Best Goat Fence
This guide on the best goat fence for your herd will help ensure your herd is kept inside and safe from the smallest kids to the largest buck.
Goat fence ideas play a large role in your choice, but how you set up and maintain the fence matters even more. Keep this guide close so you can refer to it whenever you need to update it.
You know the saying, good fences make good neighbors? This is especially true if you raise goats. Goats are a great addition to any small farm or homestead, but if they escape your set up they can do damage pretty quickly.
This includes your property as well as any neighbors that live nearby.
Having a fence set up that does it’s job effectively is the best way to keep everyone safe and happy.
This guide will walk you through our top fencing choices and the best practices to use when incorporating the fence into your herd management.
Do goats need to be fenced in?
Yes, goats should always be fenced in when unsupervised. A fence plays an important role in raising livestock. First, it is meant to keep the animals inside so they can not get out and do damage or get into trouble. Second, the fence is meant to keep predators out that may cause harm to the herd.
A good and effective fence that is setup correctly will help you to raise a herd that is healthy and thriving.
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What type of fence is best for goats?
There are two different categories of fence to consider: electrified and non-electrified. Over the years, we have tried many setups and have found that the best fencing option for housing goats is an electric fence. Even though electric fences are a bigger cost, their effectiveness makes them worth the investment.
Best Electric Goat Fences
There are a few different options of electrified fences to choose from, woven wire fence, high tensile, and a single strand or tape fence. Let’s look at each in more detail.
#1. Woven Wire netting
Woven wire fence resembles a net and has multiple strands that are electrified. The openings are small enough to keep young kids inside, and the zap is enough to keep all members of your herd from trying to get out.
#2. High Tensile
The high tensile fence is a permanent fence setup that is mainly used for larger areas or pastures. They combine lotus posts and single strands of wire. Usually, this fence is installed by a professional and, once in place, will last for many years.
#3. Single Strand or Tape
Single-strand electric fence is similar to high tensile as it uses single strands with a few being electrified to help deter escape. This type of fence can be installed yourself as it uses metal stakes and rolls of wire.
Another option is to make the top wire tape, giving a more significant deterrent to livestock escapes.
What if you do not have electric for powering a fence?
You can use a solar box if you do not have a power source to keep your fence hot. This is how we have always done our fences, and it works great for keeping our entire setup. This includes the netting and high tensile of our 4+ acre pasture.
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Electric fencing is our fence of choice as it tends to be more effective at keeping goats and most livestock inside.
Best Non Electric Fences
If electrified fences are not an option right now, there are a few non-electric fence options that will work well with goats.
Welded Wire Fence
Woven wire fence is a rolled fence that uses heavy duty metal stakes to hold it in place. It is a good option to consider but not a long term solution for container your herd.
The main reason is that goats love to stand on any fence that is not electrified and welded wire does not do well holding up to that constant wear and tear.
Livestock Panel Fence
Livestock panels are similar to welded wire but more sturdy making them a good option for goat fencing. They comes in two sizes, cattle panels that are 5 foot high and pig panels that are 3 foot high. For goats, higher is better as it will keep some of your herd from trying to jump out.
Panels come in long sheets are are held in place with zip ties or fence clips. Heavy stakes are used at every section as well to keep the fence stable.
Chain link Fence
Another option is using rolls of chain links fencing to house your herd. This fencing is high enough to keep most if not all of yoru goats inside and the openings are small ewnouygh that most of your goats will not be able to stand on it.
If you purchase this fence, you will have all the supplies you need to set it up.
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Pallet Fence
Finally, the most affordable option if a wood pallet DIY fence. The good news is you can usually find used pallets for free at most stores, the bad news is this tyupe of fence will not last as long as the others mentioned.
The pallets are nailed together, and heavy-duty stakes are used to hold the fence in place.
The best goat fence
In our experience, the best goat fence is a mixture of a few different options listed above. The reason is that each fence does best in different situations and over the years were have found the best fit for each.
1. Best fence for a pasture – High tensile is by far the best option for a large pasture.
2. Rotational Grazing – Electric netting works best for sectioning off paddocks for rotating your herd on different areas of your pasture.
3. Buck pens – Livestock panels combined with electric netting works best to keep bucks, even bucks in rut, from trying to get out of their fenced in area.
4. Sick pens or birthing pens – Wood pallets work best for sectioning off small pen areas.
5. Kid pens – Livestock panels work best for enclosing small kids in a separate area of a barn.
Setting Up an Effective Goat Fence
Selecting a fence is only part of this project; you will also want to be sure you are setting your fence up in a way that will greatly reduce and eliminate goat escapes. Use these tips that we learned over the years to ensure your fence does it’s job.
#1. Close to the Ground
This tip is more for non-electric setups: Ensure the fence goes all the way to the ground. Goats will not only try to jump out but also dry to squeeze under any openings. Even if it looks too small to you, do not underestimate your goat!
#2. The Right Height
If you have goats that continually try to jump out, you will want to make sure your fence is high enough to discourage them. If you are using livestock panels, you can zip tie one pane on top of the other, doubling the fence’s height.
I know this sounds hard to do, but actually I was able to do this all on my own. It is easier than it sounds.
#3. Keep Grass Trimmed
This tip is more for electric options: Keep any grass trimmed so it doesn’t interrupt the electric current. We do this chore monthly in the spring and less often in the summer. A weed whacker works best on high tensile, and a mower with netting.
Just know you will need to move the electric netting so you can mow and then return the netting to its place.
#4. Train Your Herd Annually
To ensure your herd understands the electric fence, we suggest you retrain everyone each spring as you put them back out onto pasture.
If you have never trained our goats on electric fences, you can see how we do it for our easy, stress-free approach.
When it comes to raising goats, having a good fence that you can rely on will go along way to keeping everyone safe and happy, your neighbors included!
Keep this list of the best goat fence ideas so you can find an option whenever you need to enclose an area for your herd.
