Sorry Guys and Gals, but I'm not that hip when it come to farming. A friend of mine has asked me to wire his horse barn. So the first thing I read was Art. 547. It was not that difficult to understand. I understand that I have to install a ground plane and a voltage gradient. But everywhere I research the issue it refurs to cows. Does it also apply to horses? My friend only has 2 horses and a tack area. I plan on running a 60 amp service, 4 wire with an insulated ground, 2 ground rods at the barn, all GFCI protection for recepticles, fixtures that are dust-tite, no electrical in the stables, NMC and PVC for protection, and the ground plane with a voltage gradient consisting of 4 ground rods driven at a 45 deg angle away from the structure no less than 12" apart at the enterance.
Thanks a Blessings

The cow reference is because of milking operations- where there is lots of moisture around. At least, that's what I imagine.
You also might keep in mind that fertilizer (both store-bought and locally 'manufactured' is quite corrosive. Animals can, and will, do the darndest things to anything they can reach. And, where you have food, vermin follow.

Cows and the slightist amount of stray voltage do not mix. That is why everything needs to be bonded very well. Was at a farm about 8years ago,26 cows belly up, barn cleaner shorted out ,30amp circuit energized the whole barn floor,dropped like flys as the farmer put it. Barn wired in RX, about 60years ago.

So I will assume the same holds true for horses. Except for the milking, of course. Unless you are weird.
Blessings, Mark

Pigs too, A customer called me up with a completely unrelated problem upon arriving at the farm I noticed Rudy was not there,( a huge 500 # Stud-Boar which the owner paid a premium price)
wheres Rudy I asked he said he had sold him becuase he had not been doing his job. The others were somewhat antsy too, come to find out he had a stray voltage problem on the electric heater for water trough about 1 1/2 volts, the heater kept the lines from freezing in cold weather.
After that I started checking out ' Stray-Voltage' sites and there is a huge problem wiht this.
The farmers and some blame the power companies and the PoCos blame the farm wiring, the problem just gets passed around.
Some of the papers I have read said it had a lot to do with the PoCos grounding the primary and secondary neutrals together and their neutrals actually being too small and the earth being used as an alternate return path for neutral current. In some areas the power companies will separate the neutrals for a particular,(squeaky wheel policy)but charge an arm and a leg for it, which is called a neutral isolator.
Again it comes down to balancing loads for alot of the problems.

Wm.Colt

I posted this link on this board some time ago...suprised it's still active-you may find some 'interesting' info here !! http://www.strayvoltage.org/stories/index.php3