electric fencing rant!

[waygr00vy]

SO, we recently moved to a new place, and although the outer perimeter is fenced there wasn't alot of cross fencing. I plan on using no climb, but in the mean time figured I would use electric fencing and those step in fence posts for the one stretch of the goat pen. Been working on the fence, tested it on the dogs...lol (actually they tested it themselves) and figured it was time to move the goats! Brought the first load, made sure everyone got zapped atleast once...they were fine. Came home with the second load, same drill...everyone got zapped. Then went to feed the dogs and next thing I know half the goats are running toward me! Put them in and watched them, trying to find how/where they went through...nothing. Go inside to feed baby bird...check outside the window just in time to see goats bolting through the fence! Put them in...found the single doe (the newest one) who apparently knows the trick and now has taught everyone! I put the strands pretty low and used the thick white tape to be a bit of a physical barrie (atleast more visible). Maybe I need to add one more lower strand? Or is the tape not as strong??I finally threw them in with the horses...as it is now dark and i have been running around barefoot after a herd of goats for the last hour! (couldn't find my shoes fast enough!) Oh well, will work on it in the morning I suppose...maybe we will have goat BBQ this weekend! lol

[waygr00vy]

Have glass of wine...thinking more clearly now! Anyways, I will have to tackle this problem in the morning, but I am wondering if they will bolt through no matter how many strands I have since they now know the trick. I would hate to spend alot more time on it just to find out they are going to run out immediately. Any suggestions?

[Alice In TX/MO]

We were never able to stop them with that kind of wire. We went to electric net from Kencove.

[pokyone42]

we have a small herd, and lots of spoiled bottle-brats...... under 20......... we popped all of their noses on the fence, individually....(we have a solar fencer) ........did not seem to work..........one or two were persistent in escaping just to be with us........then, we weedwhacked around the WHOLE fence........(cow pasture included..) popped them again, and BINGO!!!!!!!! Has been working GREAT ever since!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course they hang on the barn gate and cry like they are the most abused animals on earth........lol. and we DO take them out daiy, weather-permitting, but they DID learn the fence now, thankfully! Make sure your fence is not shorted out from weeds.........

[lgslgs]

If you have enough space between wires so that a goat is shocked behind it's ears, it will move forward (through the fence) to get away from the shock. Wires should be spaced so they can't stick their heads through.

We use 7 strand high tensile. 4 hot. Wires are spaced so that a goat will get shocked on the nose or around the face before they get their heads into the fencing.

Lynda

[DQ]

I have found the nylon webbing type strands or tape to be pretty ineffective. the tiny filaments weaved through seem to break easily if its over stretched even a little and the shock it gives even when it is workingroperly isn't nearly as sharp as the shock coming from a wire. the problem with electric fence is that it only works if everything is running the way it was designed. no weeds or sticks falling against it nothing slipped off an insulater etc... in general it frustrates me to be seemingly constantly figuring out why it isn't working "this time". and the animals seem to be able to tell when its down.

[Rowdy]

I do not like the tape. It does not seem to carry as big of a punch, though I've never put to tester to it to be sure.

Personally, I run six strands of smooth wire. Most of it is 14ga, but I do have one paddock of 17ga. I have had three escapes in two years. Two of those were people/gate related, and the last was weed related.

Few Questions:
What type/size charger are you running?
How many strands of wire do you have?
How much wire are your charging?
What is your soil and your weeds like?
How do you have the system grounded?

If the goats really think that they can beat the wire, you may need to build a smaller, stronger pen to teach them that they are wrong in this case. In this "training pen," space the wires closer, put more strands in the fence, and if possible have the charger only power this pen when the training is happening. After some time in this training pen you should be able to move them to a normal paddock or pasture, assuming that there is no technical problems with it.

Hope you get it figured out, goats running away are never fun!

[hoofinitnorth]

1) What type of tape are you using - size, brand, # of wires in the tape, size of wires in the tape, type of wires in the tape?

2) What type of ground rods and how many are you using?

3) How dry is your ground where the ground rods are?

4) How many strands are you running and how many total lineal feet per strand is the fenced area?

5) How many JOULES is your charger?

6) How far apart are your strands?

7) What size are your goats?

Goats and some other animals, even when trained on electric fence, sometimes don't "get" it or sometimes just don't care and will go through it. Cows and horses and other similar animals usually follow the rule of the ears - shock in front. they back up, shock in back, they go forward. Same thing MIGHT be happening with your goats.

[harplade]

an old timer told me a trick to train any animal to hot wire. Put a metal chain around neck and leave a longish piece hanging down over their chest. This will ensure that they get a good shock. With a dog, you could even shave around where the chain lies so as to make good contact with skin. He said this will obviously increase the shock and they also don't figure out how to compensate for the chain. When ours were getting out, they are very clever at using horns to hold up the fence while they get alot of themselves through.

