Messybun’s fence problems.

[misfitmorgan]

All of the above......... is why I chose SHEEP!

2”X4”X48” non climb horse wire with T-posts, my sheep stay put and have NEVER got out.

Sheep are easy

Our sheep could literally walk over their fence if they wanted to....they dont.

 

[secuono]

There's different types of woven wire, it just means that it's not welded joints, but knotted, clipped or folded joints, which won't snap as easily under fatigue.

Lol, if the fence isn't tight enough and posts are too far apart, they will wiggle under in the middle. Caught one of my rams doing just that on video. He followed his mouth to a weak bit of fence and right under it! Took me awhile to figure it out, as it didn't bend the fence, so I had to wait for the grass to change(get beaten down n muddy from higher traffic) and happened to get lucky and witnessed him do it. A piece of rebar and fence clipped to it should stop them at floppy parts of the fence, stopped my ram, he wasn't happy about it.

 

[farmerjan]

@secuono is right about there being different types of sheep and goat fencing. The woven wire... field fence.... as there are various names... comes in different "sizes". There is what is traditionally thought of aroundhere as woven wire or field fence that is usually 46-47 " tall and has 6 inch stay wires.... the joints where the horizontal and vertical wires "touch" are NOT WELDED but are hinged or otherwise knotted.... That size is what 90% of the horned goats get stuck in and it can be fatal if you do not check on them often.... There is a woven wire that has 12 inch stay wires.... goats can get their heads out, but they can squeeze out it and our cattle will force their heads through and eventually it gets weak and breaks... easier to push it down from the top. There is woven wire with 4 inch stays.... that works good for most goats and sheep and even most chickens except for the little ones.... and there is the horse fence that is 2 inch stays and not much bets through that. It is also known as no climb fence because you literally cannot get your boot/shoe toe in it far enough to climb over it. That is the one thing I have against it..... there are times we NEED to get over a fence in a hurry. There is that kind of fencing at one place we rent that used to have horses. It is made so that they cannot get their hooves in it and "walk it down" or get their hoof caught.

Another thing.... it has got to be strung TIGHT. Any slack or loose stretch, and it will be able to be pushed up or reached over and pushed down.

I do not have goats for all the escape reasons listed by everyone. We have sheep and cattle and the 12' stays are worthless except in remote areas that they have nothing to reach over/through for....just a "barrier"; because they will make holes in it and it is not as strong. We mostly have the 6 " stays as that is standard fence pretty much. I am going to go with the 4" stays when I put up new fence here at my new house to keep the chickens away from the christmas tree farm next door.... and it will help deter some of the bigger predators.

We will tie down bottom strands to a log or something where there are dips in the ground under the woven wire fence.

Glad to hear the hog rings are helping... but I suspect that the electric is not putting out in sections. I used the poly electric and there are just too many places for the tiny strands to break in it.

Around here many use "HI-TENSILE" wire for their electric fence wire. It is stiffer to work with, anything will bounce off it so does not break easily.....carries a good charge... pain in the butt to put up and stretch but lasts a long time. It is what is used extensively in New Zealand and Australia from what I have been told for rotational grazing... I hate it unless it is electrified because if there is no charge on it, the cows can put their heads between even 8 strand fences and push their way because of it's ability to spring back. Great for falling tree limbs and such....

 

[messybun]

@secuono is right about there being different types of sheep and goat fencing. The woven wire... field fence.... as there are various names... comes in different "sizes". There is what is traditionally thought of aroundhere as woven wire or field fence that is usually 46-47 " tall and has 6 inch stay wires.... the joints where the horizontal and vertical wires "touch" are NOT WELDED but are hinged or otherwise knotted.... That size is what 90% of the horned goats get stuck in and it can be fatal if you do not check on them often.... There is a woven wire that has 12 inch stay wires.... goats can get their heads out, but they can squeeze out it and our cattle will force their heads through and eventually it gets weak and breaks... easier to push it down from the top. There is woven wire with 4 inch stays.... that works good for most goats and sheep and even most chickens except for the little ones.... and there is the horse fence that is 2 inch stays and not much bets through that. It is also known as no climb fence because you literally cannot get your boot/shoe toe in it far enough to climb over it. That is the one thing I have against it..... there are times we NEED to get over a fence in a hurry. There is that kind of fencing at one place we rent that used to have horses. It is made so that they cannot get their hooves in it and "walk it down" or get their hoof caught.

Another thing.... it has got to be strung TIGHT. Any slack or loose stretch, and it will be able to be pushed up or reached over and pushed down.

I do not have goats for all the escape reasons listed by everyone. We have sheep and cattle and the 12' stays are worthless except in remote areas that they have nothing to reach over/through for....just a "barrier"; because they will make holes in it and it is not as strong. We mostly have the 6 " stays as that is standard fence pretty much. I am going to go with the 4" stays when I put up new fence here at my new house to keep the chickens away from the christmas tree farm next door.... and it will help deter some of the bigger predators.

We will tie down bottom strands to a log or something where there are dips in the ground under the woven wire fence.

Glad to hear the hog rings are helping... but I suspect that the electric is not putting out in sections. I used the poly electric and there are just too many places for the tiny strands to break in it.

Around here many use "HI-TENSILE" wire for their electric fence wire. It is stiffer to work with, anything will bounce off it so does not break easily.....carries a good charge... pain in the butt to put up and stretch but lasts a long time. It is what is used extensively in New Zealand and Australia from what I have been told for rotational grazing... I hate it unless it is electrified because if there is no charge on it, the cows can put their heads between even 8 strand fences and push their way because of it's ability to spring back. Great for falling tree limbs and such....

