Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Bruce]

I would think you would want cross fencing with 30 acres, otherwise you'll never find your animals Unless you have some well trained herding dogs to bring them in for you. Besides that I would guess you would want to have some control over where the animals are eating, especially if you are hoping they will clear out some of the vegetation. I suspect that like people, they will eat their favorites first and work their way down to the less "dessert" plants.

I know that on the Cyclops electric fence charger site that have a tool to help figure out what size charger you need. Along with length of wire run they ask about foliage. That said, I think you really want to make a nice wide clean path for the fence, and enough space to run your Gator (or whatever you have) to do fence checks. You don't want to be walking through weeds and trees to make sure all is well.

 

[greybeard]

Isn't that area immediately next to the dog/quail wildlife place?

Yes, you would need to clear a path for an electric fence, just as you would for any other fence. Wet vegetation will greatly diminish the effectiveness if not completely short out electric fences in all but the higher joule energizers.


You are going in the right direction with this thought:
"For the fences along the property, I want to build the kind of fence that will contain all kinds of animals -- cows, horses, goats, sheep, etc. -- since it is on the property line"

Perimeter fences should always be the best fence you can build...it lessens the risk of liability should animals escape, tho you do live in a pretty rural part of the state.

To me, it looks as if you may have over estimated the highlighted parcel at 30 acres.

 

[animalmom]

We have 130+ acres, all fenced. The compound where we live is somewhere around 5 acres, again all fenced. We have our goats inside the compound in three pens and the chicken pen and the duck pen and the vegetable raised beds and the.... We run a small herd of cattle on the property outside the compound.

I would not like to have my goats as far from the house as your diagram indicates. You might not be able to hear them and you surely won't be able to see them. Not saying it is impossible to do what you are asking, but I think you are asking for problem, namely predators 2 and 4 legged and not tamed goats (know the expression "goat rope"?)

Regarding running hot wire as cross fencing you would need the area under the hot wire, or hot tape or hot mesh fencing to be clear of anything that could possible even think of touching it.

You could start your goats much closer to the house and over time move them further out... but why would you want to make more work for you? I can appreciate you wanting to have the future goats browse but........

Just my 2 cents worth. I now return you to the normal logical entries.

 

[goatgurl]

I think before we spend all your money on fencing we need to take a step back and ask just what do you want to do with these goats you want to get. pets, milk, meat? the answer to that will help you decide where you want to put your fence and shelters . what ever kind you want you do not need to fence the entire property with 2x4 horse wire. that's over kill and just to darned expensive. my 60 acres is fenced with a 48"? woven wire with 2 strands of barbed wire on top and it has held horses, cattle, goats, sheep and a couple of mules over the years. I have an area up around the house that I call the 'goat pen' and that is where the chicken house, barn and a couple of smaller pens are all inside the perimeter of that pen. the goat pen is made up almost entirely of cattle panels so is pretty secure. my animals have free range of the entire 60 acres all day but sleep in the goat pen at night. no they are not locked in at night but they know they are safe and that's where they stay. if I ever need them during the day I never have to hunt for them, I just go out back and holler for them. remember me, i'm the one that feeds them so its not hard to get them to come back to the house. in my opinion the fence you have proposed is to far from the house for the safety of the animals and for your convenience in caring for them. would be ok for cattle but not so much for goats, sheep or poultry. sit back and decide what you want to do with the critters you want and then decide about fencing and out buildings.

 

[greybeard]

"need to take a step back and ask just what do you want to do with these goats you want to get."


As well as a long range plan or vision of what you really want to do with the entire property.
What you want it to be, when you are completely done with it.

I had intended to touch on this aspect in another pasture thread but I will now as well.
You, like myself, are not a youngun anymore. You don't want to be out there in your 70s or 80s building or repairing fences because you didn't do the utmost you could have 10 years earlier. The same with weed and brush eradication. Maybe on a small place but dang sure not on 100 acres..

 

[Baymule]

My two cents worth; build their shelter/barn and a pasture with a small holding pen up close to the house. build an alley toward the far reaches of the property with pastures leading off of it, put in 16' gates for swing room for tractors and such. Take them to a pasture in the mornings and put them up at night where they can be locked up in the barn. Get a couple of LGDs.....here we go on another adventure!

