[bazzais]

We have two goats and they can clear a standard sized stock fence - they can also clear it with two stands of electric fence making it around 5 foot high.  We dont mind the goats around the place but its not ideal having everything eaten like all the plants, wiring looms off most the vehicles and s**t and piss over everything.

I just want them to be happy and wondered what everyone thinks of perhaps tethering them.  If I did tether them is it best for them to be tethered together or far apart so they dont tangle with each other.

Ideally if someone could suggest a method of fencing them in it would be much better but I think we will need at least an 8 foot fence (which would suffer badly from wind damage)

Ta

Baz

[Hermit]

Have you actually seen them jumping it? My mum goat is a fair limbo dancer and can squeeze under a fence! I have normal sheep netting with a strand of leccy fence around the top and at ground level now and not one escape since. A milking goat does not jump as far as I believe , that is why I ask.

[piggy]

Dont know if its any help but where we get our stock fence from they do one that is 5 foot high you could then maybe put 3 strips of electric tape on top.

[Hermit]

Or goats in milk should I say.

[bazzais]

No they are not milkers - more pets, they have had the run of the place since they got here, they are only about 9 months old but prefer to just hang around the front door of the house waiting for us to come outside.

I dont mind really but I am thinking ahead for the summer season when there will be lots of tourists around, kids, pushchairs and dogs - they really need to have a pen that can contain them.

Trouble is that one is fine but one is the high jumper - she has even had a few belts from the electric fence but has worked out that as long as she is quick she can jump right through it.

I would use netting but I am frightened that they may get wrapped up and stuck in it.

Is it cruel to tether them to a big log so they cant jump but they can pull it around?

I am at my wits end - I cant seem to persuade them to 'play ball' and stay in a field.

Ta

Barry

[wytsend]

Are you using a mains fencer set on the highest setting,  or a battery fencer ?
Goats in my experience have no respect for battery units.

Now a mains unit, kicking out 5000volts will deter even males trying to get to a girl in season the other side !!!!!

Mine won't go near a mains fence - there are 30 of them - but a battery unit is considered to be of no account.

[hairyhetty]

my old golden guernsey goat could jump a stock fence but would only do it to follow her companion who was smaller (breed unknown but looked like something outa fairytale!) mine had  large freerange but mainly hung around our house waiting for us. we bought them to eat all the weeds but they didnt go far so didnt do much weeding. beta to get them in theyre own paddock somehow, but i cant speak cos my pigs got into the garden and broke kids slide by scratching on it, and my ponies have eaten my window panes. plus goat droppings are very hard to get out of gravel path!! let us know what works cos my new goats are arriving so and are apparently major escape artists!

[hairyhetty]

a friend of a friends billy goat got his horns stuck in electric netting, and by time they got home from work and found him, hed died from repeated electric shocks, prob heart attack.

[Anke]

I think once the gotas KNOW they can escape and have the run of the place - they will always try and find a way. I also think if you only have just two they are much mor elikely to think they are an extension of the human family. Mine are in a group of now 6 (3 adult females and three kids) and get on fine outside. I took in a rescue goatling earlier in the year and she had been kept as pair, was a terrible jumper and otherwise a bit spoilt too. However, once she "tested" the electric top wire, got a stern "no" when she tried to jump the gate (I kept her on a lead and was present for the first few times outside with her new herd to get her used to the others) she never once tried to jump (but she was excellent at spotting open gates and led the other goatling astray...)

Mine have normal sheep netting plus one top strand electric - but mains. They have also never tried to jump any of the gates.

I am not sure tethering is the answer, but more electric ummmppph might be. Also maybe taking them out on a walk for a bit everyday, and otherwise restricting them to a small, but highly (6' +) fenced exercise yard. They don't need to run off their energy every day anyway....

[woollyval]

Wytsend is spot on!

You need good stock fencing with 2 strands of plain wire above and a mains or big 12v equivelent powered hot wire on the top but inside and preferably on insulators that hold it at an angle to the fence...hard to describe....
Then they have to jump like a racehorse as you have created a 'spread' and since goats are nosy they will check it out first....electrified tape and string is not half as good as a bare wire!!!!
I have also tried in the distant past the trick of atteching a juicy morcel such as fresh lucerne or nice damp carrot to it.....deters the most consistant jumper!
This all sounds harsh but a good belt from a proper fencer will make them think twice!

Do make sure fence is tight at bottom as good limbo dancers!

[plumseverywhere]

we had a nightmare keeping ours in but (touch wood!!) we've not had any escapes now for months.  Electric strip fencing did it for us, we had to encourage them to touch it to get a good 'kick' and I hated doing that but its served its purpose. I found that the 2 younger ones tended to escape more when we still had our milking goat, she had a problem with the young female and used to bully her. since nanny died, the other 2 are calmer.

[jinglejoys]

The main outside boundary is lightweight stockfence(As I have to put it up single handedly) with another roll above it and overlapping slightly. inside this is a strand of electric WIRE (not taped) about 2' high and 2' in.It is most important that the goats can't reach over and get their heads stuck in the stock fence,it doaesn't matter so much if they reach under and managed it because then if they get stuck they will usually work out that its better to lie down and wait to be released.If it is too low and they reach over and get stuck then panick they will fall on the wire and it acts like the electric netting(Which I wont have on the place!!!!!)and die of shock.Then you walk the boundaries with them so they learn to be hefted.Any paddocks within this for other animals can be ordainary height.This keeps my goats in and any ferels straight off the hills,and I have horticultural crops all round me with neighbours who dont' know the meaning of fencing!

[plumseverywhere]

just got to say "awwwwwwwwwwwww" how gorgeous are they?!

[egglady]

oh they are the cutest wee things ever!  I want some!!

[knightquest]

Don't know about goats but have had experience with dogs jumping. Hard to describe but here goes.

If you imagine a 6' fence panel, on each post between them, I put a wrought iron hanging basket bracket about 5' high at the top edge. The bracket stuck out about a foot and I ran a wire through the bit where you would hang the basket  and made sure that it was held tight. This interupted the dogs flight path so to speak and is the one that would be electrified to give that added jolt for the goats. You wouldn't use a fence panel either but I used that as a guide for descriptive information.
Hope that helps.

Ian