It's interesting to see how your doing what I did. Start out with a few goats, build a small shelter, fence in an area for them, and buy some square bales.
That's exactly what I did. Then we got a few more goats, then a boy goat, and pretty soon we where selling baby goats and thinking we had it all under control. But we kept a few of the girl babies, and then a different boy, and all of a sudden, we went from ten goats to thirty, and it seemed like that went up to 60. I'm at 50 right now without a good way to handle them. I have people wanting to buy goats, but I can't catch them, or hold them for somebody to come get them.
We ran out of square bales real fast, so we tried round bales. That lasted a lot longer. We started out putting them on pallets and tarping them, but eventually, that was too much effort as we bought larger loads of round bales. Now they are lined up to keep water out of the ends of them, and as close to the gate as possible. I only buy round bales with netting since they sit out in the weather and the netting helps shed a little bit of the water. By Spring, about 4 to six inches of the outside part of the bale is ruined. I really need to build a hay barn to keep it dry, which will happen after I finish my fencing and build a bigger barn.
My biggest lesson with fencing has been to spend the money for the best fence possible. But even more important, is to remove every try that can damage your fence during a storm. I didn't learn the most important lesson, which is to have everything done before getting animals. Now I'm playing catch up and doing everything at least twice. I'd be better off just burning my money in a fire, but it is what it is.
