# Electric fencing for goats?



## LaurenB (Feb 29, 2016)

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to start getting some goats on my plot of land. A lot of my friends and people in town have told me to get an electric fence of some sort, which I agree with...

I have a friend who works at ElectroBraid and can possibly give me a good discount on their products. The only thing is, I can only see that they have it marketed towards "horses." http://www.electrobraid.com/electric-horse-fence/

Would it be a bad idea for me to get this kind of fencing? I'm new to this and I don't want to harm any animals.

Thank you.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

The idea of any electric fence is that it harms the animal, temporarily. Simply put, it hurts. That is why they don't usually try it more than once or twice. I am not aware of goats being really hurt by an electric fence and there are several places locally that use electricity exclusively. 
There is always an exception to nearly every rule but overall most animals respect for electricity overrides their desire for whatever is beyond the fence. The decision that needs to be made is how many strands and at what height, and the joules of the charger.
Edit. I prefer the tape style for better visibility. Once an animal knows what an electric fence is they will avoid it either way.


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

I use to have kinko goats and i used electric fence. Goats are hard to juice you need to fix a couple grounds and put a ground rod in 8 feet deep about every 400 foot with a 6 joules box.


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## atgreene (May 19, 2013)

I run 13 joules, high tensile fence, 10 ground rods. The key to any electric is grounds. More is better. Temporary electric netting is nice, but high tensile, if done right, is final.


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## Tx Jim (Jun 30, 2014)

Ditto on good ground rods & several of them. I just witnessed my bull get a good buzz from my Gallagher super hot electric fence charger this morning. :lol:


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## PaCustomBaler (Nov 29, 2010)

An old goat-herder told me a good one awhile ago.

Take a bucket and fill in to the top with water. Go over to the fence and throw the bucket of water onto the fence. If the water makes it through the fence, so will the goats.


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## Amelia Farms (May 16, 2012)

We have 3 goats that we move around on our property to clean up wooded areas and thickets. We use portable electric netting with a solar powered charger. In a couple of the setups I have set up the electric netting on 3 sides butting up to existing Electrobraid horse fencing for the 4th side. We use 4 strands of Electrobraid for the horse fences. The goats have never gone thru the Electrobraid.

I really like the Electrobraid for horse fencing, it goes up fast and is easy to repair if you have a tree come down on it.

I am actually considering using the Electrobraid for a new cow pasture we are putting in this year. Anybody ever tried it with cows?


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## MtnCreek (Apr 10, 2014)

You need a good fence for goats and a little patience. You may have to replace a wire or two before the goats figure out they shouldn't try to cross the fence. I use 5 strands of tight 14 ga steel and space them tighter near the bottom. The second wire from the bottom is the one that does most of the work. The top wire is there for the horses. 12 j charger.

The first thing a cow does when it walks up to a new fence is touch it's wet nose to it. For a dumb animal they learn elec fences pretty quick. I could keep my horses in with one strand of bailing twine. The goats will walk through a new elec fence a couple times before they figure it out. I think their course hair makes it harder to shock them.


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## hcb (Oct 27, 2016)

Hello. I have 14 goats and 8 sheep which I recently (6 weeks ago) put on a piece of land I have. I have two areas enclosed with good fencing (woven wire) which can contain goats and sheep. This gives me about 5 acres of enclosed area which they ate down fairly quickly. Following a friend's practice, I purchased electric netting and a charger to enclose other areas quickly and easily to move the animals around.

I bought electric netting from Amazon which is 42 inches tall and has small rectangular openings near the bottom, getting larger going up. I also purchased a fence charger from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWZB74/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).%C2 If you ever used a fence charger without a solar charger and with an external car battery then you know that it sucks something awful. This fence charger is made in the USA, has an internal battery, and a built-on solar panel. It worked so well and I liked it so much, I bought 2 more "just in case I needed them". Since then, I have moved the netting around and needed 2 chargers (disconnected fencing) so it was worth buying the extras.

All my electric fencing eventually terminates at a fixed fence which is pipe driven into the ground. I connect the ground from the fence chargers to the fixed fence which works very well.

To my knowledge, none of the animals I have had ever been around electric fencing/netting before.

With all that said: they figured out what that fence was double quick. My friend grabbed one of the goats and put her nose on the fence but the others figured it out on their own and they all steer clear of it. This has been an effective way to contain both the sheep and the goats, with the goats, in my limited experience, being the harder to contain. We've tried to catch a couple of sheep on his place, contained with the electric net, and, even when chased, they will stay away from the netting.

The only problems I have had are: 1) a billy tried to mate one of the females and drove her into the fence. Thank God I was there to put the fence back up. Neither goat managed to escape, however, as once she got free, they both returned to the enclosed area rather than attempt to cross the downed fence. That occurred the first day I had them contained in the netting so they hadn't encountered the mesh before, I suspect. 2) I bought some of the cheaper netting which is about $130 or so for 164'. It has smaller rods supporting it than the more expensive stuff my friend bought (in 100' sections). These smaller rods a) have short spikes on the bottom which can be easily uprooted and b) are smaller in diameter and, therefore, bend kind of easily. This bending is a problem when curving the fence. The solution is to use some step-in electric fence posts which cost about $2 each (Amazon or Tractor Supply, with TSC being a little LESS expensive than the ones I bought from Amazon, same product, however). http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/step-in-poly-fence-post-48-in?cm_vc=-10005I use those to reinforce corners and whenever there is a run with a little sagging due to the terrain.

