Portable electric fencing?

[marie_p]

So I'm on this Joel Salatin kick. Pity my partner, I finished reading "You Can Farm" just as we started looking at real estate. He was thinking some chickens and meat rabbits, now I have This Plan involving goats and broilers (and shiitake mushrooms and bees and blueberries...)

Y'all do the portable electric fencing rotational grazing thing? How's that work for you? What does/doesn't work for your goats?

 

[michickenwrangler]

I don't know about goats, but I have used the electro-plastic fencing with my chickens with good results. Their fencing was semi-permanent within a small area and we had a plug-in charger versus battery. We would have to unplug the charger to go in, which was a bit of a pain. It does sag between the standard posts so you will want to get 50" step-in posts for in between. I got mine mail order from Meyer Hatchery since the local TSC only has the 40" posts.

Also, I camp with my horse quite frequently and I have a portable corral rigged up for her, consisting of cheap step-in posts, yellow tape fencing and a battery operated garden charger. For my placid old mare, I just use one strand although with goats I would use at least 3 and you may also need slightly taller posts.

Oh, during dry spells, water your ground post.

 

[jodief100]

I use electro net from Premier One. It works well as long as the goats aren't determined to get out (weaning babies, rutting bucks, etc. will not stay fenced). The biggest issue is mowing down the strips to put it in place. Our farm is very rocky and most of our pastures are on steep hills. I use a rechargeable battery with a solar panel. Do your research, goats need a different type of charger than cows.