Goats are intelligent creatures, and they might outsmart you if you do not control their behavior. For this reason, goats are often described as mischievous, intelligent, resourceful, and stubborn. Goats, of course, are known for being escape artists. So, if you fail to choose the ideal fence for your goat yard, you might be in for a lot of chasing after them.
Goats are curious animals. They would try to climb over the fence or get around obstacles. They are also persistent and determined to push their boundaries. Protecting goats and hedging them inside the goat yard pose a considerable challenge for raisers. So, if you are a beginner in goat or sheep raising, you need to carefully consider how you would fence your yard to keep your goats and sheep from escaping and safe from prowling predators.
Guides on Fencing Your Goat Yard
If it is your first-time raising goats and sheep, you might be at a loss on how to fence your goat yard. It will be best to know the following succinct tips on fencing goat yard to make the process easy for you:
Determine the location and size of your enclosure
At the onset, it will be best to determine the kind of storage, space, supplies, and breed of goat you would like to raise. The rule of thumb is that you will need around 250 square foot living space for each goat. Your goat fencing will get configured differently depending on the type of goats you will raise. Moreover, you should expect your herd to grow over time.
Chose Woven Wire Fencing
Your fence should be reliable and robust. It should offer a flexible but strong barrier. Besides, the knots should be tied to the vertical and horizontal intersections forming a mesh that would not slip. Additionally, the mesh should exhibit tightness. The knots should also provide a springy texture allowing the fence to flex when a goat challenges it instead of snapping. Such fencing should be woven wire fencing.
The Fence Should Not Let a Goat Get Its Head Through the Fence Gap
Your fence should not allow your goat to stick its head out of it because the moment a goat gets its head through the fence, its body will also follow. Hence, keep the wire fence spacing not more than four-inch wide and high. Otherwise, your goats might escape through the fence.
Moreover, such a fence will not let predators enter the enclosure. Furthermore, if you got horned goats, they might get injured and die if the wire fence spacing exceeds four inches.
Minimum 4 Feet Tall
One factor you should carefully consider is the height of the fence. A good fence should be at least four feet tall. With such a height, the fence can deter the goats from jumping over the fence. Besides, a four-foot-tall fence can prevent predators from getting inside your fence.
Add Electric Fencing on the Top Fence Line
Goats tend to jump or climb. They would surely test the height of the fence. So, it will be best to add an electric fencing line for the fence top line. Besides, you can install an electrified line around 1-1/2 feet above the ground to deter goats from climbing on the wire or mesh.
Fence Types Best Suited for Goats and Sheep
If it is your first-time raising goats or sheep, you might be at a loss as to what materials to use for fence panels and fencing. Below are the materials you can choose for fencing and paneling:
1) Wooden Fence
You can use wooden fences if you want a rustic look for your fence. You do not need to buy wood for fencing; you can reprocess wood materials found on-site. Nevertheless, it will help if you are physically fit for the fencing job because you need to drive posts onto the ground, which is not an easy task. Besides, you need to maintain a wooden fence regularly. Moreover, you will need more wood for this purpose.
Furthermore, it will help if you consider building a stockade-style instead of a picket-style fence when constructing a wooden fence for your goats and sheep, especially in the area of the bucks. The reason is that a goat’s knees or hooves can get stuck or trapped when it stands on its hind leg once it tries to peek over the fence.
Building a wooden fence can be less costly, especially if you have lumber available on-site or are engaged in milling timber. However, if you hire a service fence building that can pound posts onto the ground, the cost of building wooden fences can shoot up a bit.
Pros:
The wooden fence is reliable and will continue to work as long as they are standing and as long as you maintain them regularly. Besides, you can easily replace parts of the wooden fence.
Cons:
If it snows in your area, it will be best to ensure that your fence is more than four feet high. Winter snowpack a few feet higher can lower the height of the fence. Besides, goats might chew on the wood and compromise the fence’s integrity.
Moreover, termites love to gnaw on wood. So, you need to ensure your wooden fence gets protected from termites.
2) Goat Wire
Another excellent option is goat wire with four-inch squares. The woven goat fencing is perfect for large open pastures. Woven wire fence also necessitates buried posts at least a foot below the ground level. Besides, the posts should be twelve to fifteen feet apart.
