confused on fencing

[Robyn8]

Ok goat people I have a new question. My husband just paced off the area we plan to pasture and it's only about 80 x 150 ft which gives us 12,000 sq ft (0.28 acre). I thought it was a lot bigger so now I'm bummed. We can add another section in a year or two but it involves moving my husband's tree stand he's not game to do that this year. We wanted to get two Nigerian dwarf kids and 2 market lambs for 4h. The lambs will be gone end of August. Providing hay and grain is not an issue. I know we'll need to and that's fine. The area is all overgrown grass and weeds. It grows like crazy. Is this small of a pasture worth splitting and rotating? Again not worried about the land providing all their food just worried about them trampling it or eating too much and killing it. If we provide plenty of hay will they be ok on that space without killing it all?

 

[Robyn8]

We do have a lot of other area we could set them out to graze on like a leash sort of set up. Just not area we'd like to fence in.

 

[Bruce]

You can by the way, buy woven wire in 600' + rolls.

Though you'll never be able to lift it without machinery

I don't think I would bother permanently partitioning a section that is 80'x150' for the purposes of rotation with 4 animals. You could always use a section of electronet if you did have occasional need.

 

[Robyn8]

Though you'll never be able to lift it without machinery

I don't think I would bother permanently partitioning a section that is 80'x150' for the purposes of rotation with 4 animals. You could always use a section of electronet if you did have occasional need.

Thanks! My husband doesn't want to section it so this is great feedback!

 

[Latestarter]

Nahhhh... they'll be fine. If they do get it all the way down to dirt, you'll have less parasite issues.

 

[James Shiloh]

The welded wire I’ve put up does not hold up, but the goat fence from tractor supply has been awesome. I put the posts 6 foot on center.

 

[tindi]

We used red brand 5' woven horse fence from TSC but my goats have horns and I didn't want them getting tangled in the fence. Been up 5 years with no issues.

 

[greybeard]

The welded wire I’ve put up does not hold up, but the goat fence from tractor supply has been awesome. I put the posts 6 foot on center.

That's why it has 'been awesome". Mine are spaced twice that distance most places, some places 15' apart. Even along the highway where there's 2200' of net fence, the posts are only 11' apart. I have roughly 16,000' of total fenceline here, so spacing the posts 6' apart would add a huge cost to what I built. It would be more fencewire than that if I didn't have over 350' of gates.
I'll stick with HT wire, no matter what kind it is. I wouldn't want to spend another $10 grand on posts.

 

[goatboy1973]

ok great thanks! I'll have my husband check the area and see we have some short spots. might be likely. Do you recommend 2 x 4 vs 4 x4 for long term wear and tear? or does that not really matter?

Tha welded wire is very short lived. It's not worth the $$$. Woven wire 48" high with a hot wire at the top and a hot wire at about 8" from the ground. With mkt lambs you surely don't want to use any barbed wire. Good luck!

 

[TinySheepRancher]

Hi,
I have 3 babydoll Southdown sheep and added wire sheep fence from Tractor Supply to my existing fence to make it sheep proof when I got them. It has worked well and has been up for about 5 years now.

A great resource for sheep things is Premier 1 Sheep Supplies. Their website has good resources, and they test everything on their own sheep ranch. I’ve called them a number of times for advice on everything from electric fencing to flies biting my sheep’s ears, and they have always been really helpful.

Good luck!