Fencing in Goats

[cjhubbs]

Hello,
As you mayhave heard wehave been doing lot of renovations on our barnyard lately, particularly with our goats, these days. Well it appears that mother nature hit us with another project. I walked out back behind our goat pen this morning and low and behold our electric fence out back had ben destroyed by fallen branches and trees:/. Luckily it appears that our goats haven't discovered this gaping whole in there fence but I know they will soon. Technically we could re-install the electric fence and be done with it saying we are in the middle of building an edition to the goat barn but I am interested in some other suggestions. We only have two goat but every single time our non-milker is in heat she busts right through the fence. We are breeding our goats this year so we will have kids in the spring. I am worried that the kids will be able to get out of the goat pen regardless of the electric fence not to to mention the adult goat getting out is becoming a pain. I was wondering if you all had any relatively cheap and effective means of fencing in your goat pens? I have looked at the field fencing with a strand of electric wire and like the idea but the cheapest role of the field fencing here is $200 a role of 75 ft fencing, which is money that is going to the much needed goat house expansion . The perimeter of the goat pen is around 500 feet around, if that is of any help. Thank you so much!

 

[sawfish99]

Unfortunately, cheap and good fencing rarely go together. We have 4 strand electric in some areas for our goats. I use that on the side away from the barn where the goats generally don't try to go anyways. That is definitely cheap. We also use the premier electric netting, however, that is not cheap. For our buck pens and heavy traffic areas of doe pens, I put up the Red Brand 48" goat fence. It costs about $250/330' roll at Tractor Supply around me, plus the posts. It's expensive, but keeps the goats in.

 

[Fullhousefarm]

Maybe try a 10ft high brick wall? (Okay, read my escaping goat thread and be happy she's not yours!)

We really like the 48" horse fence sawfish recommended. It's easy to run one line of electric above it if needed. It (and some 40") has worked for our neighbor for 20 years as long as she doesn't have does/bucks with only one fence between. You can reinforce it with a board at 2-3' or electric if your goats rub on it a lot. We prefer wood posts for holding up better.

 

[treeclimber233]

I have an escape artist too. I read on here sometime back that for some goats you will need to make alternating wires ground wires. (one hot, next ground, next hot again). That is the only way I can keep my doe in. She would take a shock to eat on the "greener" side of the fence (which looks the same to me). She would hollar as she went thru so I knew it was working. So I changed my wire to the alternating type and tied her so if she went thru she could not go anywhere. Well she went thru and SCREAMED---panicked and came back thru- SCREAMED again and has not gone thru anymore that I can tell. I felt bad for her baby because he would follow her thru and get shocked. Now since she does not get out her baby does not get out either.

 

[Lupa Duende]

We just use four foot high cattle fencing here and have filled in any gaps on the bottom with any wood or rock we could find. from what I understand, as long as the outside perimeter of the fence is kept trimmed (i.e., all delicious leaves are on Your side of the fence, then the goats will stay with you.
We bought our fencing at TSC in Plattsburgh. Even with paying tax to carry it across the border (southern Quebec) it was less expensive than any Canadian option.