I wonder, would barb wire be able to be electrified? It’s cheaper than high tensile wire, a heavy gauge, and even if the fence goes out it will still have a bit of a bite. I know my fence has no charge in most of it, I can try y’all’s suggestions to fix it. I was kinda hoping to get away from electric, partially because I hate dealing with the maintenance and accidental shocks and partially because it has been so expensive for not much. But, as I’m seeing with goats, it seems like they really need a fence that fights back. Ehh, going on 8 years without many fence problems was a good run.

 

[farmerjan]

Yes, we have often electrified barbed wire. Just has to be on insulators like any other type wire you electrify. It is not going to make that big a difference for the goats unless you have it with very narrow spacing. But if you were thinking to use already owned barbed wire instead of going out and buying hi- tensile, then yes, it will work. Just make sure there are not rusty spots as that will cut down on the effectiveness of the "jolt". We fenced with just straight barbed wire for years, non-electrified, from the time I was a kid.... some people hate it, but after having lost several calves to hi-tensile when coyotes ran them through it and they tried to jump and got legs caught up and hung upside down and died... and one got it tangled around her head and basically strangled... I will take barbed wire over hi-tensile anyday. It's one he// of a lot easier to fix than woven wire if a tree comes down on it...

 

[misfitmorgan]

DH wanted to used barbed wire for the electric on this pasture because he didnt believe the fencer would do the job....he believes it now!! Anyhow someone gave use two brand new rolls of redbrand bared wire, so we have half a mile of the stuff. I get worried the goats or sheep will get tangled up in it though, esp the sheep with their wool and just get shocked repeatedly....then bloat and die...because that is my luck.

@messybun How many grounding rods do you have? What diameter and length are they? How far from the fencer box are they? What does your fencer read at without a load on it? What does it read when grounded out? What does your fence itself read and is it constant? What fencer do you use? Have you checked you contacts and connecting wires for rust?

Goats really do need electric to keep them off the fence.

 

[farmerjan]

DH wanted to used barbed wire for the electric on this pasture because he didnt believe the fencer would do the job....he believes it now!! Anyhow someone gave use two brand new rolls of redbrand bared wire, so we have half a mile of the stuff. I get worried the goats or sheep will get tangled up in it though, esp the sheep with their wool and just get shocked repeatedly....then bloat and die...because that is my luck.

@messybun How many grounding rods do you have? What diameter and length are they? How far from the fencer box are they? What does your fencer read at without a load on it? What does it read when grounded out? What does your fence itself read and is it constant? What fencer do you use? Have you checked you contacts and connecting wires for rust?

Goats really do need electric to keep them off the fence.

@misfitmorgan I basically agree with you on checking the fence and the ground set up. A well grounded electric fence will knock your socks off, and they will learn to respect it. Our biggest problem here is the deer running through the fencing and tearing it up, getting it grounded out and such. So the only place it gets used is places we are able to check daily. But we don't use it that much because the fences around most of the pastures we rent now are pretty good woven wire or places through the woods are good 4 strand barbed wire. Just one place with the hi-tensile that is not electrified.... wasn't built with insulators even, which was STUPID..... that causes problems and a short stretch at another pasture that is a hodgepodge of all sorts of fencing that different people have used over many years before we got the lease. So, yep, we just add to the hodgepodge when it needs patching.

 

[ElenaDeborah11]

Hello everybody. How do you repair welded wire?
I believe that’s what this is. I’m no fencing expert.
I’ve been told to just reweld it, but I don’t have a welder and can’t really afford one. Is there any other way to fix this?
This fence has been up for a few years now, but with the goats pushing against it sometimes the welds pop. I have electric on the inside, but it’s down more than it’s working. Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem this summer and unfortunately, the best we could do was to buy the new one..I am also not good at welding at all.

 

[Ridgetop]

Had goats (up to 100) for years and no escapees except the ones that opened the fates. These were mostly high yielding dairy goats though that were in milk and being milked for a 10 month lactation.

Now we have sheep (the dairy work was too labor intensive when the children grew up). Welded wire is basically useless because as you have found the welds pop. Woven wire with the correct spacing is the only way to go when fencing. Our fences are oil pipe with no climb. When our steep slopes started to slough into the fence and effectively reduce the 5' height, we added vertical posts to the uprights and put more wire on them to extend the heights up. Since the main place the sheep or other livestock would rub and pop welds is only up to their height, we used welded wire on top of our 5' no climb fencing to save money.

In some areas of our fencing since we are on a steep gully the rains would wash out dirt under the fence. A couple of our previous dogs would dig out and go for adventures in the 100 acres behind us. We got rolls of chain link and took it apart in short sections. Then we turned it and wired it to the fence wire about 12" off the ground. The chain link lay loosely into 9ur property from the bottom of the fence. We put a couple shovels of dirt over it to hold it down. It stopped the dogs from being able to dig out under the fences and had the additional advantage of keeping predators from being able to dig in. Over the years the grass and brush has grown up through it holding it to the dirt.

You should probably start replacing your welded wire fencing with small spacing welded wire. You can string it right over the existing wire using the same posts. Rewelding it is too costly and won't last.

 

[messybun]

Currently we have taken cattle panels (only took 2) and covered the bad spots and barb wired other places. It has been working. Slowly I’m replacing the electric rope with barbed wire. I also got someone to help we stretch and re tie the fence. Having a large man vs. small me tightening the fence made a world of difference. We might look into woven wire, but hopefully will move (or the goats will die off, they’re older) before we truly truly need to replace this fence.