It took awhile, but ours will stay in the wire now. Can't say that tasty grass on the other side wouldn't entice them some day to go through but I suppose they have made up their mind to stay where we've put them. Would never trust my buck in one to keep him away from the girls-a little pain for all that pleasure!! Even a goat can figure that our.

[mtman]

we never had luck with electris fence with goats
what we did we put steel poast every 7 foot then a 2x4 along the bottom we then put up 2x4 wire and used the nylon wire ties to secure the fence to the steel poast never had one get out again

[waygr00vy]

I have 7 strand up right now, 4 strands are the 2" tape, other 3 are poly rope. The tape had 14 wire strands through it. I thought perhaps the tape would make it look scarier, and they would take a second to check it out before running through it. Plus I like the higher visibility for the horses and they may use this pasture at times when I rotate. The stretch of fencing is only 150ft as the other sides were already fenced with field fencing. I have a solarpak, which said it would go for 25 miles which I thought would be plenty. I just looked it up though and realized it is only 1.7 joules. This may be the problem, huh?? The strongest solar charger I saw is 2.9 I think. I have one 8 ft copper ground rod, buried 4 ft. Our ground is VERY wet right now as we had record rainfalls last week. I figured one ground rod would be enough with that short of distance...maybe more? I suppose I will try some tweaking and if that doesn't work maybe get a stronger charger or use regular wire. The thing that drives me crazy was this was going to be a quick, easy temporary fence until we have time to put up a permanent one...haha. Nothing quick or easy so far, plus the goats don't stay in! Oh well...

[waygr00vy]

Oh, forgot to add the goats I am keeping in are Nigerians...

[Alice In TX/MO]

Forget the tweaking. Get a better charger first.

http://www.kencove.com/ShopDetail.php?recordID=EK6Z

Then, get electric net fence.

http://www.kencove.com/ShopDetail.php?recordID=NPC

[nomad7inwi]

We have electric netting. Supposed to be for goats. I wanted it so we could rotational graze. The first day maybe 2 that I move the fence the goats are happy and won't test the fence. Day 3 they jump it (except for our 2 "special needs" goats and donkey). Its a lot of work to move the fence every 3 days. And the browse they have is fine, they just want the tastier stuff on the other side. Now I have fenced them in with pallets. Day 4 and it seems to be working. I still would like the electric fence to work, but I suppose I am going to setup a bunch of different fields with pallets.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Be sure you get electric fencing that is tall enough. We started with a shorter one, but like the previous poster said, some goats fly!

[trappmountain]

We had that problem when I first fenced our goats. I just kept adding strands until they could no longer get through. I also put the corner cross posts on the outside of the fence and the wire on the inside. Then they cannot push rub or climb on the posts.

[fishhead]

I think your first sentence in the OP explains it. They probably don't feel they are "home". Once they do I would expect them to settle down as long as they have food and water.

The first thing I would do would be to test your fence and then I would probably make the fence less visible (and easier to avoid) by moving some of the tape and adding bare 17 or 14 gauge wire. The latter is harder to see and introduces uncertainty.

The smooth chain around the neck of the leader sounds like a good idea too. Make sure it can't tighten around the neck or get caught on the fence though.

I use 3 strands of 17 ga around about an acre of weeds and the goats avoid the fence at all costs. It maxes out the 4650 V tester.

[RedneckPete]

My goats are held in by a SINGLE hot wire. You need a better charger, properly grounded, and need to introduce the goats to a hot wire INSIDE a physically fenced area. They learn to respect it, and won't go near it.

My electric fence will knock the wind out of me if I get careless and touch it. I can't imagine ANY animal touching that voluntarily.

That said, when I left the charger unplugged for a week, my goats were the only animals that tested the wire, and they did escape. I call that my own stupidity.

Pete

[dezeeuwgoats]

I agree - get a better charger. I bought the one that Emily has and it works GREAT!

http://www.grasslandsupply.com/products.cfm?prodID=135

We haven't had any trouble with it at all. FINALLY - an electric fence that works! Keeps our dog in, goats and horses off the fences. It is powerful and my son got shocked once - said his foot went NUMB for about fifteen minutes.....So, be careful. When a goat hits it (one goat) the ENTIRE herd - runs to the other side of the pasture, lol. Hurray for nubian ears!

Niki

[hoofinitnorth]

A charger with more joules would help but ground the heck out of it. 3 rods minimum, at least 6' down in the ground, about 6' apart but no more than 12' apart. Steel supposedly works best but most folks use copper. THEN test it and see how much of a charge you get at the end of it! If you are very far from the charger at the end of the line, you can also add ground rods out somewhere along the center or end of the fence line, or if you do overkill like me for my horses, I have a ground running ALL THE WAY AROUND so that year 'round they get a shock, whether there be dry ground, snow, ice pack, or no shoes.

Good luck!