You can successfully enclose an area with electric fencing of some type and contain your goats. As stated by others, a good ground connection is necessary. I prefer the mesh over the tapes and wire, but that's just me. If you're doing a "permanent" electric fence, you may not want mesh. For temporary fencing, the netting is handy and fairly easy to move around.

Finally, be aware that there is "permanent" and "temporary" netting available. At least that's what I gather; some is, I presume, more resistant to UV damage for long-term installation. Also, there are "step-in" posts and "not step-in" posts. You will probably prefer the "step-in" style. Amazon is one place to purchase some of this netting, but you can look up something like "premier 1 sheep goat" and look at their site.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you.

--HC


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

Don't forget, goats can jump. I have a Nigerian Dwarf buck that can jump a 4' fence; that is pretty high for a 20" tall goat.

Dad has alwasys said. A goat can climb through a knothole.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

All good suggestions, running a 24 joule charger here as I had some bulls in the past strictly thinking with their things. Have three 10' ground rods ten foot apart by the charger then several more attached to a ground wire around the pasture. Dry ground or frozen ground is not a good conductor of electricity at all so the extra ground rods around the perimeter helps immensely.

Once a critter learns about a good electric fence, you can take the wire and poles down and still can't drive them across where it used to be.

Goats might be the same, but especially for calves instead of tape I use wire but tie strips of plastic to em, especially on any gates that get routinely moved when switching pastures.

A trick we used to do when turning heifers from the other farm in with our cows was to have several people along the wire tapping it with fiber glass rods, this moves it just enough for the critters to see.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I have sheep and have never had good luck with electronetting. I had about 1000 feet given to me and I loved it so much, I gave it to someone else who was up against it. In that regard it is better than nothing, but not by much.

In my opinion, the most expensive fencing is the cheapest. I know Page Wire is not cheap, but you put it up once and it stays up...for 30 years. That is cheap fence. Fence you have to constantly move, constantly keep void of weeds and brush, chase sheep back into, and have the liability of animals on the loose...it is a huge time-suck. I am a full-time farmer so time is not so much of an issue, but for the small farmer who has a job in town...it is another matter altogether. How will your boss like it if you have to go home to constantly put animals in your cheap fence?

And never forget that a fence's job with small livestock, is to not only to keep them in, but other animals out. I have invested heavily in fence, but it has been well worth it. Honestly, Page Wire fence 4 feet tall, with strong corners and pressure treated posts is really cheap when deducted over a 30 year life-span.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Where ya been Rut?


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

A Custom Hire job from hades!

It was only 18 acres of turning forest into field, but it was on top of a mountainside with most of it being exposed bedrock. Some hummocks of soil allowed all but 5 acres to be covered over, but was it ever rocky and a long push for the bulldozer. I ended up throwing the track once on the big excavator, twice on a smaller one, and the big bulldozer (a 700 John Deere) literally broke in half... twice! Once the track broke in half, and the other time the rear sprocket shattered; all from operating on ledge rock; day in, and day out.

The job also included building a rifle range, two roads that totaled a half mile in length, 5 culverts installed, a pad for a 80 x 100 haybarn, demolishing two houses, and digging two ponds.

Next year I have to finish grade it, pull the stumps off the ledge rock that still remain (those 5 acres) and sow it all into grass, but the bulk of it is done. Some 600 hours on equipment and over 50,000 yards of earth moved. Yesterday was the first day I had off in months, and by work days I mean starting before sun-up and finishing after sun down since the equipment had lights enough to work. (I did not work up on the ledge rock though under lights as it was too dangerous).


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Good to see you back always appreciate your point of view.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Glad you made it back Rutt....I hope you made some money after all the breakdowns. That is a beautiful picture and those are some beautiful rolling hills. Hope all is well with your family.

Regards, Mike


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

No, no money to be made.

It was for a Christian Camp for kids, though the place operates year round. The 18 acres of clearing was for their horse program and to expand it. Its a tough thing; it takes more activities to attract more kids so that more kids hear the gospel. But this year was great; 110 children accepted Jesus out of 770. Yes my equipment broke, BUT with 110 kids walking the streets of gold in heaven someday, what is a few breakdowns pushing nasty ole earth down here? It is all about perspective.

I cut the camp a break on price. Basically it was an absolute cut-rate price. The nearest bid was $64,000 and right now I am at $22,500, but I am not done yet. Still the $64,000 would not have included demolishing two houses, building two ponds, building the rifle range, and the roads, so it really is comparing apples to oranges. I figure the total cost will lie around $30,000.

Right now I am at $955.55 per acre where as on flat ground it can be as low as $201.01 per acre.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I am kind of wondering if this machine might be able to reduce the overall cost per acre of land clearing. Its no doubt expensive, but it would eliminate a lot of labor, other expensive equipment, and removing the stump from the ground. Just drive over clearcut land and level it with a dozer or grader. It would not work on that most recent land clearing job, as it was filled with ledge, but most jobs it would be okay.

I average 3 acres per day with a bulldozer, and 2 acres per day with an excavator at 350 stumps per acre (on average).

I would love to hear your thoughts on it...


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I have seen transmission line outfits operate with grinders....even take down mature trees with them and pulverize rather than cutting and hauling. The stumper looks expensive and I would be very curious as to what is considered routine maintenance with such a machine.

I admire those who invest in a heavenly reward.

Regards, Mike


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