# What kind of fencing do I need for a goat?



## Rex

Deciding on what kind of fence you need is one of the big debate questions. I have found that a four foot fence will keep in most goats, a five foot fence will keep in nearly every goat and some goats could get out of Fort Knox. Most people use standard four foot high woven wire with a strand of barbed or electric wire above it. Cattle panels and chainlink make great fences but they are more costly. On the other hand, a simple electric fence wire can keep in goats once they learn it shocks them if they touch it.


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## tiger408

One type that I have learned does not work well for goats is cattle fencing. It is very sturdy and doesn't stretch... but if they stand on it ... it has an accordion effect on the wire. I have one goat in particular that has figured out standing/ bouncing on it will make it squish down low enough he can hop over it. Needless to say that section of fencing it being replaced with regular 2"x4" stock fence in the spring.


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## nrspence

If your raiseing young goats with horns you should use the cattle fence panels that have 4inch x 4inch openings instead of the standard 6x6. In the 6x6 openings the young ones will stick their head threw and not be able to get it out.


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## Rex

nrspence said:


> If your raiseing young goats with horns you should use the cattle fence panels that have 4inch x 4inch openings instead of the standard 6x6. In the 6x6 openings the young ones will stick their head threw and not be able to get it out.


Ditto that statement. I've spent a lot of time poking kids heads back through the panels with bigger holes.


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## sanhestar

As we have the same mobile electric (hot) wire nets at our winter pasture as we use during summer I switched a few years back to chicken hot wire nets. They have very small holes in the rows near the bottom (to hinder chicken and ducks to slip through) which are too small even for newborn lambs. A good fence charger on the fence and a hearty "bite" from the fence will cure them for a long time (just not for life).

As with all the electric nets one has to make sure that they stand straight and that there's no slack in the net.


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## Hasligrove

I have electric net fence and 6ft high cyclone dog kennel panels. I use the high panels for a secure enclosure for night time and the electric net for day time grassing areas. I really like the net and I use T posts every once in awhile and on corners to help keep net tight and upright. (as long as the T post is not touching the net fence post you are ok - I use baling twine to tie the T post and the net post together with a small gap. I also like and have an electric wire on inside chest height and low on outside to protect from predator digging in. I don't want any goat to stand on any fence. Hopefully I have trained mine well enough to know that fences are BAD and stay off them.

I have had to used temporary fencing though. The goats are not at a permanent spot. I will soon be building my dream barn and will probably use wood post, the 4x4 - 16 ft cattle panels with an added electric wire. The panels have gone WAY up in price in my area. I think they are like $70 each. Hopefully that will change.


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## nrspence

Wow 70$ for those 4x4, 16ft long cattle panels. The last time i looked here at IFA they were 45$. I would like to try that electric net fencing just so i could move my pasture around alot easier.


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## cowdr

Fencing has and an on going evolution on our place. I can show several examples of things that work and that I have tried and are on the list to change. My go to fence is 47 inch tall woven wire field fence with offset electric fence at roughly the bottom of my knee. I set it out about a foot from the fence, either with small diameter electric fence posts or I have drilled 3/8" diameter holes in my line posts and used construction cement to glue in sections of fiberglass electric fence posts(cut in thirds) to extend the wire out. On the top of the fence I place another hot wire to keep them respectful of the top of the fence. I use 2-6 joule output low impedence fencers on my fences and it helps. No fence is perfect ask Herb how lucky I am to have goats still, when he has helped me chase(lead, who am I kidding they don't chase) them out of our yard and my wifes flower and strawberry patch. 
Horned goats add another dimension to fencing considerations that is one of the reasons our flock is disbudded.


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## sweetgoatmama

There's a difference between cattle panels and the field fencing that has wrapped wires than can spin and collapse. The cattle panels are welded at each crossing and are unbendable. Hoever, they can be pushed down completely by three wethers ganging up on the t-post they are attached to. Ask me how I know.

I also one year had to put electromesh wire above the cattle panel to keep this one 2 year old in. It looked like I was raising lions or something.


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## woodpeckerhollow

That was the Flying Pi right?
Rebecca


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## sweetgoatmama

Pi could jump repeatedly over a 4 1/2 foot cattle panel like a rabbit. The first time he tried he missed and ended up hanging upside down by one foot till I got the bolt cutters and cut him out. 

Then he got his range and there was no girl safe on the place.


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## Joaquin

Hi Everyone

I think that most goats stay in if the fence is up to 5 feet, but I have a seven month old nubian x saanen weather that jump over a 6,6 ft high fence with no problem, itÂ´s an amazing thing to see lol :mrgreen: . I hope that this goat in the future with more weight in it, stay and quit jumping so high.

IÂ´m new to goat packing and I am from Chile South America, my English is not the best but IÂ´m trying to do the best lol  . 
I will post some pictures of the fencing that we made, its a 2500 square meters (8300 sq feet) fencing with some big pines in it and a granite rock natural cliff that serve to control hoof growth. Goat love it. Now IÂ´m going to construct a small shelter to protect the wethers from get wet in winter.

Great forum :mrgreen: 

Kind Regards

Joaquin Avaria


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## sweetgoatmama

I use the 4x6" square cattle panels. THey are only about $25 and can save a lot of money. For the kid areas I put chicken wire on the inside of the panels and just leave it.

They can't stick their heads through and it just stays there year after year, no prolbem. Saves a ton of money on panelling.


