Goats and electric fence - finally giving up

[beowulf]

At considerable effort, I prepared/graded a weed free path for a route of electric fence around a ravine that needed cleaning out (primarily to mitigatge a fire risk). Probably about a 400 foot run. I put in the electric fence posts, ran three strands of wire - one strand was the recommended poly wire - hooked all lines up in several spots. Grounded it to a chainlink fence post - and thus to all the other posts, and hooked it up. The charger was working but the charge did not read that high - But - I shocked myself several times as I continued to work on it - the kind of yell out loud jolt. And the shocks came at the far end of the run so I know it was carrying enough current to deter me. I put the goats in and they meandered a bit and decided they liked something on the other side and so just went on through. Some under, some through. I walked the entire length to check it out and shocked myself a couple more times as I forgot to turn it off - slow learner here. It is very dry now so I thought that might be the issue but it did not stop me from getting hit. So, if the goats do not touch it with their nose but just go under or through - could it be that their hair or hooves are preventing them from getting shocked? I have reworked this fence several times without success - i.e., they walk through it each time I think I have it spot-on right. I will be running some temporary hog fence around the ravine now- doable given the area. But wondering what is happening.

 

[sea2summit]

Goats need at least five strand electric fence.

 

[beowulf]

Goats need at least five strand electric fence.

Sea2summit - good to know - guess I should have posted here first. Thank you for responding. My wife thinks the goats are smarter than me. But would they not have been shocked even with the existing wires?

 

[Doughknob]

Also, goats have a high pain tolerance. I got mad at mine a few times. Sticks and stones do NOT hurt their bones. They just gave me a weird look and came back for more. Seriously.

 

[2manyrocks]

I had a pair of goats to clean out some kudzu. I had 5 or 6 strands of electric fence. They would stay inside unless I let the charger battery run too low. It got to the point that they were apparently content staying inside the fence.

The other reason for putting up enough electric fence is to keep predators away from the goats.

 

[ultrarunner]

Several hundred grazing right now doing fire suppression as I look out the window.

Professional contract for many years.

Single strand hot wire on rebar posts moved every other day or so.

The secret is two herding dogs... Dogs don't miss a thing and goats 100% compliant.

It's amazing two dogs can control several hundred goats with a single hot wire on a solar battery back up charger.

One caution is several brush fires started in high danger area from arcing sparks.

My brother did extensive hot wire for tree farm the deer ignored it...

Full 6' fence plus 18" wire on top so 7.5' tall and about 98% effective from all but the most athletic full grown.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Several hundred grazing right now doing fire suppression as I look out the window.

Professional contract for many years.

Single strand hot wire on rebar posts moved every other day or so.

The secret is two herding dogs... Dogs don't miss a thing and goats 100% compliant.

It's amazing two dogs can control several hundred goats with a single hot wire on a solar battery back up charger.

One caution is several brush fires started in high danger area from arcing sparks.

My brother did extensive hot wire for tree farm the deer ignored it...

Full 6' fence plus 18" wire on top so 7.5' tall and about 98% effective from all but the most athletic full grown.View attachment 751458

A deer can bounce right over a 12' fence. Seen it myself several times.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I gave up on goats for clearing vegetation and switched to Scottish Highland cows. The Highland cows will eat things down almost as good as goats and will stay in the fenced area.

Lost most of the goats to coyotes.

 

[ponytug]

Goats are tough to fence in, but they are absolutely amazing at clearing brush as they are browsers rather than grazers. I hope that you can get yours to work out.

A couple of tips for dry areas. If you want to use wire, I would run five hot and three grounds, (vertically on the post: hot/ground/hot/ground/hot/ground/hot) and ground the grounds every so often. Dry soil is not a good conductor. I ran a ten foot long ground rod in the bottom of my ravine, and ran 6ga solid wire to the solar charger up the hill, tying it to T-posts with wire every so often to get a solid ground.

If you can swing the cost, netting is generally more effective with goats. We get our netting from Premier1 fencing supplies, and they have quality material, but it isn't cheap. Our original netting is fifteen years old and still functional, though a coyote chewed into it, wires and all once when the charging wire was disconnected.

I think that I know @ultrarunner's goats and they are a highly trained herd, moved to fresh ground every couple of days. You could get there with your goats, but you would have to put in the hours training the goats, and the dogs. One of those fire reduction herds was stolen awhile back, and I was shocked to discover that the value of the herds was on the order of $100k, and the company running the flocks charges no small amount of money for the service. As in perhaps a quarter of what the human labor cost would be, but they can work quickly in all terrains and preferentially take out invasive species and poison oak. They do an amazing job of clearing out the understory. (I think that this is "his" herd;

https://www.audacy.com/kcbsradio/news/local/2-000-goats-descend-on-east-bay-to-chomp-fire-friendly-brush)

In our dry area, I think that you definitely want a modern solid state charger; the fire risk isn't worth using the old fashioned kind. We use Gallagher from Permier1 fencing, but I think that they have moved to a home brand. Ours have lasted 7-10 years each.

Goats with big appetites are front-line workers in fire prevention - Goatapelli Foundation

June 21, 2022 | The Washington Post | by Cathy Free Lani Malmberg rounds up her goats on June 19 near Eaton, Colo., for a trip to another job site. They have an appetite for the kind of vegetation that makes up the fire ladder,’ said Lani Malmberg, who manages […]

goatapellifoundation.org

Using Goats to Prevent Wildfires

Communities worried about the ravages of wildfires are embracing a four-legged solution

www.smithsonianmag.com

Good luck! I find using animals to do the brush clearance a huge improvement on my doing it. When we first moved here, I did some brush cutting (clear the poison oak and big brush) and rototilling (to get rid of poison hemlock), but our cows have improved things year on year.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

Goats and calves succumb to mountain lions here...

For some reason the lions don't like to mess with the huge heading dogs...

I think they are Great Pyrenees...