# Best temporary goat fencing please



## wannabe_goatmom (Feb 12, 2016)

Hi. We're brand new to goats, so new we don't have any yet but we've been reading and researching some lately and have talked about it for a year now. We raise chickens and have 30+ acres and would like to clear some of it to make it more useful so we're looking towards some goats. I of course get lots of different ideas about best fencing and best breed of goat for that purpose but we love all the info we're getting and I'm so happy I found this forum. I'd love to hear any and all suggestions and ideas you could give me. Thanks! We're pretty excited. All of our animals are so loved on, friendly and have names, even if they're destined to the dinner plate. But their lives are blessed while they're here for sure! I don't want goat meat or milk but I'd love a couple babies to start with for that experience and then have them be great brush clearers as they get bigger. Does that sound like a good plan?


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

What is the purpose of the fence? Is it to keep the goats in so that they dont attack your garden/crop? Or is it to keep the predators out? 

Why do you want it to the temporary? Is it to buy time to decide whether to go bigger or not? Or is it to move them from one spot to the other as they clear the brush?


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

Tempoary?? Goats? Better go electric. Or maybe rig a few cattle panels together.


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## wannabe_goatmom (Feb 12, 2016)

Hi Boerboy. We want to fence them in temporarily because we plan to rotate them around the property and we don't want to lose them. We definitely don't have enough money right now to fence in the whole 30 acres so if we can move them around that will be best. But in the beginning with the babies we're planning a permanent shelter and fence till they're bigger. So far the plan is to locate it to where we can add the temp fence off their regular, familiar space and let them go, guessing they'll come back to that same space to sleep. Until that huge part is cleared anyway. I do love my free range chickens but don't think my yard, garden and sitting areas could handle free roaming goats. I hear they can eat about anything!


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## wannabe_goatmom (Feb 12, 2016)

Hi Shannon R. Is the temporary part not normal usually? We've seen these thoughts on youtube and even some posts here so not sure if you're meaning it's not really possible or practical? We've seen some electric fencing that might work but I'm not sure. Hoping to get good ideas from everyone here.


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## wannabe_goatmom (Feb 12, 2016)

I've been reading more posts on temporary fencing and it seems to be really not recommended and almost useless I guess. Can someone tell me then if we securely fenced in 10 acres, built them a little house of sorts and let them go, would they know how to come back? Our woods are SO thick and there is a creek too so I'm thinking they could get tangled or drown or lost on 10 acres so now I'm really confused. Is this really the best way to go?


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

Hi goatmom, my only possible issue with temp fencing is that goats are HARD on fences. Horned goats even more so!

So, keeping your usage and financial requirements in mind, I do think linking a few of those 50inch high cattle panels (the cheap ones from TSC, around $25 per panel here) linked together might work nicely for you. No T posts required, just use bailing wire and overlap the ends by one square for strength at the joints, then drag around or disassemble and move as needed.

Even better...have you considered tethering your goats? They may need supervision during tethering but its sure cheaper an less work than fencing!


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## Moboiku (Mar 7, 2014)

There are options for portable electric fence with solar powered energizer that might work for your situation. We rotationally graze our sheep and goats from about April to October using such a system. You need to "train" the animals to the electric first by setting it up inside some type of physical fence line. The reason being that normally if an animal is "bitten", their instinct is to flee. If they encounter the electric out in the open, they might flee right through it and learn that it can be outrun. Set it up inside a physical fence and their only option is to turn and run away from it. We set ours up for only a few days and watched as one by one, each animal approached to find out what this new thing was in their environment. Each touched it with their nose out of curiosity, got shocked and learned to avoid it. After that we had no issues with the electric keeping them where we wanted them.


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## boerboy (Oct 7, 2012)

Couple of goats, well cared, well feed, lots of interaction... Could be much better animals compared to chicken

Electric netting comes at $200 for 162 feet. Plus energizer. 

My neighbor uses stock panels because he had got lots of them.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

I had a problem with electric netting. I have lost animals to it and have seen kids get wound up in it.
But when it works it is pretty slick.
I'd rather move electric netting than cattle panels.
We use the electric netting along with a shed on runners that I move around with the tractor.


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## Moboiku (Mar 7, 2014)

Wow, I did not know the electric netting is so expensive! We use the Gallagher Smart Fence. It is 4 lines of electric and for around $200 you get 330'. It doesn't get hung up in brush like netting will, rolls up neatly into a reel at the turn of a handle, and the goats (and sheep in my case) don't get hung up in it either.


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

Moboiku said:


> There are options for portable electric fence with solar powered energizer that might work for your situation. We rotationally graze our sheep and goats from about April to October using such a system. You need to "train" the animals to the electric first by setting it up inside some type of physical fence line. The reason being that normally if an animal is "bitten", their instinct is to flee. If they encounter the electric out in the open, they might flee right through it and learn that it can be outrun. Set it up inside a physical fence and their only option is to turn and run away from it. We set ours up for only a few days and watched as one by one, each animal approached to find out what this new thing was in their environment. Each touched it with their nose out of curiosity, got shocked and learned to avoid it. After that we had no issues with the electric keeping them where we wanted them.


My personal experience with my DC electric fencer is that it doesn't faze my goats... at all. The other animals respect the electronic fence....not the goats. Mine ran right through my fence just yesterday while they were out of their pen foraging. And as mentioned above, a physical fence would still be required to train the goats to the electric so in essence you would be fencing off your goat area twice. I am guessing this would be a real pain as far as moving the fence goes to graze elsewhere. Also, electric they say is cheapest for fencing.....that's if you can get the initial cost of the fencer and other supplies out of the way. I spent close to $400 on my offgrid electric fence system and so far, I have fenced off one pen. Need to buy more insulators and supplies to expand that and after seeing that it doesnt work on my goats I am not too inclined to do so for livestock...maybe to keep the dogs home but that is about all.

In summary, electric isn't the cheapest or best way to go in this situation unless you have one heck of an electric fencer...


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## Moboiku (Mar 7, 2014)

ShannonR said:


> And as mentioned above, a physical fence would still be required to train the goats to the electric so in essence you would be fencing off your goat area twice. I am guessing this would be a real pain as far as moving the fence goes to graze elsewhere.


The training period only lasts a couple of days. After that you don't need to continue to have the electric fence inside physical fence. If goats are NOT trained to the electric prior to being turned out on it, they will run right through it as you described.

We do a new training period each spring before starting rotational grazing again for the year as a reminder to the adults and to train the kids and lambs who have been born since the year before.

For training, we do not enclose an area with electric - we simply set the electric fence inside one portion of our physical fence. They each go up to it and touch it, don't like how it feels and after that know to avoid it. Once trained we haven't had any issues with them running through it and in fact, one time we moved them to a new rotational paddock and forgot to turn the fence back on. It was 2 days before I noticed it was off - they had stayed in the entire time.


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## wannabe_goatmom (Feb 12, 2016)

Thank you everyone for all the great information! It looks like there's a lot of thoughts on the best fencing & probably as much thoughts on which breed of goat is best at land clearing! Ha. Still figuring that one out too but that's a whole other thread.


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