Hi, all, I just joined this forum and am planning for goats this spring/summer. The front half of the lot is a lightly wooded former sand pit, which looks to me like Goat Disneyland-- lots of rocks, stumps, a few fallen trees to climb on and (sad for me) some truly knarly slopes.
I know that 16' cattle panel comes highly recommended for goat penning, but does anyone have suggestions for the hillsides? It's really VERY steep-- 8 feet of rise over 5-6 feet depth in places.
My other question is predation-- will foxes/coyote/dogs try to leap the fence from uphill? Other than electric fence (neighbor issues) is there a way to keep them from trying? The goats will be secured in a barn at night.
Thank you!
Replies
Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:
Bucks will definitely jump hog panels. If does are motivated, they will jump them. That's what we used on our kidding pens in the small barn, and we have a 1 X 6 under each one, so that adds six inches to the height, plus a 2 X 4 goes across the top to add another two inches to the height, and I just had an 8-month-old doe jump it and get into a pen with a buck when she was in heat last week. So, it really depends on where you plan to use them. I should have never had a buck in that barn, and it would have been fine.
Melissa Johnson said:
speaking of panels - will 16' x 34" keep in Nigerians? Someone down the road from me used to breed Pygmies, she used them for them. I was thinking of buying a few from her - but they look short to me.........oh, they're hog panels not "cattle panels".
Will White said:
Thanks, Deborah and Will!
I am trying to avoid electric fencing only because the neighbor abutting the fence just found out (via official survey) that we own some of the property that he always thought was his. We're already getting a little blowback about the fence, and if anyone at their house ever brushed the thing and got zapped, we'd have even more problems. I'm trying to be a good neighbor, and these folks have been there forever, and they're extremely kind people, so I'll try the lowest impact option first and then beef it up if (when) the goats pull a Houdini.
I had a Great Pyr growing up and he was the best dog I ever knew. I'd love an excuse to get another!
Thanks again,
Jill
My goat pens are also on a pretty steep little hill. I have the 16' cattle panels and was concerned they wouldn't work because they don't bend legnth wise at all. I was lucky and one panel went almost the whole way down the hill with almost no problems. you can also cut panels with a small pair of bolt cutters so you can match the grade better. In places where the fence was a little high I took sections of tree trunk and filled the space in. I also used large fence staples to attach the bottom of the fence to the tree trunks. This seems to have worked pretty well. The goats haven't gotten out although they don't seem to motivated to try. I have a livestock guard dog so he keeps the predators away.
The only problem I have is that the goat shed is at the top of the hill and the goats hardly ever go in the bottom part of their pen because it is down hill. They stick to the top almost all the time.
Your property does sound like fun for goats. They will love all of those stumps. We have a lot of steep hills on our property, and about the only thing that works well as fencing is the electric with the single strands, but you will probably need five or six strands spaced no more than about 9 inches apart. Even then, if you have one goat who decides to start going through, she might teach everyone else to do it. It's very frustrating. Electric is very good at keeping out predators, so that's a plus. You can use Electronet from Premier on hillsides, but you have to gather up the excess and tie it up where the hill meets the flat land.
I don't think coyotes would jump over a fence in your situation, but I hate underestimating what's possible. Seems like whenever you have the right animal with the right motivation in the right situation, the improbable becomes probable.
Welcome to the group!