Can anyone convience me that goats can be kept in heavily wooded

[FarmboyBill]

Heavly wooded area with electric fence? Please try lol. Ive got 3 acres of HEAVLY wooded area and around the same of open. The open is fenced with a 1/2doz strands of barbed wire, but The wooded area hasnt got anything, and Id like to run electric around it IF I knew it would hold them till I retire in another 2 yrs, and then build a permanent fence

[DQ]

the problem is, as you probably know, that when electric fences are use around lots of trees and brush they end up grounding out somewhere or even getting completely torn down and compromising the "zap" somewhat or altogether. depending on your area the problem could be more that the goats might get out or more that predators might get in. I have 2.5 acres. we paid to have it dozed a year before I got the goats. duh. kicking my self on that one. we paid to have a bunch of free goat food trashed. but the main reason we wanted it cleared was because it was so heavily wooded/brushed and had real old fence somehwere in there. making it virtually impossible to fence in one go. it would have taken months to clear by hand. if I were to do it all over again we would use a small dozer to just clear the perimeter of the property for a fence. if you were to do that and were very careful aobut doing your electric fence right, than it might work. when we eventually get to buy more land that is my plan. I will let the goats clear out my home and yard area, before turning them loose on the larger portion. pipe dreams

edited to add....you know that the barbed wire alone won't hold the goats don't you?

[mygoat]

If you can run the fencing AROUND the area and you keep the area well - stocked with goats, they'll keep any brush from grounding out the fence. In short order, that area will look as finely groomed as any park. At least, ours does.

[fishhead]

The biggest problem I can see with running an electric fence through brush and trees is that you can't get a straight line and without that it's hard to stretch it tight. You might be able to compensate by using lots of posts close together so that it can be looser than normal.

[FarmboyBill]

I can go around the wooded pasture, and that is no problem. tho I dont want to get out away from it, as I have farm ground around it also. Is there a kind, or type, or company that makes the electric componits that any of you value over others for the fencing??

[Rowdy]

I now have some field fence up, but I started with six strands of 14ga electric with a t post about every 100 feet, with some fiberglass posts in between. Used the nothing but the electric fence for about two years. Keep the fence clear and on and you'll be okay, though sometimes those first two things are a chore.

There are many goats here in Texas that prove that barbed wire will keep goats in, though it is usually nine or more strands. I like field fence though. Of course, if I could afford it, I'd just fence the whole place with cattle panels too!

Here is pretty much what I started with:


I have four one acre wooded paddocks that I let them browse hard, then I go in and clear out a little more each time


I now have a little clearing on the east side of most of the paddocks. Here is where I had my wheat for winter grazing this winter, in the photo this summer's haygrazer is doing pretty good

[CookingPam777]

Mine are in a heavily wooded area and find enough to eat thats for sure. About the electric fence I have no idea never had one.

[mygoat]

I'd say mow a perimeter around the wooded area. Run your electric right down the mowed area, and you'll need lots of strands to hold 'em in. After that, you might have to check the fence every couple weeks to make sure nothing is grounding it.

[bloogrssgrl]

My BIL and SIL keep there goats in a wooded area with electric. They go to Kencove for their fencing supplies but I'm sure you could find a lot of suppliers online.

I think the trick is to get a really good charger that will give them a whallop when they touch the fence (sounds cruel, I know) but they seem to learn to respect it pretty quickly. They run 6 strands of electric rope and change which strands are charged - I suppose to always keep the goats guessing?

[Gailann Schrader]

I've held goats in electric - two strand - fence for over 7 years.

Only the babies tend to walk under. Deer take it down regularly, but if you flag the fence? They do avoid it more than not. I run such a hot charger that the goats won't touch the fence even when it's down or off.

The secret is to TRAIN THE GOATS BEFORE YOU LET THEM INTO THE LARGE AREA. Fence off a small paddock with a WOVEN WIRE OR PANEL "BEHIND" IT.

When a goat (or most animals for that matter) hit the hot wire? They tend to go FORWARD through the fence. It's not "normal" for an animal to back up. If you "train" them that going forward hits a solid fence (and thus more shock)? They learn very quickly to back off. Once everyone is respecting the fence? Let them out into a larger area with the wires MARKED CLEARLY. Use that smaller area to teach newbies and babies.

I use torn fabric, glitter/reflective fence tape to hang off the wires. They leave it alone. I guess if they were starving? They'd break out. But they haven't in 7+ years.

I've only had one goat that it took several days for it to figure out the shock=fence concept. It was a dippy goat and we ate it. I have about 8 acres fenced off, by my reckoning.

Good Luck!

[Gailann Schrader]

Oh, one wire is goat mid-knee high and the other is goat head high. Gets most sizes of goats. That smaller paddock is great for keeping them in if there is fence problems or for vaccination times.

One of my goat resources only used a single strand. I live on a busy road so make the roadside E-fence four strands with only two lit. Makes a better visual barrier for the goats and llama.

NOTHING better than hearing the squawl of a goat hitting a hot fence. They learn VERY quickly.

[Gailann Schrader]

Oh and barbed wire = udder problems for milk goats. E-fence that portion as well. Nail-ons work well and come in various lengths of stand-offs.



This portion of my heavily wooded 8 or so acres is now like a park. The hardwood area is now "open" as well. Before it was a jungle of multi-flora rose, scrub trees, etc. Now? You can walk anywhere... All the "sticks" are trees the girls have killed out by eating all the leaves over and over and over. Sweetums the llama stands on his hind legs and reaches about 9ft into the leaves also.