Goat fencing

[Jacob Zierke]

I'm getting two Nigerian Dwarf does soon and I am trying to figure out the whole fencing thing.... A while ago my brothers raise goats in electric goat netting and never had any problems with getting out or injuries. This seems like the best option for us, since we want to move them around a lot and this seems like the best fence for that. So I'm just wondering if anyone else has used this and if you you like it or not.

 

[Bruce]

I see 22 people have read your post but no replies. I don't have goats so I can't give an informed opinion. But my UNINFORMED opinion is that it should work. Were your brother's goats of similar or larger size to NGs? If larger and the electric net works for them, surely it should work for you.

If you have the space, I think you would want an area with permanent fencing where you can keep them when they aren't out in the "rotating pastures" made with the electric netting. I think that electric net is a very common fencing choice for temporary pastures due to the ease of use.

@goatgurl @Goat Whisperer @Southern by choice may have experience with this.

 

[Jacob Zierke]

That happens a lot on BYC too.... Thank you for your advise! They were bigger... That's what I thought too!

Yeah, we will see once we have them for awhile.... Oh, thank you for tagging them!

 

[NH homesteader]

I have read stories of sheep and goats getting caught in that style fence and being electrocuted. I've also heard people who swear by it. I also personally wouldn't use it as the sole fencing. There's a small goat farm near me that has multiple strands of electric fencing and moves the electric netting around inside it to rotate pasture. I use the netting for my chickens but haven't tried it with my goats!

 

[Jacob Zierke]

I'm just afraid that if we build a fence that they will trample everything inside it. I was thinking with this fence I could just rotate it around their barn.

 

[Latestarter]

They're going to 'trample" wherever they are... Ideally, depending on how many goats you intend to end up with (best intentions always fall by the wayside when goat math strikes) you should perimeter fence the area where the goats will be kept, then use the electric movable fencing within that area to move them around and rotate pastures. The perimeter fencing is really more to protect your herd from neighbor/stray dogs, coyotes, ect. The area directly around their housing is going to be bare pretty much no matter what you do, so try to have it at a high point so it doesn't become a mud pit... or maybe surface it with crushed stone/etc. Fencing is always your first line of defense/protection for your goats, and most goat injuries are caused by dogs... yours, the neighbors, or strays. Hope you'll share some pics when you can of whatever set up you settle on.

 

[bjjohns]

Not sure how much land, or how many goats you have. We did rotational grazing with electronet and about 15 - 20 goats for two years. It was a ton of work to move that fence every 3-5 days. We wound up putting high tensile interior sectioning fences in permanently.

 

[Miranda Kurucz]

Hey everyone --- new goats arrive in just over a month and I just found a bunch of grizzly tracks behind our run. We haven't had many around in recent years.

What I want to know is what's a good electric fence option for approximately 114 linear feet of just a single hot wire to run along the top of 5 foot chain link panels? We will have timbers dug in around the base but now I'm worried that maybe a jolt may be needed for scaring off predators.

When we had grizzly issues in the neighbourhood in the past, they seemed to mostly only be interested in the turkeys.

 

[samssimonsays]

I am too new to electric fencing to answer this but @babsbag @Ferguson K use them. I know others do too. Someone I know not too far from us had half her goats killed by a black bear last week. I had never heard of it before then.

 

[babsbag]

I would get the highest joule energizer you can get but I would be concerned that the bears will come through the chain link and not over it. I have seen what they can do to fencing (and cars) and it isn't pretty. I would run more than one wire and would run it 'bear height' about a foot in front of your chain link panels. I have heard that you can dangle bacon on the wire and the bear will get his nose bit, no real experience with that though. Make sure you have a good ground rod for the fence, that is critical to get a good bite.