Fencing goats?

[large1]

I have a tree line on my property that I was thinking of fencing in temporarily to let a few goats clear it up of underbrush. My Question is would an electric fence of 2 or 3 strands be sufficient to hold them? I dont want to put up a permanent fence soI thought I would ask for some opinions.

 

[aaronzclark]

No way try 6 lol

 

[username taken]

if there is plenty of food and they are electric fence trained, then yes. it will hold them for a short while. a few may stray but on the whole it should work.

but, it wont work for medium or long term. And def. 3 wires

bear in mind the goats will spend most of their time eating the leaves and bark off the trees, not the underbrush. they will eat some of that, but will prefer the trees.

 

[large1]

most of the trees are big mature trees with mostly high limbs. Alot of the understory is honeysuckle vines so i figured they would eat them pretty well. I am new at the whole goat thing, infact I don't even have any yet. When you say trained to the electric fence, I thought that a few good jolts would get them trained. lol. I was planning on getting a couple of kids. How do I train them or will they kind of train themselves?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

We would love to have you visit us at

 

[username taken]

to train them to the fence, put them into a small yard first with a wire at nose height running along the inside of a conventional fence. Keep them here until you know they have zapped themselves plenty of times and know to keep well clear of the fence. It doesnt usually take them long to be trained, but you dont want to start training them with just the electric wire because a lot of them will charge forward through the wire when they get their first zap - that is why you use it in conjunction with a normal fence first.

now, the kids are going to be a whole lot more difficult to keep in with three wires, you may even need four. Standard sized adults on the other hand, I have successfully kept in with 2 strands of very hot wire. So adults might be a better bet for you.

The other thing you might want to think of, is if you have a couple of portable panels you could make a small enclosure for them and move it along the tree line every few days till they've eaten it all. More work, I know, but just a thought.

 

[large1]

I had thought of that but I work away from home on a seven day work schedule and didnt want the wife to have to worry about that. She wouldnt mind feeding and watering but moving fence may have me living in the pen with the goats.

 

[username taken]

ah yes, I see your point

I think in this situation I'd go with adult standard does, and three very hot wires