Goats are driving us crazy, fencing issues!!

[kimmom]

Our goats are way out of control right now. They have been jumping the fence fr the last month at first it was OK now its NOT! They are into everything, have eaten the bark off some apple trees, robbed by bananas as I was unpacking groceries, broke into the grain bin. So we have to figure out fencing. Right now we have a 4.5 foot high page wire fence obviously not enough! We have some electric fence we were thinking of running around waist height.. ANy advice from other goat owners??

[Momma2DoubleCuties]

Kim the gal I get our milk from uses 2 cattle panels on top of each other so it's about 6ft tall.

[mamadelbosque]

I'd run electric along the top and just inside to keep them off it and make it a bit taller - and painful We have electric fence only and its ~4' tall and keeps them in just fine. As long as its on

[1jooj]

It's amazing how much personality variations can affect your fencing needs. We had a buck that would push down anything not electrified, and he liked to snap electric wires and break them. He pushed gates until he broke latches, broke wood, whatever.

Now, I have a much calmer buck. My does used to like to squeeze through stuff, too, but my current does (a larger breed) aren't as sneaky that way. So we do OK with 4' wire fencing.

I'd agree that two strands, one on top and one lower, standing out from the existing fence, should do OK. Good luck. We had a rough go when our animals weren't securely fenced, and I understand the anxiousness. Panels are effective, too, but they need to be really well secured.

[Blue Lotus]

Well, we have only had our goats for about a week, but everything I have read said that electric fencing was the way to go to help with them jumping out of their pens.

[forestrymom]

We have 4' woven wire topped with 2 strands of barb wire. We can't use the electric because we don't have power at our barn, and its a very large area. The buck clearly wants in with our does but he hasn't been able to find a way yet (knock on wood).

[CCJWGM]

Former goat owner here. We did 4' field fencing with two electric strands standing out from the fence and a third strand above the field fencing. For the electric we used the clearly visible white electric tape. No problems with that. To save the few trees they ate we wrapped the white tape around them and it worked like a charm even though not electrified.

[*~Danielle~*]

We have our goats trained on 4 strands of electric. After a couple zaps, we are golden. We have our gentle 4 year old Saanen buck on 3 strands.

The kids are a bit more tricky when they are younger, so we keep them in an area consisting of 4 cattle panels and then train them to the fence when they are a bit older.