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## Rodrick

New here--- I use the 16ft x 4 ft cattle panels but pay only $25 max here and was mad when they jumped from $17 last year- my goats (3) have no desire to leave the pasture. Maybe sneak thru a chain link fence gate if I don't chain it - but they don't go anywhere. 1 whistle and they sprint back. Thinking about a portable hot wire to quadrant off the pasture but probably will just get more panel. My problem is the horses next door crushing my fence to get at the garden- and the fence is 6 1/2 feet tall. May run a strand of hot wire down that section this year.


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## WNC packgoats

I don't have goats yet, but have been obsessing about them for years. Our property is almost 7 very steep acres in the mountains of North Carolina. It is mostly hardwood forest that has been left alone for nearly 100 years (best i can tell from old timers and photos it was clear cut around 1910) I first wanted temporary goats to clear the 1/2 acre of kudzu that is taking over near the bottom, but now am considering a eco friendly brush clearing/ pack goat outfitting business, a more perminant venture. My big dilema is fencing. The land is steep, uneven, rugged, and choked with mature hardwoods, standing dead hardwoods, privit, briars, poisen ivy, and way to many saplings competing for survival. I have a lot of fencing materials on hand (locust posts, round and split, 16 foot long locust split rails, a mile or so of 7 strand galvanized steel cable that used to hold up the long abandoned cable tv wire that ran up the mountain, and 100 feet or so of reclaimed chain link fence) I like the idea of a small, bomb proof barn yard area for night time security down low (where I won't kill my self getting hay and water to) and a large wooded pasture up high for day time grazing) I'd also like to use step-in type portable electric fence for the kudzu. I'm in the town limits, which allows livestock so long as its contained, but an escape from the lower perimeter could be bad. Neighbors veggie and flower gardens, not to mention main street three blocks down. I keep my chickens contained in movable tractors, but each evening they happen to "escape" for a few hours to grub. Some times they make it to the road, but no one says anything. Most people seem to like seeing a few yard birds around town. A dozen fresh eggs usually wins them over. On the plus side, the land above us is undeveloped for several hundred acres, so a breech of the high line wouldn't be as bad. Does any one have any experience fencing steep, wooded, uneven mountain terrain? Anything I do will eventually have trees fall on it, prolly sooner than later, so my ideal fence will be easily mendable. for the high pasture I keep picturing the steel cable streched tight and hooked up with turnbuckles to these large industrial springs I've seen for sale at Habitat for Humanity. Maybe it would have some give.
We don't have any grass pasture, just wooded forest, and kudzu covered mountain. I'm worried about winter feeding but what the hay. Have I gone goat crazy? I can't stop thinking about them.


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## Rex

The biggest piece of advice I give to new goat owners is not to skimp on the fence. Goats are hard to keep in with a good fence. Putting up an inferior fence will only cause grief and aggravation for years to come. Bite the bullet and spend the money on good fence. You'll never be sorry.

If it were my property there would be no question that I would use 4-5ft high woven wire. It easily conforms to the curvature of the land and can usually stretch enough to handle a tree falling on it without breaking. It will need the wires straightened up when you cut the tree off but it should still be intact. If my math is correct, you should have enough cable to go around your entire property so you might consider running that 6 inches above the woven wire to give a little more height to the fence and help protect it from falling limbs and such. Stretching it tight with turn buckles would also allow you to wire the top of the woven with to it to help keep the fence from sagging.

Another possibility would be high tensile wire with every other strand electrified. I have no experience with this type of fencing but I don't see why it wouldn't work if you kept the power on. The woven wire is much better at keeping out Dogs and Coyotes though.


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## Bob Jones

Every goat I have can jump a 4ft fence. Only two can jump the 5ft fence. Moe can bounce off the side of a tree to clear a 5ft fence that he can't clear by jumping. 

They all can shred chicken wire fences, plow through slat fences, shatter plastic fences in the cold, and climb over horse fence. They don't even recognize any kind of makeshift fence. 

When they were small they could crawl through a 14" diameter vent to get under a fence.

They particularly like to mess with fences if I change my feeding routine. 

But on the other hand, they have never left the yard once they are out of the back, because there is plenty of new things to eat. Go figure.


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## ohiogoatgirl

when my parents had the dairy herd we put up 4 foot fence... goats getting out... put up another row above it... so now its about 6 foot... still getting out... they got out quite frequently. but no fence could keep them in.

now those goats are gone, thank heavens! and where i got my girls from had 4 lines of electric wire and i only heard him say about the goats getting out once (he was my teacher and we frequently talked about goats so it was like 3 years). they are in the pasture that the previous goats were in and the only problem i've had is one place that the fence broke at (i wove pine sticks in and its kept up) and the smaller doe squeezes through between the gate and post once in a while if i'm late to feed them. but she comes straight to the porch to chase the cats and holler in the door (its glass) that i'm late and she is not happy about it :lol: 

i'd say if you are putting up fence for your first goats to see what the farm has up that you are buying them from and ask if they have any problems. i would say go with what they have plus some. because the goats will be in a new place and all so i say "plus some". 

i'm getting angora goats and they dont jump much they just try to go under fence. i'm so glad because i only have to buy 4 foot fence  YES!!! 

i say if you are


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## cryptobrian

Bob Jones said:


> they have never left the yard once they are out of the back, because there is plenty of new things to eat


Heh ... my fence didn't keep the goats out of the neighbors yard, but a couple rows of grape vines sure did! I wish I could teach them the proper way to prune those vines.


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## Perry

5 strands of electric fence has worked well for meâ€¦the goats stay in. You do need to train /introduce them to it. Itâ€™s not quite so good at keeping dogs out. Iâ€™ve had dogs get in twice in 10 years.

Perry


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