[russellsmom]

I am wondering what we should do as far as fencing goes for the farm here. The previous fencing was all barbed wire, sagging, rusting, nasty barbed wire. Last summer we fenced a couple smaller sized units that were relatively easy to fence in with woven wire.
I am trying to fence in goats and we also have calf and a couple sheep due to come in a month or so.
The area that is due to be fenced next is relatively large (I'd guess around 8 acres) the perimeter where the fence would go is on a hill that is fairly steep in spots. If the ground was flat I'd just make more smaller paddocks adjoining the other two.
For a temporary solution we were thinking about getting a couple electric sheep/goat nettings that we could move around as needed. Do any of you use it, do you like it, and does it really hold them in?
I have excellent escape artists here so if you think it wouldn't work I'd rather know now and try and figure out what we're going to use for a permanent fencing solution then. The animals I am dealing with learned how to lift field/woven wire fencing with the horns just enough that they could then squeeze their whole bodies through. That problem was fixed with tent stakes.
I'd love to hear what your opinions are on the sheep/goat electric netting.

Niki

 

[goatlady]

I'm not familiar with electric netting. I love those 16' long 4' high catle panels. It worked for years for my goats who also learned to lift the botton of woven wire! You only need to drive 3 T-posts for the first panel then each suceeding panel only needs 2. I hooked mine together with orange hay bale twine to they were easy to open up and even move around where I wanted at a later date. I read somethere an article where someone built a square with 4 panels and attached wheels at either 2 corners or all four and made the "pen" movable all over unfenced pasture.

 

[Shahbazin]

Here's a good site for electric net fencing: www.premier1supplies.com
They give lots of info & advice, too.

 

[russellsmom]

I'm not familiar with electric netting. I love those 16' long 4' high catle panels. It worked for years for my goats who also learned to lift the botton of woven wire!

I am not sure, I'd have to go and look the measurements up, but I believe my goats (they're Pygmies) can slip through cattle panels. It's something that I'll have to check into.

 

[russellsmom]

Here's a good site for electric net fencing: www.premier1supplies.com
They give lots of info & advice, too.

Yep, I've got their catalog right in front of my nose. They had lots of good information and I really liked the possibilities of the netting, I'd just like to know if other users of electric netting find it to be as convenient and reliable as Premier says it is.

 

[caroline00]

we used it all last year very successfully. It was easy to move and reliable. WE put one goat at a time in to it the first time. When that goat got shocked a time or 2, then we would add another one. Occasionally, a goat will bolt thru with the first shock. None of ours did but we wanted to be sure. One of ours outsmarted the fence though. She learned which ones were hot and if the tip of the fence was sagging at all, she would put her front hoofs on a nonhot section and hop on over it. Since we also had goats in the panelled yards we just moved her over to the other types. With pygmy goats, you might not have a problem with the renegade going over it.
We have dairy goats.

 

[HermitJohn]

I am not sure, I'd have to go and look the measurements up, but I believe my goats (they're Pygmies) can slip through cattle panels. It's something that I'll have to check into.

Look at hog panels. Just like cattle panels except narrower spacing at bottom. Some I saw were narrower all way. Pricier though. Personally for smaller animals, I'd use cattle panels and stretch and attach chicken wire across bottom or however high up you need the narrow spacing. Have portability/ridgidity of panel but small holes only a mouse could get through. Works to keep rabbits out of garden also.

 

[russellsmom]

Look at hog panels.

We've used some hog panels and I like them on flat ground, but here again I have the steep unlevel ground issue and I don't think they'll set level. If they're not level to the ground those goats will crawl right under them (found that out the hard way too). You'd be surprised how small a hole they can squeeze through.

 

[rambler]

We've used some hog panels and I like them on flat ground, but here again I have the steep unlevel ground issue and I don't think they'll set level. If they're not level to the ground those goats will crawl right under them (found that out the hard way too). You'd be surprised how small a hole they can squeeze through.

Hum, never raised goats, but if they can hold a digging hog, they will hold anything else!

There are hog panels with narrow spacings but I'd guess too low for goats; there are cattle panels which are 52" high I believe, if you think the holes are too big; then there are combiniation panels, which are as tall as cattle panels but the bottom 1/2 has the narrow spacing of hog panels. Probably what you need. They are all 16' long, and cost $10 - 12 or so. This could get expensive, but they are quite durable & will hold up well. They won't sag or stretch like woven or netting.

Yea, you have to build it right, might need to move a little dirt, dig some parts into the ground to make all of it low enough. No one said it would be easy, right?

--->Paul

 

[Blu3duk]

I used netting 20 years ago when it was first available in the States.... New Zealand Fence it was called then, it had a bottom poly rope that was not hot and the rest of the wires were hot, the charger we had at that time was an OLD weed burner, whereever the wire touched a weed, it burned the wire instead of the weed or tall grass stem. The upside was it held a 300 pound sufflok ram, and about 30 big suffolk ewes with lambs.... also had a doe and fawn get in one day..... she could not get out even got tangled in it for awhile..... once the power was off though she escaped and all was well.

The downside to that particular fence net was it was hot 4 inches above the ground and the shortest tall grass would ground it out, therefore i had to use a push mower whereever it was run..... and to tightenit meant moving the fence in or out and mowing the line to match.... it also had problems that the posts were permanently placed, and whereever the ground was lower [read dips] the fence was high enough for attempted escapes if the pasture was short and needed moved..... i beleive premier fences are improved greatly over that design, and it was a good design as was. and i would reccomend using it even on hillsides.

With the addition of solar chargers, you can move pastures anywhere needed, i use a 6 volt charger for the horses [all we have now for pasture animals although been looking at the poultry netting for the chickens] and that system works wonders, I prefer the wider tape over the small diameter wire, as it can be seen from a distance as to whether it is up or down [deer have a tendancy to respect the tape] however i use both tape and wire for the horses.... it mends easy enough when it gets broke from a animal wandering into the place.

I used 4 tapes [7/8 inch] around the garden without power and it kept the deer at bay until late in the summer when everything was dry and brown except the garden..... but we harvested the garden for the most part... it was an experiment that had mediocre results.... still the net may have made a difference there.

I do not have the netting anymore..... sold it with the sheep to my cousin 15 years ago... but he still has it and uses it so it holds up well, except the places the shorted through.

William

 

[Christiaan]

I don't have goats, so I can't say how well it works with them, but I bought Premier1's chicken netting. Wonderful stuff! Easily portable, very effective against predators and the chickens can't get out. Everything they said about it was true, so I would be very willing to accept their word about goat fencing.

 

[Guest]

The problem with temporary is it becomes permanently temporary or temporarily permanent. Either one allows the permanent fence to float somewhere in the future, always out of grasp because time and money is eaten maintaining the temporary.

 

[caroline00]

we used the premier fence all last year. WE would move it every 3 days or so so that the goats would eat the pasture down but we werent fencing in the whole property. It worked well for us. YOu do not have to trim the grass around the bottom anymore... it is a good fence...at least it worked well for our dairy goats...

It took us about an hour to move it.