Fence conundrum!

[shoofly]

Hi everyone,

We have been trying to plan out a pasture for goats for way too long now and we just can't figure out what to do.

We have about six acres of former pasture that has totally reverted to woods with dense briars except for maybe an acre or two. We would like to fence in as much of this land as possible - maybe two or three acres. We'd like the goats to help us control the multiflora rose that is running rampant back there, and to help us keep the small amount of open pasture open.

So the questions are:

Are we nuts to put goat-tight fence around such a large area of land?

And if we're not - what kind of fence should we use? A sizeable portion of the land we would fence is rocky and hilly, with a creek running through it. Should we use goat wire? Electric fencing?

Any and all advice is appreciated. We are hoping to start with two goats come spring, and we are sick of going around in circles about this.

Thanks!!!

[PygmyLover]

field fencing is good. I have seen the no climb field fencing pretty cheep.

[cmharris6002]

Do you have predators? We don't have predators in my area and I do have a guard llama just in case. I hold my goats in with one hot wire about 2' off the ground. They have plenty to eat inside the wire and never get out.

Christy

[shoofly]

We are in the middle of state game land in PA. I have seen the rare coyote (well, just once, actually), and there are hunting dogs out and about depending on what hunting season it is. Not to mention a stray now and then.

[Yeti]

my neighbor fenced about 4 acres with cattle panels. she tied them together and used them where the fence couldn't run straight. she keeps about 12 nubes and 3 bigger ones I not sure what they're called. the ground is stripped bare on the whole 4 acres, so 6 acres shouldn't be bad. the trick here is saving money where you can. I used 47-6-11 in 20 rod rolls and it took $2,900.00 to do my 8 acres all the way round. the cost of gates & posts really adds up. so do your homework and see if you can do the lay out on paper a couple of different ways to save some coin.

[mygoat]

I'd say get rolled goat fence if you don't know if your goats will have horns. Field or cattle fence is good for goats that do not have horns. HOWEVER, horned goats will get thier heads stuck in it and possibly die from exposure or attack. I would also run a couple strands of electric, one along the top and one about knee high to prevent leaning on and jumping the fence, as well as keeping predators out. For the creek, you may have a problem. Goats dont like water but I wouldn't put it past them to go under a fence over water to escape, or if the water was low. For the creek, I would go so far as getting a cattle panel and buring it in the creek and both banks, and attaching it to fencing that stretches across as well. You may have to clean the panel off from time to time depending on how large of a creek it is, and you may have to bury more than one panel.