Fence Type For Goats

[lupinfarm]

although I haven't tried our solar fencer with goats, our solar fencer is GREAT. it is super powerful, it even knocked the wind out of me when I hit it by accident feeding Luna a few weeks ago (and I'm a 5'10", 250lb girl!)

Luna tried the fence once, and even when off things its still on. My goats will have a plug in fencer rated for 50 miles, which will also power the horse fencing in upper fields (small fields, BTW). I will also have a smaller pen that is metal for the goats to go in. Since my goats will come in at night, I figure that this small pen will suffice should we have a large power outtage.

 

[trestlecreek]

I will run electric as a buck barrier WITH regular fence, but there is no way that I would trust electric alone!!
We have trees, hills, rocks, wind, does in heat w/bucks that would love them, cars on the road and neighbors whom own dogs,etc...... Just is not the safest I can provide to keep my herd secure/safe. I don't like to worry about my fenceline.

 

[lupinfarm]

Yep, Trestle, eveyone circumstances are different and should be judged as so. Although I'm sure I could get away with a electric fenceline only with the goats, I will for looks mostly Be putting a secondary fenceline in . 6 strand electric on t-posts, which are really friggen ugly, but get the job done, and a smal 4ft buck fence running along the outside to dress it up since the goat pasture is right in front of my house and one of the first things you see when you drive up past the chicken house.

 

[cmjust0]

6 strand electric on t-posts, which are really friggen ugly, but get the job done

Hey...I resemble that remark.



Personally, I like the sleek, clean lines of a hi-tensile fence...thankyouverymuch.

 

[trestlecreek]

Oh yeah, electric can look pretty!!
Now, we take pride in our pretty fenceline with the woven fence. My husband worked his tail off to pull that tight and to make that as strong and as straight as can be. He even paints the wooden posts! LOL.
Here though, with electric, every time the wind blows, I'd have to run to make sure a stick didn't fall and short the darn thing out,.... then I'd have to weed eat under it all the time to keep the grass from shorting it out,....just not for me,... I do have one strung around the garden and it works well to keep the critters out....

 

[cmjust0]

Just out of curiosity, what was the grounding system setup like on the easily-shorted fence?

My experience has been that about 90% of electric fence problems can be traced back to the grounding system in one way or another.

 

[trestlecreek]

Nope, he put a substantial grounding rod into the ground.....I know that can be the problem, but where we live, we have just way too many variables to contend with...... one stick can ruin the whole thing,....LOL.

 

[crazygoatlady]

tried the electric fence, as long as Mocha could get her nose under the bottom wire, she would lay on her belly, close her eyes and crawl under it. they had grass on the other side, hay and water inside their area, but it must be a challenge for her. . then the others watched her, some of them would follow, others didn't. There again, I think it has to do with the personality of the animal. the wire has to be high enough so nothing can touch it- it knocked my daughters on their butts.

 

[cmjust0]

Nope, he put a substantial grounding rod into the ground.....I know that can be the problem, but where we live, we have just way too many variables to contend with...... one stick can ruin the whole thing,....LOL.

I put four 8' rods in the ground.

You can't even see our bottom wire anymore, but even when the grass is wet, any one of the hot wires will knock the snot out of ya.

I did a little 'tempermanent' fencing around the chicken coop pop door area, mostly to keep the goats off the ramp and so we could throw cracked corn for scratch.. It's really thin polystrand, connected to a 17ga aluminum wire that runs waaaay over to one of the 12-1/2ga hi-t hot wires..

My wife lost her balance and accidentally put her hand on the polystrand the other day...even though it's so far removed from the actual hi-tensile, it was still apparently something akin to a religious experience.

Ya know how they say chickens are somewhat immune to electric fences because their legs are 'dry' and they're covered in feathers...not true. Nothing funnier than seeing a rooster put his foot on the fence to push it down, then go 'baGAWWWCKbawkbawkbawk' as he hotfoots it on across....for the 10th time in a day.

 

[lupinfarm]

Oh yeah, electric can look pretty!!
Now, we take pride in our pretty fenceline with the woven fence. My husband worked his tail off to pull that tight and to make that as strong and as straight as can be. He even paints the wooden posts! LOL.
Here though, with electric, every time the wind blows, I'd have to run to make sure a stick didn't fall and short the darn thing out,.... then I'd have to weed eat under it all the time to keep the grass from shorting it out,....just not for me,... I do have one strung around the garden and it works well to keep the critters out....

It sounds like it wasn't low impedance. If you have a high impedance system, the more grass and foreign objects touch, it shorts. With Low Impedance, the system adjusts for however much energy plant matter that touches it draws away and therefore doesn't short (I'm probably wrong on the explanation, but I know how it works! LOL I have a Low Impedance system).