Fencing question for the goat experts...need opinions/ideas

[helmstead]

Quote:

LUCKY!! Mine are too stinking dumb! I had an old gate which just happened to be in the goat pen (it was buried in thorn bushes, they uncovered it). Marybelle got her head stuck in the darn thing DAILY despite that it was IN THE PEN and there was nothing but MORE PEN on the other side, which she could have walked around to get to...

 

[greyhorsewoman]

Some goat breeds are better browsers (field cleaners) than others. My understanding (and I've never had one) is that Boer goats are better grazers - having been developed as primarily 'meat' animals.

One of reasons we went with tape was due to cost. We fenced in several acres of multi-flora rose (a highly noxious non-indigenous weed) choked 'wetland' area that we couldn't get any kind of mower in anyway. The cost of field fencing would have been prohibitive in an area we don't really plan to use as anything else in the future anyway. Fortunately, multi-flora rose is their FIRST choice for browse for goats, they love the stuff.

The cost was quite reasonable and the LABOR installing it is appealing, next to field fence. We do have to check it regularly (as occasionally winds or deer tear a strand down. Please note, we did FOUR strands. They have to be close enough to deter the goats from THROUGH, close enough to the ground to deter going under, and high enough to discourage going over!

Training them to it is probably the ugliest part. Some only take one or two 'lessons' ... but we've had one or two that needed several consecutive lessons before they stayed in. We've had very little problem with them getting stay put.
Having enough browse within the enclosure is also a plus. Nothing tempts a goat to look over the fence then lack of sufficient selection of browse on his side.

And as to horns. We patiently (or maybe not so patiently) showed 'Stupid' how to bend her head to get back out of the holes. It got to a point, that when she got stuck, she'd bleat and bleat and then 'remove herself' when she saw us coming! (She SO earned her name.) She really is a character, though.

 

[Blondie]

Here's what I had to do to keep my goats from getting their head stuck in the fence:

Here is before:

Here is after: