Building a goat pen and shed for FFA goat??

[stevenf]

Hi everybody, My son started his first year in the FFA and instead of the typical first year chicken, turkey or rabbit he wants to raise a goat. I've got darn little experience with goats but I've been trying to read up so I can at least try to help when he has problems instead of having to run to the AG teacher every other day. Our first project is to build a pen and shed, does anyone out there have any reccomendations, pictures or drawings of what is tried and true and has worked well. It sounds like I need something in the 10' X 16' area with a at least 4' x 6' three sided low shed but if anyone can give us some pointers we'd sure appreciate it. We've got to get the fence and shed built this week because we got the call that the goats will be here this weekend.
Steve

 

[schmism]

my uncle's neighbor has goats

all he's got is a shed that looks like an overgrown dog house. They live in the front yard on the huge front hill and keep it "mowed" for him.

oh ya they liked to stand on the shed, and eat the plywood it is made of also

 

[stevenf]

schmism, Thanks, this is a registered boer of some sort out of a grand champion which my son has to raise from a baby and show at local AG shows for a grade in class. Not your normal fence it in and turn it loose to eat brush sorta goat, matter of fact from what I understand other then a little bit of Alfalfa hay to keep it regular the thing is only fed high dollar grain mixtures laced with vitamins and minerals and has to be exercised daily to build muscle tone kinda like an Olympic Goat contest I guess.
Steve

 

[Soundguy]

Goats climb.. and climb well. ( the top of your luxory car looks like a good place to stand for a goat.. ) Ideally, get a roll of 2x4 no climb (V ) woven fencing. If money is a factor.. just be mindfull of the goat, and use field wire.. or 2x4 welded wire.. it will save your pocket book 50+% over the 2x4NC-V wire. For ease of construction, use metal t-post for the longer runs, and then use some landscape timbers for corner posts, and brace posts. A standard rail or panel gate should be ok.

Landscape timber for the goat shelter will be ok, set 4 of them, and then frame the top out in a box with a middle support.. get a few sheets of 26" 5v roof tin.. and make a roof and any sides needed.

A rubber soft sided tub makes for a great water trough, and you can get a float valve for it and hook it up to a garden hose.. or.. you can just water it every day with a bucket ( probably the purpose of the project is to 'raise' the goat.

The soft side tubs are also gret for feed. You can get feed cubes or other suitable feeds.. Just watch the feed ingrediants.. some animals are sensitive to certain ingredients ( horse = urea, sheep=copper.. etc )

Might want to get it a mineral lick too, either a big block to set in a plastic holder.. or a small 'lick brick' that goes on a bracket on the fence.. etc.

Be prepaired that whereever you pen this animal that it will completely deforest the area down to bare ground, including eating bark off of any trees in the area.

If ya get field fence.. consider dehorning.

Soundguy

 

[stevenf]

Thanks Soundguy, Especially the climbing on the luxury car part LOL the only luxury car priced vehicle I own nowdays looks and sounds like a tractor. The guy who is donating the goat as a payback measure since I supported his 4 kids thru their high school FFA auctions has also donated some fairly nice panels and TP 4x4's for the fencing since all his kids are now off to college he's happy to be able to recover some of his acreage that previously was used for FFA projects. I probably should just take off the rest of the day and start putting post in the ground as soon as Chris gets out of school so we can be ready for the weekend. Its going to be a busy one, Saturday a hunter safety course and Sunday a Boy Scout merit badge time we mix in the finishing touches on the goat pen and shelter aughta just about finish off the weekend plus we'll still have to pick up the goat and watch it walk right outa the fence we put up so that I can work on electrifying a top wire Sunday night by flood light. Chickens are looking pretty good about now.
Steve

 

[Soundguy]

I assume you are talking about equine or cattle panels? Should work ok.. just watcht he goat to make sure that it doesn't 'try' to get stuck.

If you run a top hot wire.. the easy and cheap way is to buy a few 10' sections of cheap plastic 1/2" pvc, cut it into 1' sections, and drill a hole thru 1 end for the wire to pass thru, and then put a couple zip ties on the body near the other end.. say... 4" apart and zip tie it to the fence, and drill another couple holes and nail to the fence posts.. Wqy cheaper than buying those expensive little plastic insulators...

