Power to the people

When you live an hour’s drive from your property, keeping your stock where they should be is something you don’t want to worry about.

Farmer Stefan Robinson has a powerful ally on that front - Gallagher’s new MBS400 Energizer, which runs off a variety of power sources – mains, battery or solar. The unit has been running electric fences on his 40-hectare lease block at Mt Bruce, one hour from his home farm in Featherston. Stefan says the unit is keeping his stock where they’re supposed to be. “I hadn’t used a solar unit before. The previous ones we’ve used have just been plug-in mains units. This unit runs on solar, electrical power and battery. It’s simple. You just switch between them. “It’s really easy to set up and you can just leave it to do its thing. We’re getting good power out of the unit and the stock are staying where they should be.” The smaller electrical unit he had been using wasn’t getting enough power onto the hills at the back of the lease property, so he bought the MBS400 Energizer. “It’s easy to pick it up and put it anywhere on the property. You don’t need to worry about having mains power at the back of your property because you can just set the Energizer unit up as a solar unit,” says Stefan. He is using the unit to power about half of the property. It proved its worth during a recent power failure, which took out power to most of the property’s fences. “Because the MBS400 Energizer is a solar unit, I could just change it over to solar which meant there was still power over most of the property.” The unit is designed to cover up to 16ha or 30km of fencing and it is reliable, no matter what power source you choose to use. LED bar graphs on the unit indicate fence performance and battery life. It is also portable, water resistant and has built-in lightning protection. A smart battery management algorithm also protects the battery from being over-discharged and permanently damaged.

For further information, contact your Farmlands Technical Field Officer or the friendly team at your local Farmlands store.

Article supplied by Gallagher

| The multi-purpose MBS400 Energizer runs off a range of power sources.