Goat Tractors

[Fainter]

Has anyone tried a "goat tractor"? This would be like a "chicken tractor" except for goats. I was thinking of using some 8 ft fence sections to make a pen 8 ft long by 4 ft wide on wheels that I could place in the walking paths in my vegetable garden and move each day after the goats clean up the weeds and grass. This is the principle behind "chicken tractors" which I am also using.

My goats are Tennessee Fainting Goats so they don't tend to challenge fencing as much as other goats and won't be able to climb out. I don't know how they will like it, however. It is a bit confining. They wouldn't be in it every day. I could rotate them in and out of the tractors into the larger pens. I do have two new babies so maybe they can be acclimatized to accept the tractors as they grow up.

Your thoughts?

 

[username taken]

I would think it would end up too small for them ...

I use portable electric fencing to achieve the same result

 

[Griffin's Ark]

A friend of mine uses cattle panels and 6 foot rebar. He clips the panels together and anchors them with the rebar. He moves this over a 30acre cutover and it works amazingly well.

Chris

 

[jambunny]

My dh built us one this weekend for our kids. We are using a shed from a methane pump and two large hog panels. No wheels but he fixed it to be fairly easy to move. They seem to really like it.

 

[nightshade]

portable dog kennel works great too, they are usually 6ft high and surprisingly easy to assemble and reassemble as you move them

 

[mully]

I think they would eat up that space in 30 min or less. Stock panels with "pig wire" attached would work better All you would have to do is drag the whole thing to another spot.

 

[Brandywine]

Your dimensions are much too small.

I used a 16x16 tractor made from four cattle panels for a while, and will still use it if I need a small area browsed over. It works well. I clip the panels together at the corners, and add as many t-posts as necessary for support.

Now I'm using electronet, which gives the two goats enough room to really romp, and I don't have to move it as often.

 

[Brandywine]

Also, putting your goats in right next to your vegetables really is asking for trouble, no matter what kind of fencing you use.

 

[Fainter]

Good advice everyone. Thanks.

I really like the fainting goats. They are sort of like miniature goats but are properly proportioned. Only one of mine really "faints" though. The only drawback is they aren't really good for anything except as pets and to eat weeds. I think they could work in a typical suburban backyard. You could get rid of your lawnmower and fertilizer.

I have a great 30 second video of the baby goats on my cell phone. Anyone know how I could post it to this site?