If ya lived near me.. you could have a chicken...

Soundguy

 

[schmism]

i guess i should have mentioned a few other things...

1) he uses an electic wire around the top of his fence

2) what was an overgrown mess of "cant see through" "cant walk/climb through"
brush/forest hill (that you have a problem standing on) was reduced to a shaded grassy hillside by 2 goats in about 3 years. (id say it is 2 acers of fenced off hillside) He eventually also fenced off the trees to keep the goats from eating those also..

the story is kinda funny acutally... the wife was like 'are you ever going to clean out that front hill' he tossed up a hot top wire (on a fence that mostly surrounded the area anyway) and the next week litterly tossed the old dog house and 2 goats in it. Hes been happy with the progress ever sence... (this has been 8 years ago now?)

 

[stevenf]

schmism, That ain't no funny story its the gospel truth around here, I've got a buddy that has large ranches (his smallest is 1600 acres) he has his ranch Foreman buy a thousand young goats every ten years or so and in a year the ranches look like golf courses, trees all nicely trimmed to about eight feet and all and then he sells the goats and triples his money. Thats not my luck I'd buy the darn things and they'd either all die or do like one of my neighbors who has a smaller ranch (about 250 acres) he has bought 2 herds in 4 years 200 each time and the goats go walkabout. He doesn't have a one on his ranch today, he's switched to cattle, easier to keep in. My hunters have them digital game cameras up all over our ranch and they came to me a couple of weeks ago with what they thought was a problem. I don't raise sheep, goats or cattle all my AG tax valuation is based on is me providing water, food and shelter to wildlife and on their cameras they had multiple pictures of goats. The only answer I could come up with was what you guys don't like cabrito besides it'll give ya'll something to practice your bow hunting prowess on rather then my trophy white-tail bucks. They allowed as how that sounded like a heck of a deal, especially when I told them that if they'd clean em I'd cook em and dinner would be ready when they came in from hunting.
Steve

 

[stevenf]

Soundguy, Thanks for the chicken we got enough to have fresh eggs everyday unless they decide to play easter withem as they are free range and don't always spend the night in the coop.
PVC insulators not a bad idea, heck I've got 200' of 1/2 cpvc just begging for a new home.
Steve

 

[barticus73]

I raise boer goats and can help out some here. I'm in western Pa and what I use is 3 sided wood shelters in my pastures along with a standard barn for wintering them in. Goats need some type of shelter to utilize to get out of the hot sun and rain. Boer goats really seem to hate being out in the rain. I use 6 strand electric high tensile for my perimeter fencing with portable woven net fencing to divide off the paddocks as needed. Lots of people have good luck with the cattle panels too, you just have to watch they don't get their horns stuck if they still have them. As far as feed, they need a 16% protein feed along with mineral supplements. The powdered protein supplement TSC carries with the copper is what we have been using. We have a local feed mill mix up a 16% grain mix which costs half of what the commercial pellet feed costs. Its the same mix Penn State uses for their meat goat rate of gain testing and really seems to pack meat on their bones. There are lots of good sites out there for boer goats. Make sure you check some out as they require different care than a dairy goat. They make a good 4H/FFA animal as they have a good laid back temperment and are easy to work with. Worm them, keep their hoofs trimmed, and feed at 16% and you will be good to go.

 

[lopezian]

If you run a top hot wire.. the easy and cheap way is to buy a few 10' sections of cheap plastic 1/2" pvc, cut it into 1' sections, and drill a hole thru 1 end for the wire to pass thru, and then put a couple zip ties on the body near the other end.. say... 4" apart and zip tie it to the fence, and drill another couple holes and nail to the fence posts.. Wqy cheaper than buying those expensive little plastic insulators...

Soundguy, this sounds like a really good idea. Can you elaborate a little on this description? I'm not sure what you mean by "drill a hole thru 1 end for the wire to pass thru". I mean, it's pipe, right? It is by definition, a hole from one end to the other. Do you mean drill a hole from side-to-side through the pipe? I'm having a hard time picturing how this then gets mounted on the post.

