[jswelly]

Hello, I have 10+ acres of pasture that my family has used for cattle and goats in the past but for about the last 10 years it has either been cut for hay or used for horses. Needless to say the fencelines are fairly overgrown. My plan is to start raising cattle and a small herd of goats to follow behind them. But before i can set up an electric fence i need to clear some overgrown fencelines. I have cleared alot of the fence by hand but it is already starting to grow up again. I was thinking about trying to set up some portable type fence near the fenceline so the goats would be eating most of the brush i need them to. Could I set up a fence like this and then stake the goats up inside of it so they couldnt go through the perimeter fence? I know this is usually not a good idea but i thought that if they were still contained inside of a fence with a guard dog that it might be ok. We never used guard dogs when we had goats but the cattle did protect them some. This may be a ridiculous idea but im really not sure what my options are. What would you folks do? Thanks in advance

By the way, I am located in North Georgia. About 3/4 of the land is flat, the rest is hilly with some woods.

 

[ksalvagno]

What about the portable electric fencing you can get from places like Premier 1? It is fairly easy to move and you wouldn't have to tie out the goats. Just give them a square or rectangle area to graze.

 

[jswelly]

Yes, I was thinking about using either electric netting or stock panels. However, I couldn't put it up on the perimeter fence line because that is the area I'm trying to clear. So I would basically be adding three sides to make a square, the perimeter fence being the other side. The perimeter fence would hold them for a while but once they ate it down they would find the holes and escape. That is where I got the idea of staking them inside the fence. I know staking goats out leaves them very vulnerable to predators so I want to know if they were contained in a fence with an LGD if it would be alright.

 

[NyGoatMom]

If there are holes in the perimeter fence, how about doing both sides the same with the electric...then if they get through...it won't matter. I know it'd be double the wire though....

 

[jswelly]

That's not a bad idea but I would probably use stock panels on the outside because I would have no way of connecting the electric fence through the overgrown fence line without it shorting out. And alot of my perimeter fence is along a road so there's not much space on the outside of the fence to work with.

 

[NyGoatMom]

That would work even better!

 

[jswelly]

Would stock panels hold goats or would I need to put up a strand or 2 of wire?

 

[NyGoatMom]

I'm pretty sure people use them for goats...what size goats? Horned or not? I wouldn't want a horned goat to get it's head stuck in one of the holes...

 

[jswelly]

Most likely boer and kiko so they would have horns. I have seen some stock panels made for goats and sheep and I think the spacing between the wires is smaller so they can't get their horns stuck but I'm not 100% sure.