Pros:
A woven wire fence offers a sufficiently strong fence for goats. They can lean on it without pushing it down as long as the woven wire gets pulled tight enough when you put up the fence. Besides, adult goats will find it hard to insert their heads into the squares or openings of this fence.
Cons:
Young kids, however, with horns can still fit their heads through this fence and might get stuck in the process. However, kids do grow fast, and soon, you will not have any problem with curious young kids.
If your woven wire fence is four feet tall, other breeds of goats, like the Saanen or Nigerian Dwarf, might be tall enough to jump over this fence. You can add an electric wire strand above the goat fencing to deter these breeds from jumping over the fence.
3) Field Fence
Another good option for fencing your goats is the field fence. It is akin to the woven wire and might effectively keep goats within an enclosure. Field fence, however, is meant for horses. It gets wrought in fine gauge wire. It is also a less expensive option. Moreover, it is stretchable and bendable.
Goats are notorious for climbing and balancing themselves, even on small platforms. Field fence offers a wider weave; hence, a goat’s head might get trapped on its weave. As a caveat, you should install this fence tightly and ensure you attach the wire to sturdy posts with cemented foundations. It will help if you add additional layers or electric wire reinforcement to this kind of fence.
Pros:
A woven wire fence is dependable and robust. Besides, it is one of the most recommended fencing methods for goats.
Cons:
Four-foot-high woven wire fence might be short for specific breeds. So, you need an additional line of wire over the standard four-foot-tall woven wire fence to ensure goats cannot escape and a higher wood frame.
4) Electric Fence
If you want to hedge in your goats and sheep using a psychological tactic, you can use an electric fence. However, with goats, you must set the Volts anywhere between 4,5000 to 9000 Volts. The reason is that goats are intelligent animals. They can figure out if there are times when the electrification is off.
Besides, you might discover that goats are stubbornly determined to test your fence. For this reason, you can use high-tensile wire along with an electric fence to keep your flocks inside the fence.
The cost of setting up an electric fence is cheaper than other options. However, it requires maintenance to enable it to run smoothly for a long time. Hence, you can factor in the time you would spend clearing the fence in the total costs of setting up this fence.
Pros:
An electric fence is not difficult to set up. Besides, it is affordable and is movable for rotational grazing of your flock.
Cons:
Your electric circuit might short out due to many things like wayward weed. Hence, you need to engage in regular maintenance of weed. Besides, setting up and using electric fences necessitate a learning process. It will help if you teach goats how to respect your fence to enable them to develop that habit of not going near it.
5) Chain Link Fence
One of the most escape-proof fencing methods is the chain link fence. However, it might be the most expensive option. For this reason, you will seldom read about this fencing option. Nevertheless, a chain link fence can be viable if your herd is small. You can use it to contain bucks.
Pros:
The chain link fence is solid and sturdy. It also lasts long. Besides, it is perfect for keeping out predators.
Cons:
It is expensive and might cost you around $3,000 for a two-hundred-foot perimeter.
6) Utility Fence
With utility panels, you will have plenty of options to choose from. The most utilized panels range from three feet to eight feet high. These panels also have four-inch rectangles. The 20-foot-long panel is the most frequently bought.
You can also opt for 42” high panels that are sixteen feet long. These panels have 3” x 8” rectangles at their bottom and 6” x 8” squares at their top. This option, of course, is less expensive. It might only cost you fifteen dollars.
Cattle panels are durable. Nevertheless, they are expensive. You can buy, for example, a 16” feedlot panel at $20 each, excluding wooden posts. Cattle panels, however, are designed for cows. For this reason, you must enhance their designs to make them work for goats. However, you can also go for panels designed for goats which can be more expensive.
Pros:
A utility fence provides more options to choose from. They are also sturdy and durable.
Cons:
Utility fence, however, is a more expensive option.
7) Cattle Panels
Another excellent fencing option is the use of cattle panels. You can buy 16′ sections of these panels, which are pretty durable. However, using these panels, you need to break the bank to fence a large pasture. Hence, these panels are best for making corrals, fencing small yards, and dividing fields.
