Goats are intelligent and agile animals. They're proficient climbers and renowned
escape artists. They're also a rewarding and potentially profitable investment so
as you would with any investment, keeping them secure is critical. If you're going
into goat production, one of the first things you'll need to do is establish
effective fencing yards and husbandry facilities. When you decide what type of
fencing is most effective for your goats, do your research, talk to existing goat
farmers, consider the type of terrain you're working with and think about
future growth plans and easy vehicle access. Fencing for goats is a fair
challenge but it's achievable. When we came here this property was set up for
cattle, the yards for example had very big spacings between the bars.
Due to their love of climbing, goats generally need higher fencing than sheep
or cattle. Fence design should have no internal sloped posts for climbing and
the bottom of the fence needs to securely hug ground level in order to minimize
escape opportunities. Ring lock fencing 900 with the barb on top has
been probably the most success we've had. This is a reasonably low cost fence for
medium to low pressure areas. It's got a low cost netting with a with a plain
wire at the bottom and plain wires at the top and a top barb, so the netting is
quite cheap. The critical part of the whole fence is this bottom wire
combination because that's where goats go out of. It's quite rare for a goat
once it's reasonably domesticated to go over the top, though they can.
The bottoms the critical part of any goat fence.
You don't need to spend vast amounts of money on special goat yards, cattle
yard rails are perfectly high enough, simply buying a few sheets of sheep mesh
and sticking it on the outside with wire will convert your cattle yards.
Due to the load carrying capacity of this country we could not sustain a
$4,000 netting fence so we had to look for an alternative. The electric fencing
although you have to live on the property to manage it is a wonderful tool.
$2,000 a kilometre gets you very good materials to do a kilometer of a seven
wire fencing with a nine meter span between the post. Steel pickets, two hot wires
and two earth returns and either topped with one or two barbs. Country here is
just so dry there's no moisture in it to do a ground earth so the system that
that's put in is an earth wire return. Have the bottom earth as close to the
ground as you can and the next live wire about four inches above that so their
nose has to go above the earth wire but below the live wire. It also has a
control mechanism for the wild dogs and kangaroos. We've also used an electric
offset fencing, that is very effective as well and lot lower costs
but it does have a higher maintenance and you've got to keep keep that
electricity humming and keep shorts out of it and probably the number one thing
that I'd recommend with electricity is all goats going into electricity have
to be trained before they're put into electric paddocks. If they're not
trained then there's no point that it won't stop it them.
When we first started we had our training paddocks, but as the animals
were bred here they got used to the electric fencing
and no longer tried to escape, even the Rangeland. Electric fencing is certainly
the right thing in some places we've never found it necessary, it takes too
much of our time keeping it going, it's too expensive to put it up and
really the fences we use are more than adequate anyway. A combination of both
types of fencing may also be used with an electric wire running along
conventional fencing as an additional security measure.Goats look for climbing
opportunities for mental stimulation, providing structures like large rocks
and branches away from fence lines can cater for this need and help reduce the
likelihood of them trying to climb fences. When creating yards and handling
areas the comfort and safety of livestock and handlers should also be
considered, so design these areas for both efficiency and to limit stress on
the animals. No one type of fence trap or yard
suits all situations, however the ability to effectively control goats is
fundamental to running a sustainable goat enterprise. The task may seem
daunting but developing a long term fencing plan and then investing a
manageable amount in your fencing program each year can deliver a
significant return on investment, so do your homework. The key to any of the fencing
whether it be electrical or any other fencing is preparation, preparation,
preparation. The more work you do, the better and the stronger the fence will be in the
long run and less maintenance you'll have in the long run. For more
information about goat fencing visit mla.com.au