 

[greybeard]

Remember...

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Regarding

Isn't that area immediately next to the dog/quail wildlife place? ... To me, it looks as if you may have over estimated the highlighted parcel at 30 acres.

Yes. The dog/quail place is immediately to the east of the eastern boundary of the south tract and the southeastern part of the main tract. As for the acreage, I was going by what the Logan County Tax Assessor web site said was the measurement of the south tract, namely 29.67 acres. (See https://www.arcountydata.com/parcel.asp?item=CB2AF&Page=1&countycode=LOGTAX ).

Regarding

I think before we spend all your money on fencing we need to take a step back and ask just what do you want to do with these goats you want to get. pets, milk, meat?

As well as a long range plan or vision of what you really want to do with the entire property. What you want it to be, when you are completely done with it.

that is what my wife and I are still trying to figure out. Why I even considered goats in the first place are these 2 reasons: (1) for many years my wife has wanted goats, I think because she thinks baby goats are so cute. But the goats also represented a way of life that we wanted to try. (2) Miss @goatgurl made a wonderful suggestion: "first I vote that you spend a chunk of money and fence the perimeter of your property and go find you a herd of meat goats. give them the run of the place and in a couple of years they will have all your little trees and greenbriers cleaned up. then sell them at a tidy profit and enjoy your nice clean property. after they have it cleaned off its easier to keep tidy. your going to hurt yourself with that tractor if your not careful." That seemed to make a lot of sense to let the goats eat all of the overgrowth off instead of having to mow it all down. So that is what started me asking about fencing, etc., and how to make the pasture goat proof.

I have read your postings, Mr @greybeard, on "Making a Pasture ... and Keeping It Managed ( https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/making-a-pasture-and-keeping-it-managed.38164/ ), so I know what you mean by needing a plan.

As I mentioned in response to the post

I might have to go back and read again but I don't remember what your short term goal is.

my short-term goal was simply to have someone bale all of the hay off the 80 acres of good pasture and clear off the overgrown pasture, and then come up with a long-term plan. But once I had someone mow the 80 acres and so little hay was baled that they were not going to do it again, at least without some changes, then I was faced with not having that short term plan work out. While searching for an answer for pastures, that was when I stumbled across Miss @Baymule's funny posts "I Hate Green Briars!", which led me to join the forum. (You can all blame her for my being here now!) Then I posted my initial post "What Do I Do With 100 Acres of Pasture?" I received all kinds of wonderful advice. Once I learned about the existence of farm journals, then I moved all of my postings here. Amazingly, I am still receiving all kinds of wonderful advice.

I think my best short-term plan is to mow the overgrown pasture, even if it takes the rest of the summer. Once that is done, then I need to learn all I can about goats and their care. Then and only then will I worry about fencing and buildings and all the other stuff that goes with keeping livestock.

I want to thank everyone for your helpful suggestions. I feel like I am among professional golfers and I am a duffer who barely knows which end of the club to hold. To every one of you who have commented on my posts, I have "followed" you on BYH, so I will get notified when you post anything. (Remember, I am a stalker -- just ask Miss @goatgurl!) I want to learn as much as I can from you pro golfers.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

We blame Bay for LOTS of things! She's an enabler you know.

I think you hold BOTH ends of the club! One end when you take it out and the other end when you use it, then the first end again when you put it back .... unless you have a caddy.

 

[Mike CHS]

The majority of us on here were in the same boat that you are in now so we do know what you are going through. I think your plan to do perimeter fence is a good one but after that I would start building paddocks closer to your house and radiate outward from there. It takes more money for all of that cross fencing but with the smaller ruminants, you need more control for good use of your pastures. I only have around 16 acres in pasture and in prime grass season my herd couldn't keep up with the grass but they eat enough I was able to top the woody stems at a pretty good clip with my relatively small tractor. I cut all 6 of my paddocks in about 4 hours which isn't bad and we have had 40 sheep on that 16 acres before we started taking some to market.

It's kind of nice to work on pieces of a plan and you have a good bunch of people on here that don't mind spending the time to help. I don't know how many people on here do a lot of cross fencing but I think for smaller livestock probably a good number do.