Livestock and Goat Fencing

[W5FL]

I am getting ready to put in some cross-fencing and want it to be able to hold minature goats and livestock. The perimeter fence is 2 3/8 pipe fencing with a single top rail and then 5 ft 2x4 no climb horse wire.

Bought about 1000 feet of 2x4 3 ft no climb and had planned to use it for the cross fencing with a barb or two or top. Everyone seems to think that I would be better off with just 4 ft or 5 ft fencing materials. Goats seem to climb pretty well and I really want to keep a couple of 100 pound dogs back with the fence. I don't have any horses, but barb wire doesn't seem to work too well with them. Works ok for cattle, though. The fence company will work an exchage with me since the fence material has been stored in the barn.

Was planning to use 2 3/8 posts set in concrete for the H's where join another fence,gates, and every 150 feet and Corners with 3 posts and horiz braces. Then use T posts every 10 feet. I have a portable welder and will weld the corners and H's in place.

Do I need 5 ft, 4 ft, or 3 ft with barb for these fences to last for 20 years? Roughly 1800 ft of fence. The four and five foot material is available in 200 feet rolls which is less splicing.

 

[Hawgee]

wen,
I'm not here for the long haul and if I was the county planers might change the way we build around here if you know what I mean. Too many cars at the one local stop sign. I think they call it progress.
We have chosen the railroad ties for the 3 post corners and gates. I'll throw one in every 100 feet for the Halibut and "T' post everywhere else. I've got "Red Brand" field fencing with a 12 ga. top and bottom wire. 3 foot. Topped with a hot one.
Why? The "Red Brand" comes at times in a 390 foot roll instead of the standard 330ft. It has the 2 by 4 at the bottom and grows a little larger towards the top of the fencing. I've kept the material off the ground far enough if I ever wanted to cut underneath with a weed eater. Topped off with the hot wire "ontop" of the post. Letting our wire smart animals eat to the base of the fencing. Keeping the ever growing population from reaching over when we are not looking.
When shopping, I have always noticed the price difference for the "HORSE" fencing. I would use this only in a dedicated foal or young animal area. Good luck with your fencing and may you only have to do it once. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

[Bird]

Wen, I only had goats for two or three years, but I never had a goat try to climb a fence, or jump over a fence. I did learn that you should use a mesh that's small enough they can't get their head through it or they will poke their head through and sometimes can't figure out how to get their horns back out. And I used some cheap welded wire (2 x 4) on one side of an outdoor pen that was never a problem, but when I partitioned off a stall in the barn with it and penned the old billy goat in there where he couldn't get to the other goats, he butted it repeatedly until he tore a hole in it. We have one guy in the neighborhood raising a few goats in a little pen of about 2 acres and all he has for fencing is two strands of electric fence; one about a foot off the ground and the other about a foot above that.

Bird

 

[Mike H]

Wen: my experience is that when you've got an animal that will push, climb, etc. the fence, if you want it to last then electrifying it is the way to go. ( I do remember you feelings on electric fence earlier this summer!) You have my sympathy - I've spent this summer re-fencing. It is putting my tractor to work!

 

[W5FL]

Yeah, it is like the farmer said. The built new homes right up adjoining his property, planted beautiful shrubs and grass on the other side of his pasture fence, and wondered why the cows reached over the fence to try to eat them! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Yes, I hate electric fences, but do use them when necessary. I have a solar powered unit that works well. I find that I can connect it up for 2 weeks and leave it unconnected for 50 more weeks and it is still effective. I put one across my gate and it took my dogs over a year to realize that they are gone now, but one of them still won't come within 50 feet of the gate. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Most electric fences fall in disrepair quickly and are shorted out by weeds, cause radio/tv interference for miles, and kill small animals and birds when used close to the ground. I think the new electronic/solar units are not nearly as bad, but they only put a pulse on the line as oppossed to those that are so strong as to catch weeds on fire.

The reason for the 5 feet permimeter fence was to hopefully prevent the reaching over problems and to stop dogs from climbing over the fence, which they seem to be able to do up to about 4 feet.

I would prefer a nice heavy duty field fence that had about 4x4 inch weave, but the 2x4 inch is all that I have been able to find less than the conventional 6x6 weave. Fence material just costs too much, but unfortunately so does everything else.

Bird, I hope mine won't learn to jump or climb fences, but I hope they can hold their own with my dogs. I plan to buy the minature nigerian goats, and they are about half the size of full size goats.

Yes, over 500 feet is re-fencing and I would like to stop that nonsense this time.

 

[scruffy]

Wen, good luck on finding a method to keep the goats pinned in! My Dad, and my Father in Law both had many problems with goats. They can find more ways over, under and through a fence than you can find to patch it! My Father-in-Laws absolutely loved the electric fence! They (I guess) got a thrill out of rubbing against it, even with metal trimmed yokes! Which was another attempt to make it more effective. Both of them eventually gave up in disgust!
Goats not bad eating if prepared right!

 

[W5FL]

Don't believe that will happen with the pulsed type electric fences now. They feel like somone just kicked the tar out of you for a second and if you are dumb enough to keep hanging on, it will do it about once a second or so. I do use electric fences, but they have to be the solar pulsed type. They won't kill things, just let them know not to venture this far.

 

[Mike H]

Darn animals can be pretty smart. I did a quick setup of my charger and a couple wires around maybe 100 sq. feet in my backyard last weekend. I want to keep the dogs out of there for a couple of weeks to allow grass to germinate and take hold. The dogs have already figured out to listen for the pulsing of the charger! I preferred not to keep it on all the time and they've already learned when they can pass through and when they can't.

 

[W5FL]

My dogs are not as smart. I can leave an electric fence up a couple of weeks then take it down for a year and the dogs will stay away from where it was. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif It took them over a year to not go out an open gate that they had got shocked on before. Guess I will have to put it back up for a little while. I only have on fence charger and just move it around where it needs to be.

My son put a fence around his flower beds that his dogs dug in all the time. It has been six months and they won't go near those flower beds now. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

My wife's been upset with her Fox Terror lately (yeah, I know some folks spell it differently, but they don't know this dog) because he keeps digging up her flowers. I tell her that's all that's getting watered, so that's the only place the ground's soft enough that he has chance of digging./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird