Pasture and Fencing Options

[Meaghan]

Alright, we finally got our new property mowed down so that we could traverse out into the field! The grass and weeds were previously taller than I was in the spots that weren't wooded (which turned out to be about 3 of the 5 acres).

Here are a few pictures of the new field.

Our house sits on the first acre or so of the property, and the four acres out to the back (it's a narrow and long patch of land) are 3 mostly pasture and 1 fully wooded separated by two cross fences. Unfortunately, the pasture and wooded lot are not fenced in anymore (trees took out the fencing), so we just bought several hundred feet of woven wire field fencing and are planning on putting it up this next week.

I have a few questions here. We were planning on using T posts instead of wood ones because of the cost difference, and because everything wood here rots in North Florida. Would T posts be strong enough to keep goats in if they push on the fencing? (6 ft posts for 4 ft fencing) And if so, how long should the post to post lengths be?

Now, the last acre is completely wooded. We don't even know where the old fencing is it's so far buried under leaf litter. Pictures!

I'm not sure if we should clear it out or not. Right now, it's not safe to turn anything loose back there because there's no fencing on the right side of the property, and we cannot examine the left side because the trees are so thick. The back of the fence seems to be in decent condition in most spots, but could use some restringing in others because it's starting to collapse under the weight of fallen branches. Thoughts on what to do with this acre? I know goats like forest, I just don't want to invest too much in fencing to have trees fall on it like they probably will if we leave it wooded.

The final question is regard an anomaly we found in our 3 acre pasture area. It appears to be a washed out area from rain, but I'm not sure what to do about it. We can't afford to fill it in right now, but I'm unsure if it's dangerous for the goat kids to be out there eventually with it open. It's a good 15x15ft hole, 8-10ft deep in some spots, and currently filled in with tree branches. It doesn't appear that big in the pictures, but it really is that big in person. I'm more afraid that it might fill in a bit with water during the summer rains here and then we'd have a dangerous situation as the sides are pretty steep and I don't want anything to drown in it. Any good cheap ways to keep this safe until we can backfill it?

 

[Baymule]

That hole looks like a trap to me. Can you fence around it? Your pasture looks great! The woods, find the property line, clean it up and fence it. The goats should clean it up for you.

 

[Mike CHS]

Those kind of holes are pretty common where I lived in the Florida Panhandle and looks like a sinkhole to me. I agree with Baymule that fencing might be your best temp solution and not very expensive till you can get it filled in.

I have a few of those on our place in Tennessee but they are relatively small.

 

[secuono]

Wood corner posts are a must, metal posts are too weak.

If you use real metal posts, the heavy duty, thick, pricey posts, then those will last for straight lines and goats leaning on them.
If you buy the crap from Lowes or TSC that are UPosts, you might as well just flush money down the drain. Once that paint is gone, that post will rust out faster than dust blowing away in the wind.

Fence off any dangerous holes until you can fill them in with dirt.

Heavy duty type.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_92070-46379...t&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=metal+upost&facetInfo=


Junk.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/garden-zone-light-duty-fence-post-4-ft

 

[Baymule]

Yeah, really @secuono . Why would anyone on a farm use ANYTHING "light duty"?

 

[Meaghan]

@Baymule: Thanks! The grass in most areas is pretty thick given the extremely sandy soil we have. I'll get a close up of it later at some point. There are a few spots, particularly under trees and in the forested area that there is no grass, but I'm sure we can get that growing in a few years. About it being a trap, I think you may be onto something. It's bizarre, whatever it is. The reason why it's filled up with branches is because it's in a stand of trees in the pasture. On the second picture, you can see the lone tree in the middle of the pasture, and the stand of them to the left. That's where the hole is at.

@Mike CHS: I thought sinkholes had to be pretty deep? From my understanding, it has to go into the limestone layer so that limestone is washed away with the aquifer underneath, creating a weak layer that eventually collapses. I could be totally wrong, but that's my understanding of sinkholes. If it is a sinkhole, I think we may go after the surveyor (we just bought this property three weeks ago), because it was stated that there were no sink holes on the property. It's definitely not new, there are buckets in the hole trapped under the branches.

@secuono: That's funny, actually, those metal posts you linked from Lowe's are the same kind that we were looking at getting. The fence section we are running is just a straight line, the corner spots are solid.

 

[secuono]

Yeah, really @secuono . Why would anyone on a farm use ANYTHING "light duty"?

A lot of people do that. They assume that just because it's in a farm store or in the fencing section, that it's good enough.

 

[Southern by choice]

We put up heavy duty t posts and run 3 strand hot wire through the dense woods. So dense you cannot walk through them... the goats however start at the outer edge and work in. We make a few openings with a machete to get the wire up... the goats clear it. No way we could hard fence most of the land they work through.
Our hotwire contains Kiko meat goats, a few Nigie bucks and 2 LGD's.

 

[goatgurl]

i use woven wire around the perimeter of the property, not really any leaning or pushing there by the girls but here around the house i use either cattle or goat panels. they aren't able to stretch or loosen them so it works out well. i started out years ago with woven wire around the house but in just a few years they had it stretched and pulled down so as i replaced it i used the panels. may as well do it right the first time and not go thru that. maybe since the surveyors were mostly on the outside of the property they didn't see the hole. I'm like the rest of the crew, I'd fence it off

 

[Buzz'n Billy]

@Meaghan
Our farm is right down the road from you in Dunnellon. We put in a 7 strand, smooth wire fence in this past summer. We have beefy electric to it (5 are hot, 2 are ground). Furthermore, we keep our goats in net fencing, also with electric.

The smooth wire is not popular or mainstream, and we have received some funny looks and I'm sure some comments about it. We did our homework - a lot of homework. If you look at sheep and goat farmers in New Zealand, that's what they run. You can put long runs in with fewer wood posts. We also have a lot of trees, and one of the great things about high tensile fencing is if something drops on, it bounces right back up. This was proven (unfortunately I did not have my camera on me) today when we took a tree down it went the wrong way - right on the fence. Nothing popped, nothing, bent, nothing broke. Two clicks on each line to tighten any tension we might have lost and we were back to work.

We have 10 acres. We put in 50 fence posts and double H braced the back corners and H braced the front corners and at the gates. We also did all of this by hand and it took about a week.

The cost is FAR less than other types of fencing. With our charger and deep-cycle marine batteries, we paid less than $3500.