system for daily interior moves. The key is understanding the unique strengths and weaknesses of each option and how they fit into your larger vision for your land.

Premier 1 PoultryNet Plus for Versatile Grazing

This is the classic choice for pastured poultry, and for good reason. The mesh is tight at the bottom, keeping even young birds contained while deterring smaller ground predators like weasels or raccoons. Its effectiveness for chickens, ducks, and turkeys is well-established.

Its real power in an advanced system, however, is in multi-species grazing. Imagine your sheep or cattle graze a paddock down. You then follow them with a flock of laying hens enclosed in PoultryNet Plus. The chickens spread the manure, eat fly larvae, and sanitize the pasture, all while getting a protein-rich diet. This netting makes that symbiotic relationship portable and efficient.

The main tradeoff is management intensity. The lower horizontal strands are close to the ground and prone to shorting out on tall, wet grass. You must either mow a path for the fence line beforehand or move it frequently before regrowth becomes an issue. It can also be unwieldy to move, easily catching on stubble, so a patient and methodical technique is required.

Gallagher SmartFence 2 System for Rapid Moves

The SmartFence isn’t a net in the traditional sense; it’s an integrated system of 10 posts, four polywires, and a geared reel. Its defining characteristic is speed. One person can put up or take down its 330-foot length in under five minutes. This changes the entire equation for daily or even twice-daily paddock shifts.

This system is built for high-intensity, ultra-flexible strip grazing. If you’re trying to finish lambs on a lush stand of alfalfa or manage a small herd of dairy cows, the ability to allocate a precise amount of fresh forage every 12 or 24 hours is invaluable. This precision maximizes forage utilization, minimizes waste, and concentrates animal impact for faster soil building. It’s the ultimate tool for farmers who measure their moves in hours, not days.

Be realistic about its limitations. The SmartFence is a psychological barrier, not a physical one. It works beautifully for cattle and sheep that are well-trained to electric fences, but it is completely unsuitable for poultry. Goats, with their innate desire to test boundaries, may also require extra training and a very hot energizer to respect the four-strand setup.

Starkline Pro 48" Netting for Goats and Sheep

When you’re dealing with animals known for their athletic ability and general disregard for boundaries, you need a more formidable fence. Starkline’s Pro netting, particularly the 48-inch version, provides that extra security. Its height is a significant deterrent for goats that like to jump, and its semi-rigid vertical plastic "struts" help the fence stand taller and straighter, especially on uneven ground.

This netting truly shines in challenging environments like silvopasture or brush-clearing projects. When you’re fencing through wooded areas, the rigid struts prevent the netting from sagging and tangling on undergrowth as much as more flexible nets do. This makes it the ideal choice for containing a herd of goats tasked with clearing invasive honeysuckle or reclaiming overgrown pasture edges.

A taller, more robust fence demands more from your energizer. The extra height and heavy-duty construction mean you need a low-impedance charger with enough joules to power the entire length, even with some weed pressure. This is not a system to pair with a cheap, underpowered fencer. Think of it as a complete package: a serious fence for serious containment requires a serious power source.

Kencove ElectroNet: A Durable Farm Workhorse

Some tools are flashy, and some are just built to work. Kencove’s netting falls into the latter category. It’s known for its heavy-duty poly-twine and quality construction, making it a favorite on farms where equipment is expected to last for years, not just a season or two. This is the net you buy when you’re tired of repairing broken strands and replacing flimsy step-in posts.

In an advanced grazing plan, this durability makes it perfect for semi-permanent perimeter fences. You might use Kencove netting to enclose a one-acre block that your animals will be in for a week. Within that secure outer boundary, you can then use a lighter, more mobile fence (like the Gallagher SmartFence) to create smaller daily paddocks. The Kencove provides the reliable security, while the other system provides the daily flexibility.

The tradeoff for this durability is weight and handling. A well-built net is a heavier net. It takes more effort to haul, set up, and take down than its lighter-duty counterparts. For farmers prioritizing longevity and reliability over ultimate portability, it’s a compromise worth making.

Powerfields P-72N: Extra Height For Predators

Sometimes, the primary job of a fence isn’t keeping your animals in, but keeping other animals out. At 72 inches (6 feet), the Powerfields P-72N is an absolute beast of a net designed for maximum predator exclusion. This isn’t for containing sheep; it’s for stopping the deer that eat your high-value crops or the determined coyotes and neighborhood dogs that see your flock as a buffet.

An advanced application is to use this netting to create a secure night pen or "bombshell" paddock. Your animals can graze during the day in a standard, more portable net. In the evening, you move them into the smaller, ultra-secure P-72N pen located within the larger pasture. This gives them 24/7 access to forage while providing fortress-like protection during the most vulnerable hours.

A fence this tall is essentially a sail. You cannot skimp on setup. It requires heavy-duty corner posts and careful attention to tensioning to keep it from collapsing in high winds. It is a specialized tool for a specific and serious problem, and it demands a corresponding level of diligence to be effective.

Premier 1 Solar IntelliShock Kit for Off-Grid

An advanced fencing system is useless without a reliable power source, especially when your best pastures are a quarter-mile from the nearest outlet. A complete solar kit, like Premier 1’s IntelliShock series, isn’t just an accessory; it’s the heart of a truly portable grazing operation. These kits bundle a high-quality solar panel with a powerful, low-impedance energizer and a durable case, creating a self-contained power station you can move anywhere on your property.

This capability unlocks the full potential of your acreage. It allows you to implement sophisticated grazing plans on remote or rented land without worrying about running extension cords or constantly swapping batteries. You can finally bring that overgrown back pasture into your rotation, using animal impact to build fertility far from your barn.

The "IntelliShock" technology is what makes these units suitable for advanced setups. The energizer automatically adjusts its energy output, delivering a more powerful pulse when it detects a heavy weed load on the fence line. This provides a crucial buffer, keeping your fence hot even when conditions aren’t perfect—a common reality with temporary netting. It’s a smart system that reduces the constant worry about fence performance.

Choosing Netting for Your Rotational System

The most common mistake is buying a fence before fully defining your grazing strategy. The system dictates the tool, not the other way around. Before you choose, be clear about your goals. Are you focused on soil-building with daily moves, or are you managing escape-prone goats in a brushy landscape? The answer will point you to the right equipment.

There is no single "best" net, only the best net for a specific job. Use this framework to guide your decision:

• For maximum speed and daily strip grazing: A reel-based system like the Gallagher SmartFence 2 is unmatched.
• For versatile containment of poultry and small stock: A tight-meshed net like Premier 1 PoultryNet Plus is the standard.
• For escape-prone animals and challenging terrain: A taller, more rigid net like Starkline Pro provides extra security.
• For extreme predator pressure: Prioritize height above all else with a specialized net like the Powerfields P-72N.
• For a durable, all-around perimeter fence: A workhorse like Kencove ElectroNet is a solid investment.

Ultimately, the most advanced setups are often hybrid systems. A sophisticated small-acreage farm might own two or three different types of netting, deploying each one strategically. You might use a heavy-duty net for a secure boundary, a poultry net for your chicken flock, and a lightweight reel system for interior divisions. Building your toolkit over time allows you to adapt and respond to the unique needs of your land and your animals.

Stop thinking of electric netting as just a fence. It is a dynamic land management tool. By choosing the right combination of nets and power systems, you gain the ability to direct animal impact with precision, build soil health, and make your small acreage more productive and resilient than you ever thought possible.