Mixing horses and sheep or goats?

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yes dear, I know, I read all the same stuff when I was contemplating getting sheep

... but if you talk to a lot of SHEEP PEOPLE, what they tend to tell you is that there is fencing and there is fencing, and that multistrand electric is neither as sheepproof *nor* as predatorproof as something woven *plus* electric. Obviously it's a personal decision how much to worry about loss of sheep (to another paddock, or to the great big paddock in the sky), but I have not run across many sheep people who feel that multistrand electric is AS GOOD AS woven-wire-plus-hotwire. (Among other things, all electric fences go dead *sometimes*)

Re: gates, I put 2x4 wire on the sheep-accessible gates and have long 2x12 boards I put in place to fill the gap underneath, when the sheep are in there. It is not the most elegant system but it basically works.

Pat

 

[welsummerchicks]

I understand your concern on this issue, but correctly designed and maintained electric strand does appear to do the job in non range situations when set up correctly - research and practice world wide indicates it can be done and be successful, but that stuff has to be tight, start 6 inches from the ground, go up 40 inches every six to seven inches - it's not what most people have or are willing to pay for or maintain. In our case, we have 4 strand 6' high electrobraid, and we can either tear all that down and replace it with woven wire for 12,000 dollars, or we can add three strands for 1300 dollars.

I think I can make it work, you don't, thanks for the information.