I'd like some ideas please....we've been keeping our goats in pens but this year we would like to let them graze the pasture so we don't have to brush hog. Our pasture is 4 strand barb wire ; we have horses. What wud the most effective and economical way to contain the goats be?
1. add more strands of barb
2. add more strands of barb with an elec wire
3. put field fence onto the barb
My husband has knee replacements so we are gonna have to pay somebody to do the labor for us.
The only thing I have about the elec wire is that we have a lot of outages out here in the sticks and what should the voltage be? Shud I leave the babies in the pen? Wudnt want to electrocute them!
The pasture is about 2 or 2=1/2 acres
Any advice wud be much appreciated!!
Replies
We used Red Top sheep and goat fence - we like it. It was easy to manage - about 300.00 for 333' - when we take them to a different grazing area in our wood we stay with them and there is no fencing. We have too many predators to leave them anywhere else but their penned area when they are alone and they have pasture there also. We run a very hot wire above the fence and a couple of feet high on the outside -for predators. Also keep quite a few Nite-Guards on posts. They have the flashing red light all night. Last for years.
well we purchased some of that staytuff goat fencing and had it installed. this fence is great! nothing is getting thru that fencing!!! We paid $299.00/per roll. a roll is 330 ft long. we like it so much that as time goes by we will be replacing all the old perimeter field fencing with it.
wow....talk abt a hot subject lol.....thanks so much for the info......im definitely off the barb and electric. Marin that staytuff looks like a good idea..specially for keeping predators out during the day! will have to compare cost of that versus woven.
then find a good ole boy to install cuz I swear we live on the rockiest patch of Missouri!
Marin Waddell said:
Sigh. I hate trying to figure out fencing for goats.
The other thing we're looking at is this:
http://www.staytuff.com/goat-fence.htm
I have 6 strand (all hot) wire. My herd of five all respect it. My first two doelings ran straight through it on the first day they arrived and then jumped right back through it and ran back to the safety of the barn. They never did it again (scared me to death!). The next doe I bought was 5 years old-- she tested it with her nose and got zapped and from then on she never tried again. Her babies who came along a couple of months later ran right through it following me out of the pasture, but they sort of stood there for a second (like "uh oh, I'm on the wrong side") and jumped back through never to try it again! I got a buck next (2 years old), he ran around the perimeter looking for a way out but never went through and never has. I have cattle panels between the boys and the girls and 2 hot strands of wire on the inside of the boy's pen to keep them off the fence. Works great. The bucks will definitely go through the wire to get to the girls though so the boys pen has to have cattle panels or something to keep them in. This is what works for me and I hope that continues!
It's great that it works for his goats, but if it doesn't work for your goats, that is a lot of money to waste. We started with electric because another goat breeder told us it worked. That first year we had one goat that didn't respect it, and each year it got worse and worse as other goats followed her until the whole herd would be out except for the goat I had bought from that women who said it worked for her! I think electric strands might work better for large goats. I don't see anything less than seven strands working for NDs because if you have less than that, it either won't be tall enough or the strands won't be close enough together. And you have no room for error. We started with strands too far apart, and we kept increasing the number of strands and putting them closer together, but it was too late. The goats had already learned that it was worth it to go through the fence. We were up to seven strands, six inches apart when we finally gave up and replaced it all with woven wire.
Marin Waddell said:
I agree with Deborah et al! No barbs!
I use the electro-net from Premier for mine and will be doing a lot more of it this year. Works great but you must make sure they are trained properly and that you don't let the electricity lapse for even 1 day. If they learn to test it and break out on weak days - you are in trouble. If you hook up to the house by putting an energizer there and attaching the fence or some sort of electrical outlet somewhere - you won't have to worry.
I use a battery and have to recharge it every couple days to keep shock value up for both goats and more important for me - predators. Not hard but is a nuisance. I don't trust solar in my area since New England has such irritating weather. I have friends who say their goats won't stay in electronets but I've never had any trouble with goats IN the fence. But don't leave it lying around for even an hour in a pile - as the goats will find it and get into it for nibbling purposes......
I have woven wire (NOT welded wire which is useless for goats) as a main fence around my pastures. You can move this around as a temporary fence as well - which I have done at both my sheep farm and the goat farm. Not as easy as panels but not hard. You put in t-posts (not U-posts) using a t-post pounder and hook the fence to it. I also have a post remover which is the best investment I've ever made - it pulls that post right out when you want to move it. So this is a great option if you want to fence a bigger area temporarily (or permanently). I use non-climbable horse fencing with holes 2x4 inches.
But for ease of quickly moving the goats around and any areas with lots of rocks - the electronet is really the most simple and ideal.
For your info - if you put baby goats in the fence - do it when they are older - not tiny babies. Youngsters of all species go forward when shocked often and can be killed by repeated shocks as they can't figure out how to get away. Once they are about 12 weeks - a shock will take care of it with most although one of my goats just HAD to test it 3 times in one hour while I sat there watching. Never again however did she test it.
Judy
I am not a fan of single-strand electric fencing because that is what was on this farm when we moved here, and it proved completely worthless. A moment of pain is a small price to pay if goats see something on the other side that looks good to them. And being herd animals, most of the others will follow. I know someone who had electric, but she had seven strands that were 6 inches apart and 6 inches from the ground, which means you have to be out there ever week with a weed wacker to keep the grass from shorting out the fence. Not fun!
Glenna's idea is good if you do not have a lot of goats. Along the same lines, if you have more than 3-4 goats, using Premier Electronet works well for most NDs and is inexpensive because you can move it from place to place. Whenever you put goats in there for the first time, you just need to watch them for a few minutes in case someone gets tangled up and you need to turn off the fence to get them untangled. Goats are smart, and I have only ever had one goats who did that more than once. Kids stay far away after their first little shock.
If you want to permanently fence off a large area, I would use (we do use) woven wire.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next