# Most economical tree guard in goat pasture



## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

I have been dreaming to add trees to our property on the north and south border. Most of them are going to be inside the goat pasture.

Purpose is beauty, block view, goat feed, attract birds, fruits, etc. Some are going to be evergreen.

We are talking close to 50 trees.

What is the most economical tree guard you ever used?

I am thinking of using four wooden stakes (the ones used by land survey guys) and run several strands of hot wire. The wire will run from tree to tree.

I thought of cattle panel, but it is $20 a piece.

I thought of four wooden pallets, but that cost $12 per tree.

Metal drum bottomless would cost $15. And difficult to remove once the tree is grown.

Any ideas well be appreciated.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

I'd not put them in the pasture at all.
Nothing short of a real fence will protect them well enough until they are several years old


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

If you're definate about wanting them in your pasture and they are NEW little "whips" you are planting, you will definately need an extra fence that stands about 3 ft *from* those whips all the way around them. Or you might do what I did: With my triple lespedeza "shrubs" I outline my "back" pasture with them so as to create an "impenatrable hedge later; then I keep the goats out of the back pasture until these shrubs were well rooted. Then I would only let the goats back there toward the end of the growing season because they "pruned" all those shrubs. If I was fortunate enough to get "seeds" from those shrubs, they would blow all over the back pasture creating great "browse" the following year for the goats.)

After your trees are old enough and large enough to survive with having their "limbs" pruned by your goats, you will still need to wrap them with wire to keep the goats from taking off the bark. (I wrap mine 3 times around with either chicken wire and/or 2x4 holed welded wire, whichever I have on hand at the time.)

My goats free-range all over the place; so ALL trees I discover the goats taking bark off of, I wrap them with the wire as mentioned above. This works!


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Most economical? Don't put them in the goat pen.  Really though, it would be impossible to keep them away from it otherwise unless you put otu the money to run an extra 'barrier' of STURDY fencing. I'd choose tree species that grow really fast. Hybrid poplars often shoot up quick.


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## Wolf Flower (Dec 21, 2005)

I was just about to ask the same question. I planted a few maple trees for shade, and right now they are fenced off from the goats. Problem is, we are getting weed overgrowth in that area, and we want to let the goats back there to mow it down. I was looking at these. Anyone have experience with any of these prefab tree guards? Some claim to be "deer proof", but I don't think that means "goat proof". 

http://www.amleo.com/tree-guards-protection/c/P03D/


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## Rosepath (Feb 18, 2011)

The goats will view any type of guard/barrier as a personal quest. They WILL find a way to get to the trees, and in usually less than 5 minutes totally destroy any young tree.
Even if the trunk is wrapped, they'll climb on the lower branches, breaking them, and strip the bark off whatever they can reach. Cheerfully.
Gotta love'em.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Wolf Flower said:


> I was just about to ask the same question. I planted a few maple trees for shade, and right now they are fenced off from the goats. Problem is, we are getting weed overgrowth in that area, and we want to let the goats back there to mow it down. I was looking at these. Anyone have experience with any of these prefab tree guards? Some claim to be "deer proof", but I don't think that means "goat proof".
> 
> http://www.amleo.com/tree-guards-protection/c/P03D/


On my way to work, there is a public land around a steam. Two years ago they planted so many tree saplings. They had some kind of plastic stuff wrapped in the trunk of the saplings. I some to a neighbor who said those are to prevent deer eating the saplings.
Last week I noticed they removed those wrappers which had by now stretched a bit. And the saplings have grown.
I still won't how it could work unless it had some kind of repellent or such..... I will try to take picture and post tomorrow.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

mygoat said:


> Most economical? Don't put them in the goat pen.  Really though, it would be impossible to keep them away from it otherwise unless you put otu the money to run an extra 'barrier' of STURDY fencing. I'd choose tree species that grow really fast. Hybrid poplars often shoot up quick.


May be there is some innovation opportunity here...  I will keep you all posted


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

I'd just run a second line of goat-proof fence creating a tiny border pasture with the trees in it. For weed and grass control, I'd run poultry. Chickens and turkeys do a great job of keeping grass down if it's reasonably short when they're put into an area, and if you have enough birds. Maybe arrange a coop so that it opens into the main pasture and into the border pasture as well, so you can give the border pasture a break if it starts looking over-grazed. This is what I plan to do with my orchard in our new place. I've kept just about every kind of animal in the 18 years I've been doing this, and that seems like the best solution for keeping trees happy and productive.


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## Laura Workman (May 10, 2002)

motdaugrnds said:


> With my triple lespedeza "shrubs"


Can you please share a bit more information about these plants? I Googled them, but didn't come up with anything definitive.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

This is what I mentioned earlier


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

This simple fencing had worked for a week. They never challenged it....


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

If they've been trained to electric fences, it won't take as much to keep them away but if the fence isn't hot and they find out, the net won't stop them


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

I'm planning on using some welded wire fence and just cutting it long enough to encircle my trees enough to keep deer off of them for a few years until they are better established... I have welded wire fence just laying around (but it's fairly cheap to buy last time I bought it anyways...) from old dog pens so I will just cut small chunks to encircle the trees and put a couple of fence posts in each to give them some strength. I planted a total of about 200 trees last year, mostly norway spruces which the deer didn't bother because they have small sharp needles, but planted a number of white pines which were demolished and a number of different deciduous trees that the deer and rabbits ate the leaves off of and snapped a bunch of them off... so I've ordered another 100 deciduous trees this year that I'll put fencing around to hopefully keep the critters off them until they are better established.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

rininger85 said:


> I've ordered another 100 deciduous trees this year


We need to find a solution..... Economical and easy top handle....
I have been thinking about am inverted come made of plastic pipe acme 2" hole galvanized chicken wire hanging from the trunk at some height. And a hot wire running tree to tree connecting the chicken wire...


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Could be silly.....


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Laura Workman said:


> Can you please share a bit more information about these plants? I Googled them, but didn't come up with anything definitive.


Laura, I looked thru my notes and found very little technical information. I know from experience my goats love to eat them, making them a great part of their "browse". Also, if permitted to grow for 5 yrs and then "mowed" to the ground, they start forming an impenatrable hedge. The official name is "B-Color Lespedeza 'shrub'" and I got mine from "Melot's, Inc." out of Oklahoma City, OK with phone number at that time (way back in late 90s) was 405-721-4394.


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

I don't know how well it will hold up, but here is what I did for the 3 fruit trees I planted to try and keep the deer off of them. I took 1" PVC pipe and cut them in half for cheap posts... then I drilled 3 holes in each of the pipes and wired the fence to the pipes to keep them attached.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

rininger85 said:


> I don't know how well it will hold up, but here is what I did for the 3 fruit trees I planted to try and keep the deer off of them. I took 1" PVC pipe and cut them in half for cheap posts... then I drilled 3 holes in each of the pipes and wired the fence to the pipes to keep them attached.


And no hot wire?

This won't work for my goats
They are Boer but very agile
Would push, climb on this and ruin it in minutes


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## rininger85 (Feb 29, 2016)

you could add a hot wire to it pretty easily I would think... I don't think I really need a hot wire to keep the deer off of my trees... just an idea for cheap fencing (at least was cheap for me since I already had the welded wire fence and a roll of electric fencing that I use to wire pretty much everything together now that I don't use electric fence for anything... so all I was out was about $3-4 per tree for the pipes vs. $4.5 per T-post x 3 per tree...)


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