We figured out a goat's favorite treat...by accident
We realized a goat’s favorite thing today and it was totally by accident!
For months, we have been wrestling with our portable goat fencing. We tried the three foot high electric fencing from Premier 1. It was great fencing, but the goats got out every chance they could because it wouldn’t stay tight and would fall down. . Then we moved to 4-foot high chicken netting from Premier 1. Again, the goats would stay in, but after about two weeks, they would scale the fence where the fence would sag.
One of the reasons the goats were getting out was because we did not have time to set up the fencing as often as needed. We set it up every three weeks, but they needed to be moved weekly.
Rotational grazing requires that you move animals frequently to keep fresh food in front of them. Goats rotate at a much slower pace than cows and are happy to stay in an area for several weeks as long as plenty of food is available.
The chicken netting we purchased and the other goat fencing came in 100-foot sections, which made large areas expensive and time-consuming.
Early on, I attempted poly tape fencing, but it was not conducive enough. The goats would go right through it.
We recently purchased the Gallager Turbo Wire, the most conductive polywire they sell. It has 9 x strands of highly conductive mixed-metal filaments. The rolls come with over 1700 feet of line, which gave us plenty of lines to make a 5-string fence in about two hours. We kept step-in posts about 20 feet apart to prevent excessive sagging in the line. We use a deep-cycle marine battery and a Speedrite 3000 fence energizer. This fencing was placed around overgrown kudzu, a pine sapling paradise. A pleasant surprise was when we discovered the goats were chewing on the sapling pine trees when we turned them out. Some of our pastures have been untouched for almost a year, and we noticed saplings were coming up. The goats were going nuts over them, which was very surprising.
It turns out that pine saplings might be a goat’s favorite food. The pine needles also act as a natural wormer to clean their digestive tract. Pine needles are also very high in Vitamin A and C, which helps support immune systems and body function.
It turns out that poly wire can work with goats, saving you time in the long run.
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to support my content by buying me a coffee. It will be so appreciated and allow me to keep helping you in your farming journey.
Setting up the goat fencing along our driveway where we have an abundance of kudzu and overgrow brush. Notice that polywire can be placed wherever you need it!
** Use a rubber mallet for the step in posts and they will go in anywhere!