The thing about the standard cattle panels is that they have large openings because they get designed for larger animals. Hence, your goats might get stuck to the slots of these panels. Besides, babies can also escape through the gaps.
Thus, if you go for this option, you better choose those panels made explicitly for goats. Go for those panels with 4 x 4″ openings. Moreover, cattle panels can be expensive. A 16-foot panel can cost around $20 apiece, excluding wooden posts.
Pros:
Cattle panels are pretty durable and strong. They are also an expensive option for a large pasture. However, they are perfect for dividing fields, small yards, and corrals.
Cons:
They are not designed for goats and require augmentation. Besides, they are expensive for a large pasture. Moreover, babies can escape from this fence.
Essential Considerations for Goat Fencing
If you decide to fence the grazing area of your goats and sheep, it will be best to know the essential factors to consider when fencing. This way, you can proceed with the fencing process with minimal snags and problems:
Fencing Area
Before you select the fencing type, you should consider the area you will fence. A single goat will need an area of 250 square feet to forage around. But you will indeed have more than one goat because goats are social beings. As such, you should carefully plan the area where you will graze your goats and where you will build your fence.
The bare minimum area for goats is around five hundred square feet. You can keep approximately twelve goats if you have an acre of land.
Remember that goats will be happier to forage in a larger area than in a smaller one. Nevertheless, with a larger area, you need to fence more.
Height of the Fence
The recommended height of the fence is four feet high. Remember that goats can jump quickly over a shorter fence. Besides, if you got an active breed of goats, you might need to increase the fence height further. Moreover, you need to ensure that the gaps within the fence are small and incapable of letting a mischievous goat from escaping.
Goats are notorious for contorting their body to fit into small gaps. Besides, they could crawl underneath the fence with ease. So, it will help if you consider your goats’ inherent ability when setting the fence’s height.
Spacing
Ensure that the fence squares or gaps (especially if you opt for wire fencing) are less than ten-centimeter square. This size will be sufficient to deter goats from sticking their heads through the gaps. Remember that if a goat can stick out its head through the squares of the wire fence, it can escape through those squares.
Furthermore, you can prevent your goats’ horns from getting snagged onto the wire mesh if you keep the spacing within the abovementioned specified dimensions. With such spacings, goats find it hard to stick their heads into those wires.
Posts
To set the fence, you need posts appropriately spaced from each other. Goats, however, love to rub against fences and walls. As such, you must ensure that the posts are sturdy and durable to bear the additional pressure.
The dimensions of your posts should be fifteen centimeters to twenty centimeters in diameter. Make sure you install them at one-meter depth onto the ground. You can also use T-posts which you should bury at least 0.5-meter deep to deter movement.
Head Gaps
It will be best to ensure that any gap in the fence should not be larger than a 4″ x 4″ space. Goats are curious creatures, and they would stick their heads where there is a gap. Such behavior, of course, is lovely to behold.
However, their horns might get snagged into any gap, which can be injurious or deadly to them. Moreover, if their horns get snagged into the gaps, they become easy prey for predators. So, you need to ensure that gaps are small enough to deter goats from sticking their heads onto the holes.
Fence Attachments
You should attach to the post’s inner face those wire panels. This way, goats will find it hard to push against the posts and wire panels. Gates should also open inwardly to prevent goats from barging into the gates and swinging them outwardly.
Goats can learn how to push the latch. So, ensure that the gates push or open inwardly so that even if goats lean on them, they will not push these gates open.
Obstacles
Ensure that any raised platform or surface inside the enclosure is at least five feet from the posts and fence. Ensure likewise that those hanging tree branches are away from the wall so that goats can’t use them as leverage to leap over the fence.
Conclusion
Keeping goats and sheep inside an enclosure can present unique problems to flock raisers. Nevertheless, you need to keep these animals penned in and protected; hence, you need to create a safe and healthy enclosure for these animals. Goats are curious and notorious for escaping fences, while sheep are vulnerable to predators. As such, you must carefully consider the fence you will set up for your flocks.
It will be best to know the behavior of your goats and sheep and anticipate the worst possible scenarios when setting up the fence for your goats and sheep. This way, you can deter and prevent these scenarios from happening on your farm. Besides, knowing each fencing option’s pros and cons can help you determine the best option for your farm needs.