If you have a digital camera, can you post a photo of an insulator that you have mounted in this way?

 

[Soundguy]

Take a 1' section of pipe, now, stand it up vertically. Drill a hole from side to side on one end. Now attach this pipe to a fence using zip ties towards the end opposite of the hot wire... a couple zip ties.. one at the bottom, and another one in the middle.. then of course.. run the hot wire thru the top hole.

Now.. if it is to be mounted on a fence post.. take the 1' section of pipe, hold vertically again, and drill 2 holes, side to side, and use nails or screws to mount it to the fence post. Now.. drill another hole at the top, again.. side to side, but perpendicular to the other holes, so the hot wire can run thru and follow the fence.

Soundguy

 

[stevenf]

OK guys, Please help me not reinvent the wheel, I stayed home from work today to get the pen ready, the goat will be here on Sunday. My plan is I drilled 12 three foot deep holes into solid rock today, my plan is to string high tension wire around the pen it is 16' X 32' the post are set 8' on center and the wires will be 6" apart up to about 5'.
WILL THIS HOLD A GOAT determined, scared or otherwise.
Steve

 

[Soundguy]

If it is electrified.

Soundguy

 

[texasjohn]

I've stayed out of this discussion to this point, but would like to add my $.02 worth now.

Yep, goats will worm their way thru anything that they can wriggle thru. Thus, if you ONLY have high tensle wire, they they will never stay where you want them. If you get several strands hot, then that will keep them at home as long as you keep the charger operating. There is, my opinion, one and only one kind of fence charger worth spending money on. It is called a high voltage, short duration, high amperage fence charger. TSC has them. It plugs into 110 ... you certainly will not need a 220V version. Get one rated for 50 miles of fence... 100 miles if you anticipate fencing very much in. These fence chargers allow grass and weeds to grow up against them, don't start fires, and will have sufficient punch to still deliver a shock even when under a heavy weed load.

 

[texasjohn]

Langston University Goat Research Extension
try this site or these
Goat Facilities
Kencove Farm Fence - Horse Fence, Cattle Fence, Electric, Non-Electric High Tensile Fence Supplies for Cattle, Horse, Sheep, Goat, Deer, Elk, Poultry, and Garden
BoerGoats.com Article fencing

These say all I could say and more re goat fences.

 

[stevenf]

Thanks guys, I reduced the spacing to 5" and on our way to pick up his goat today I'll stop and get a roll of 2" X 4" to put over the tensile best of all worlds hopefully if that fails I'll reinstall some of the high tensile insulated and electrify it.
Steve

 

[texasjohn]

Steven, you are off and running on a new adventure. Fear not. The goat is small enough that you can manhandle it if necessary. However, typically goats become very attached to people, particularly if they are fooled with... and will follow you around... even if they get out of the pen...

Enjoy the experience..and best wishes to your son on his project!

 

[catvet]

Steve,

Sort of the same animal we have seven pygmy goats. We've done well with just three strands of electric fence. We built them a 10 x 12 shed this spring. They also have a more airtight shed for the winter. We milled all the wood for the shed and used it green so as it dried it developed big gaps between the boards.

 

[Soundguy]

Steven, you are off and running on a new adventure. Fear not. The goat is small enough that you can manhandle it if necessary. However, typically goats become very attached to people, particularly if they are fooled with... and will follow you around... even if they get out of the pen...

Enjoy the experience..and best wishes to your son on his project!

I agree with Texasjohn. Most farm animals, if handled regularly, will develop an affinity for humans.

Here's one thing you can do to help. get a hand bell. Ring it a few times before you dump the goats feed. Try to do this while he is paying attention. Pretty soon, if you want the goats attention, you can ring the bell and he will come running. ( remember to throw him a feed treat if you ring the bell to summon him).

I do this with my cows, horses, and fowl. I have had the odd 'escapee' and used the bell to call the animal back to the pen/feed bucket.

It works on a 5oz chicken or a 1200# longhorn. Horses can be called from across the pasture with the 'feed bell'.


Soundguy