20kidsonhill
True BYH Addict
My husband says the key to electric fence is heavy enough wire, don't go cheap on the thickness(guage) of the wire. AT least four strands, maybe 5, and the first one needs to be low enough.
Electric Fence; Not for goats and sheep?
- Thread starter NachoFarm
- Start date
sawfish99
Loving the herd life
We have 7 goats right now. We started with about 1/3 acre fenced in with only 4 strand electric. Initially, we only had 2 goats. When 1 was taken into the barn for milking, the second would run through the electric to find the other. Obviously, the solution was get more goats so they don't feel lonely in the pen. That solution worked very well and we didn't have any escapes at all... until kidding season.
Kids just jump between the lines of electric. They don't really figure out what zapped them. The good news is, momma is afraid to approach the electric, so even when the kids went through it, they didn't stray more than a few feet from the pen since momma was still inside. Usually, they jumped back into the pen on their own.
HOWEVER, since we are bringing bucks onto the property, I recently invested about $1600 in additional fencing. I put up 660 feet of Red Brand woven wire 4"x4" field fence. I used 1 roll to create a small pen to contain the kids at night because I want to milk the does in the morning. An electric pen doesn't work for hte reason discussed about. The rest of that roll was used to start replacing the electric since I know when spooked, the goats will consider running through. The buck pen is fully contained in field fencing.
For the field fencing, I put up pressure treated wood posts only on the corners, at a fence intersection (T insection of fencing), and on either side of a gate. I used 4/5" posts for most line posts and 6/7" posts for gate hangers. I used T posts about every 8' in between the wood posts.
For me, electric was an effective solution for the initial phase of goat ownership. I'm glad I didn't put up the wire initially, because I have learned a loat about how I wanted the pens laid out. Electric made it much much easier to rearrange.
Kids just jump between the lines of electric. They don't really figure out what zapped them. The good news is, momma is afraid to approach the electric, so even when the kids went through it, they didn't stray more than a few feet from the pen since momma was still inside. Usually, they jumped back into the pen on their own.
HOWEVER, since we are bringing bucks onto the property, I recently invested about $1600 in additional fencing. I put up 660 feet of Red Brand woven wire 4"x4" field fence. I used 1 roll to create a small pen to contain the kids at night because I want to milk the does in the morning. An electric pen doesn't work for hte reason discussed about. The rest of that roll was used to start replacing the electric since I know when spooked, the goats will consider running through. The buck pen is fully contained in field fencing.
For the field fencing, I put up pressure treated wood posts only on the corners, at a fence intersection (T insection of fencing), and on either side of a gate. I used 4/5" posts for most line posts and 6/7" posts for gate hangers. I used T posts about every 8' in between the wood posts.
For me, electric was an effective solution for the initial phase of goat ownership. I'm glad I didn't put up the wire initially, because I have learned a loat about how I wanted the pens laid out. Electric made it much much easier to rearrange.
- Thread starter
- #13
sawfish99
Loving the herd life
If you are going to use electric, use solid wire. The rope and webbing don't carry enough current for a good jolt. The goats would rub the webbing we had but not touch the wire next to it same charger with same ground.NachoFarm said:
- Thread starter
- #15
sawfish99
Loving the herd life
If you are fencing for horses too, you probably want more height, so a top line of rope would be fine. However, I would never put horses in the field fenced area. A 4" opening is perfect for a hoof to get caught in.NachoFarm said:
Use the 14ga wire.
manybirds
Loving the herd life
i use 4 strands of electric fence (high voltage) for my goats and sheep
- Thread starter
- #18
Ok, so let's say we were going to go with a 5 strand 14 gauge smooth wire fence (eventually tied off with flags in the future for horse visability?)...how far apart would you be spacing posts?
I tried looking it up myself but it seems there so many different ideas about it...30-90 feet?! That's such a wide range. And my eyes are crossing at all the different kinds (line posts, t-posts, corner posts etc.)
Mercy.
Our land is really flat so how far apart am I putting cedar posts and how many t-posts(?) am I putting in between?
I'm beginning to wonder how much cheaper it will be with all the insulators and other "stuff" you need to put one of these in. Anyone care to take the time to give me a product list?
I tried looking it up myself but it seems there so many different ideas about it...30-90 feet?! That's such a wide range. And my eyes are crossing at all the different kinds (line posts, t-posts, corner posts etc.)
Mercy.Our land is really flat so how far apart am I putting cedar posts and how many t-posts(?) am I putting in between?
I'm beginning to wonder how much cheaper it will be with all the insulators and other "stuff" you need to put one of these in. Anyone care to take the time to give me a product list?
20kidsonhill
True BYH Addict
Make sure you do a really good job with your brace posts(corners and gate areas) and maybe in between if it is long enough.
Ours are for sure closer to the 30 foot apart than the 90, but we don't have real flat land.
We found using these at the ends of each strand, really helped keep the fence tight and allows for easier maintenance and future tightening of the fence.
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/combination-strainer-termination-kit/camid/LIV/cp/XI-CA/
Ours are for sure closer to the 30 foot apart than the 90, but we don't have real flat land.
We found using these at the ends of each strand, really helped keep the fence tight and allows for easier maintenance and future tightening of the fence.
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/combination-strainer-termination-kit/camid/LIV/cp/XI-CA/
redtailgal
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If you go that far between posts, you'll need to really get those corners good, and keep your fence line straight, or you will have sagging fence that constantly shorts out.
Our posts are between 10 and 15 feet apart, and our wire stays TIGHT.
Our posts are between 10 and 15 feet apart, and our wire stays TIGHT.
