Electric fence and goats.

Just as a comment on electric fences -- I've had one horned goat figure out that horns do not conduct electricity; he would rip the fence down with his horns.

I've also had a goat figure out he could chase less aggressive goats through the fence, breaking it, so he could escape. I'v also had panicked goats run through them. And if it goes off (shorts out, power out) they know instantly.

Electric fences are great, but shouldn't be used for perimeter fencing, just for crossfencing when it's not critical to keep the goats out of the crossfenced area.

Get a bigger charger. The large fencers will shock threw everything and wont not shock due to a regular short. Mine was dead grounded + to the - and it still had enough to keep them in. Also make sure you use 14 gage or bigger wire spaced for goats. Like this................

A good charger *will* shock them through their horns.

All my perimeter fencing is electric, as that is where the cost comes into play.

__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

Not sure......we put up the fence right when we moved here so we really didn't have anything to go on before that. We are running electric fence around 100 acres, I don't think it changes the bill drastically as compared to the cost of putting up all woven wire fence.
If you go with electric, be sure you ground well, train the goats, and get a GOOD charger. Otherwise, you will be very frustrated. Been there, done that!

__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

Electric fencing only costs pennies per month....Mine in particular is .31 cents per month, information can be found @ the Zareba electric fencing website...That I can afford.

__________________
TOPSIDE FARMS

Thanks John. I can afford that too!

__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

One more thing for you fine folks need to know...If I had one thing to do over again, it would be purchasing a stronger electrical controller. My goats never escape out of the 16 acres I have electricfied; the shock will knock most people on their butts. However with more power the quicker the goats are trained and minor grounds can be ignored. The controller is the heartbeat of any electric fencing system so buy the best and minimize your frustration.

__________________
TOPSIDE FARMS

for those of you using 5 stran electric fencing, What about the kids, don't they try to go under thre fence being so small?? I have nigerians and have a 5 stran pasture I was going to put them in but thought I needed to re line it with wooven so the babies could not get out?? I sure would like to get aways with just the 5 strain for cost savings if I could, Anyone just using the 5 stran can you let me know about the kids staying in??
Thanks

I use three strand, four strand and even two strand and no one gets out. Goats in general will reach up with their noses and experiment with the wire. Once they touch the wire, lesson learned. Why would they escape, mom is on the other side, herd is on the other side, food hopefully is on the other side. My kids get shocked out of nosiness, most of them get shocked run through, then get shocked on the return trip. That's usually the last time touched...Bottle babies or any type of goat can become a problem if the charger is weak...Fencing is only as strong as the charger.

__________________
TOPSIDE FARMS

I'm right in the process of putting up about 1,000' of electric fencing. It's 3 wire but if I have problem I'll add a fourth and space them closer. My biggest problem is the weeds so after I take a weed trimmer and go over the entire fence I'm going to hit it with salt/vinegar mix and dump a handful of salt on each of the sedge clumps.

Fishhead: can you explain that?? I would love to know a trick to keeping the weeds from growing under the electric wire. But safe for the goats.

Hi all,
this is a great thread. I've been thinking that I could supplement my 5-strand barb wire fence with 2 strands of electric tape set 1' in from the barb wire and this would work to keep meat goats in. I think, from all I've read, that this would work. Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone.

leslie
(I think this is my first post! )

Your welcome Leslie, in fact most of my fencing is a combination of electric and barb, sure works for my cattle and goats...Welcome to the forum

__________________
TOPSIDE FARMS

I assume you are speaking of kids on their dams? Dam-raised kids learn from momma that thing thing is to be stayed away from and the harder headed ones learn it bites when they sniff it or shimmy under. They get bit when they go under and they get bit again when they go back through to mommy. They rarely go through more than once.
My bottle raised kids are inside cattle panels or woven wire pens and are introduced to electric by me when they are a few months old.

__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

I ran across this thread discussing the merits of that homemade herbicide.

http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=185999

Welcome Leslie! The wire around half our property is three strand of barbed wire cattle fence with three strand of hotwire for the goats, the rest is just four strands of hotwire. It sure does work...*IF* you have a HOT charger and good grounding.

__________________
Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

Fishhead does this really work for you? If so are you useing a gallon of white or cider vinegar, and are you adding salt, if so how much, I would really like to try this..

I haven't tried it yet but intend on spraying the fenceline with a vinegar/salt/detergent mix to find out. It's either that or waste time cutting the grass every 2 weeks.

Another thing I may try is making the bottom wire a ground wire and putting it closer to the ground so anyone trying to slip through the fence will get between the bottom (ground wire) and a hot wire.

Regarding power cost to run electric fencing....I had a power pole and meter put in on 42 acres of leased land just to run an electric fence ( 1/4 mile of 3 strand 12 gauge high tensile ) and after 6 months, the meter hadn't moved off 0 (it might have rotated the first digit 1/8th a turn or so ) so the power company sent a truck out to check it...I thought that was pretty comical.

So fence chargers literally don't cost anything to run.

Regarding kids going thru/under the fence, I don't have goats (yet, going to look at a boer nanny tonight or tomorrow) but Dexter (small breed of cattle) calves will duck under the hot wire but go right back under to get back to the herd....and that fence charger has enough zap to it to make me not ever touch it again, that thing will knock you down...and its not even a real big fancy one..it will put 8-9k in the wire during the winter, it has 3-4k volts in it right now with the bottom strand having some grass and weeds touching it. It just burns off the grass and weeds, I don't bother mowing or weedwacking under it.

I also learned if you unhook the bottom strand, the cattle will stick their noses under that wire and keep it cleaned off for you, but won't try and go thru the other 2 strands as they are still hot.

I was lucky enough to get a great pyrenese for free from a family nearby that had taken him in from someone else, but didn't have time for him.

For anyone who has more vulnerable livestock (poultry, sheep, goats, even cattle when they are calving) I highly recomend a livestock guard dog...our place is quite a bit different with the great pyr around. He won't tolerate any coyotes being around within earshot, I haven't seen a stray (or neighbors) dog on our 10 acres or our leased 42 acres since he came to live with us.....

Coyotes or dogs can go over or under most any fence you can build, either at creek crossings, or at dips in the ground, etc....unless you spend a fortune on a predator proof fence, which I can't afford on the acrages we have.

Having the lgd around keeps the predators at bay much better imo, even if I had to buy the lgd, I would spend much trying to build coyote or dog proof fences than a lgd costs.