Hi, I'm going to need to fence in an area for three goats, and it can't be expensive, no more than $175 if possible. I can use up to 1 1/2 acres, but smaller if it's ok, I'm happy to suppliment their diets. I need advice. I don't know where to start. Thanks, sarah

-- sarah brown (joshsarah@bigfoot.com), September 26, 2001

Answers

Sarah - I have board fence and electric for my goats. The electric is by far the cheapest and works really well. They don't try to stick their heads thru or squeeze their bodies thru the electric like they do with the board fence. So less chance of injuries.

-- Dianne (willow@config.com), September 26, 2001.

goats are very intelligent creatures who use all their spare time trying to escape. the only thing i have found that works is welded wire cattle panels wired to metal fence posts. it is expensive so they are confined to a small area with supplemental feeding.

-- marie zuchowski (Mariezuchowski@aol.com), September 27, 2001.

Everyone I know uses cattle panels. A friend once kept goats and used a mixture of board, wire and electric fence. Goats got out regularly. They almost gave up but tried cattle panels as a last resort. The panels worked and they kept their goats. I started with a very small goat yard that I expanded over time. I used nothing but cattle panels and T-post. T-post is very easy to drive with a T-post driver but you can use a sledge hammer, which is more difficult and dangerous. Cattle panels are 16' long by 52" tall. Kids can get through them until a few months old. Cattle panels are about $13 at Tractor Supply. T-posts are about $2 each and various outlets. You're looking at $17 for every 16 feet of fence. It adds up quickly but it works. I figure you can buy 10 sections of cattle panel and T-post for $175. You'll also need some stailess steel wire to tie the panels together. Don't use bailing wire. It rusts and will rust your panels.

-- Ted Wout (wout@airmail.net), September 27, 2001.

I agree with Ted, Sarah. Think small, then as you can afford it just expand your fence. You could always let them follow you out into the pasture during the day. I am completely fenced in but I still walk the does out into the thick woods, sit and read a book while they browse. If you get the does from Jess they are going to be very tame, obnoxiously bottle fed baby tame:) You won't have to worry about leading them anywhere, they will follow you to the moon!

When you put up the cattle panels, don't butt them together, overlap one square, makes for a stronger joint, and the perfect place to put a T post. vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 28, 2001.

I use cattle panels and t posts too. I add to my pens whenever I can afford a few more. They are the best. You could build a small pen for your $175, and then add on as you can. It is even easy for one person to handle them...unless you are really really small. They come 16 ft. long...quick to put up too. I have never found a better fence.

-- Jenny Pipes (Auntjenny6@aol.com), September 28, 2001.

Am I the only one who keeps goats fenced with just two strands of electric tape??

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 28, 2001.

Marcia marcia marcia :) Two strands of tape? They have NEVER gotten out? You can keep a 6 year old 250 pound buck in full rut on one side of two strands of electric tape and a doe in heat in the other? Your babies don't simply crawl under? Yes I could keep my older does in something like this also, but never my bucks and certainly not my crazy Nubian kids who think I am their Mom! They would be sleeping on the back porch waiting for breakfast each morning!

A farm very close to me that used to run all electric. A very impressive fence. And yes it appeared to work very well. Until, I came by unannounced one morning to find her bucks out of their pen and in the doe pen, 2 Nubian bucks in with all her does. I came home and wrote this down on my calander, sure enough she had kids born 5 months from then, but mysteriously was able to determine which Nubian buck was which ones fathers. I never purchased from her again. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 28, 2001.

Vicki...Vicki...Vicki :-)! No, I wouldn't even try to keep my buck seperate from my does!!! They're together all year. I'm sure that no electric tape would stop him...or the girls for that matter! My babies are real easy to train to respect the fence. But I don't start training til they're 8 wks. old or so and are losing that "bottle-baby" attachment to me. In the winter, I can even turn the fence off!! Maybe I have "dumb" goats!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 28, 2001.

After rereading my post, it sounds like I have a buck in with does of all ages and sizes breeding with them at will!! Not so. My barn is set up so I can seperate young doelings from everyone else with a 10 ft. tall 2x6 rail pen in the barn so they all can visit and talk, but no "hanky-panky" til I say they're old enough! I also prefer to plan my breedings :-)!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 28, 2001.

Theres no such thing as a goat fence.

-- Kelly (markelly@scrtc.com), September 28, 2001.

Actually, something along the line of a "Jurassic Park" fence might hold them in. You know, 20-30 feet tall, and a download from a nearby hydroelectric dam to maximize the voltage...

I have 7-wire NZ hot wire which actually worked pretty well, PROVIDED the electricity was on. I went away one weekend and had inadvertantly left the fence off. It cost me only two pears trees, thank God. It could have been an entire rose garden and vet bills, or more. Goats are natural-born escape artists.

