Confining or restraining goats during fence rotation?

[woodlumn]

Hi there,

I'm pretty new to goat keeping, been in it for a month and a half. I have two kiko goats, each of whom gave birth to twins a few weeks ago. The goats are helping me clean up our land, which is a jungle of invasives. They're doing an incredible job!

They are kept within movable electric net fence, three lengths of the stuff (about a half-acre area). I have to rotate them about every two or three weeks. It's tough work, but it really wouldn't be such a project if I could somehow keep the goats in one spot until the new location was ready. As it is now, the goats are "free" the whole time I'm taking down, relocating, and setting the fence back up. It's a little nerve wracking when they start to wander off. My wife (with our daughter on her back) keeps an eye on them and does what herding she can do, and leads them with treats when they agree. So far so good, we've not lost any goats after 5 rotations, but...

I'd really love to be able to tie them up or box them in somehow. We don't have any structures available for this. We leashed one of the goats a couple of times so we could milk out an engorged teat. I held the leash while my wife milked, but the one time I tied her off instead of holding her, she got tangled up and started choking and we had to help her out of it, so I'm not sure about tying them up again...

Any suggestions for low-cost, home made, or otherwise resourceful solutions?

Thank you!!

John

 

[ksalvagno]

Could you buy more of the electric fencing to make a small one while you move the other stuff? My suggestion would be some way to make a small holding pen. Corral panels that hook together would be good. Have it in the pen where ever you move it so they get used it. Then herd them into the pen and close the panel while you move the fence. Then you can hook them up and lead them to the new area. Then move the panels. Put the pen in a corner so it is easy to run them in. Use 4 panels and then keep one open all the time so they can wander in and out of it at their leisure so it isn't a scary place to be.

 

[woodlumn]

Thank you for the ideas. Corral panel is too costly for me, but maybe I can use cattle panel instead.

I'll have to think about a good method for assembling them...something that can be quickly set up and taken down...maybe just tying the corners together with rope. If I'm strategic enough, I can always place it along the fenceline, keeping it as a 3-sided pen when not in use and acting as a door for the next rotation.

 

[20kidsonhill]

When we didn't have a barn, we had cattle panels set up in a square, and a feeder in it, so we could get them used to going in and out of it, We used t-posts to support it, I realize you want to be able to move it around, but I really think you are going to need at least one t-post per corner for some support. Wouldn't have to pound them in the ground all the way, just enough for some extra support.

 

[woodlumn]

Thanks for that.

How did you connect the panels?

 

[SDBoerGoats]

We have set up temporary cattle panels, or hog panels, for grazing parts of the barn area. I am talking about the kind that are like 16 to 20 ft long and made up of squares, smaller at the bottom and get larger. I took bungie cords, and wrapped them around the 2 panels at the corners where I put 2 of them together, then I stretched the ends of the cords and hooked them on the panel squares. I only used 2 bungies as my goats were pretty tame and gentle, but you could do one top, bottom and in the middle. Works pretty slick.

 

[20kidsonhill]

OUrs are just wired on the posts and if connecting more than one panel we would put in another post, but for your situation, I don't think you would need more than one panel per side.

You can use these, not sure how easy they are to get on and off or how easy they are to find. http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=221

 

[woodlumn]

Bungie cords...I like the way that sounds.

Those wire hinges look pretty cool too, thanks for the heads up!

 

[SDBoerGoats]

Bungie cords...I like the way that sounds.

Those wire hinges look pretty cool too, thanks for the heads up!

They worked great for us, and actually pretty sturdy too. We just put 4 panels together. I didn't use too long of bungie cords either, enough to wrap the 2 panels together, then stretched it to hook on one of the squares. They were surprisingly sturdy.

 

[SDBoerGoats]

OUrs are just wired on the posts and if connecting more than one panel we would put in another post, but for your situation, I don't think you would need more than one panel per side.

You can use these, not sure how easy they are to get on and off or how easy they are to find. http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=221

Those hinges look really neat, not that expensive either. Be good to have some of those on hand.