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), September 28, 2001.

Somehow, I get the impression that some of you folks don't believe that I keep my goats contained within two strands of electric tape. I'm not saying that there has NEVER been an escape, but in my 25 yrs. of goats, it's only happened maybe...three times!!! Not counting the babies who are in the learning process. But once they've learned about the 4650 volts in the tape...they stay put!!

-- Marcia (HrMr@webtv.net), September 28, 2001.

I'm sorry to say that you people have got it all wrong. You thought the purpose of a goat was give milk and meat for your family. This is merely a byproduct- the true purpose of a goat's life, which she spends her entire life and all her energies toward, is to refine your character.

To teach you to control your rage when she flicks her dainty foot and sends all the milk into your face and dripping down your neck. (Notice how she repeats the lesson again and again, day after day? We humans are slow learners.)
To teach you infinite patience and gentleness when milking teats only half an inch long with three quarts of milk in the udder.
To teach you punctuality by breaking into the feed room and helping themselves if you're an hour late for milking.
To teach you the virtue of fine workmanship by discovering flaws in your building technique and promptly dismantling them.
To teach you thoroughness by tirelessly searching for and pointing out any weak points in your fence.
Then to refine your patience by discovering just which plant or shrub you value most and eating it all. (If there is one apple tree that cost three times as much as the others, they pick that one. Maybe they're trying to teach us that money isn't too important after all, I don't know)
To test your intelligence and knot tying ability by trying each latch and untying every sloppy loose knot you tie. (this is an ongoing lesson. As you learn to make better latches and knots, she then shows you the flaws in these as well.)
Yep, the goats made it clear to me a long time ago who was teaching whom, and we have gotten along much better ever since!!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 29, 2001.

LOL!! Rebekah, I can see that you really do know about goats!!

All I can add to the fencing discussion is that we used six strands of electric for our pasture fence, and a cattle panel for the gate (the kind with smaller spacings on the bottom). Other than the initial training period when they still wanted to follow me back up to the garage where their pen is every time I left them there, it has worked fine. Don't know about winter when the fence is buried in snow, though. Anyway, a pen of cattle panels would be my choice if we couldn't afford to fence the pasture. And a cattle panel works find for a gate, too.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 29, 2001.

I use 5 ft. board fence with 2x4 wire mesh on it and logs lying along the bottom. No goat has ever escaped from this pen. It was not cheap, but I think I could do it for a lot less now that I've done a bit more research. I used pressure treated posts, and I think I would now use cedar posts, which are a fraction of the cost here in Maine (check to see what type of fence post is available cheaply in your area that is resistant to rot). I would also use slab wood for the fence boards. They have to be peeled to avoid insect damage, but they are dirt cheap. I haven't found a way to buy 2x4 mesh of a heavy enough wire guage cheaply, but I'm sure that just as soon as I've spent more money than I ought building all the fences I need, I'll figure it out! I'll get back to you then!

-- Sheryl in ME (radams@sacoriver.net), September 29, 2001.

I have 31 acres and horses and neighbors. Was thinking about keeping two tame, hand raised does (gift from my daughter) in the horse pasture. I have 4 foot mesh fence and electric along the road side, stone walls on two sides, basically strands of electric and barbless wire on the 4th side. Keeps the horses in.

My daughter says the goats will stay put, but after reading these answers, am wondering. The goats will be well fed, salt blocks, spring fed pond, but....will they stay th

-- Susan Schaefer (dashorse47@aol.com), November 04, 2001.

Oh how smart we all would be to be able to know this! Actually our tame bottle does are the worst, since they want to be with us! A stone wall? You do know goats can climb anything they can get a foot hold on? Being well fed helps, until they see your rosebushes! :) You will love the goats! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 04, 2001.

Stone walls? The goats will love the extensive playground equipment. You'd better plan on at least one run and maybe two of electric fencing of some type along the top of the stone walls. Feral goats make their homes on cliffs, so a little three or four foot wall with crevices every few inches is nothing. I've seen goats browsing in trees - standing all four hooves on branches over twelve feet from the ground.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 04, 2001.

I am sitting here reading all these answers and smiling from ear to ear. You goat owners are great. I enjoyed all this, thank You!

I had some goats a few years back and sold them because I couldnt contain them either. My horses and llama stayed fine but the female goats NEEDED to eat the neighbors prize bushes. You know, the most expensive ones in the neighborhood! I have a 10 acre lush pasture...but they wanted what ever was on the OTHER side of the fence. The buck was happy here but he went where the ladies went.

So now I have a rather large half acre fenced with 2x4 mesh. I dont think they'll get out of that...at least I hope not.

Pat

-- Pat (pritch@rica.net), January 06, 2002.