Providing Adequate Fencing for Your Goats

If you've decided to raise goats to green up your lifestyle, you need to provide good fencing to keep them in and to keep predators out. You can also use fencing to protect your trees and shrubs from goats. Adequate fencing means different things in different situations. If you have kids and adult goats, you need to make sure the kids can't get through the fencing and the adults can't get over it.

Goats love to rub on walls and fences. If you put in new fencing, make sure you set your fence posts deep enough. Wooden posts need to be at least two feet deep. If you're using metal T-posts, make sure to pound them in past the V at the bottom that holds them in the ground.

If you have an area with existing fencing, walk the fence line and

Inspect the fence for holes in or under it: Patch holes in the fence and fill or block holes under it.

Check each fence post to make sure it's solidly set: Replace, add a new post, or solidify the weak one.

Measure to see whether the fence is high enough: A 4-foot fence is adequate in most cases. If it isn't, add a strand or two of electric wire or fence it higher.

Determine whether any trees need to be fenced out or around: Keep goats away from trees you don't want eaten or that are poisonous.

If you need to put in new fencing or replace fencing, you have a variety of fencing types to choose from:

Field fencing: Field fencing, or woven wire, attached to metal T-posts is probably the most common type of fencing for goats. It's moderately expensive and is sturdy if installed properly. A four-foot-high field fence will keep miniature goats in but isn't high enough for a determined bigger goat. A strand of electric wire along the top and 10 inches off the ground usually keeps all goats in.

Cattle or hog panels: Galvanized cattle panel with graduated spacing makes excellent fences for goats. The panels are 50 inches high. You can add a strand or two of electric wire along the top for larger goats. To keep in miniature goat kids you may need to reinforce with chicken wire or woven wire along the bottom.

Electric wire: Electric wire is an excellent addition to any of the other types of fencing. The wire and insulators are inexpensive; the biggest cost is the charger and ground rod. A strand along the top helps keep predators out and goats and livestock guardian dogs in.

Use a 4,000-volt charger for goat fencing. If your fencing isn't near a power source, get a solar charger. Place the grounding rod in a location that is as dry as possible. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for grounding and charger placement.

Avoid using barbed wire or wood fences for goats. Goats can get injured by the barbs.

How to Protect Your Goats from Poisonous Plants

Goats will eat almost anything, but you must guard against your goats eating poisonous plants. Goats ignore poisonous plants most of the time, but because of their need to browse, they may try them just for variety. Whether a goat that eats a poisonous plant shows signs of poisoning depends on how much of the plant it eats, what part of the plant it eats, the condition of the plant (fresh or dried), the time of year, and the size and health of the goat.

Some of the common poisonous plants that might grow in your pasture or backyard include:

Weeds

Bracken fern

Buttercup

Common milkweed

Foxglove

Lantana

Locoweed

Poke weed

Spurge

St. John's Wort

Water hemlock and poison hemlock

Trees

Cyanide-producing trees such as cherry, chokecherry, elderberry, and plum (especially the wilted leaves from these trees)

Ponderosa pine

Yew

Cultivated plants

Azalea

Kale

Lily of the valley

Oleander

Poppy

Potato

Rhododendron

Rhubarb

Many landscaping plants are poisonous, and a few are so deadly that even a few leaves can make your goat extremely sick. Don't believe the old wives' tale that goats always know which plants are poisonous. Before you bring your goats home, check your yard for poisonous plants. The best resource for doing so is A Guide to Plant Poisoning of Animals in North America (Teton New Media), by Anthony P. Knight and Richard Walter. You can find many chapters of it online at the http://www.ivis.org). If your goats can get their heads through a fence to the neighbor's yard, make sure that poisonous plants aren't growing within reach there.

If you find any of these plants, either remove them or make sure that your fencing will keep your goats away. If the poison plant is a tree, make sure that the leaves won't fall into the pen in the autumn by removing the tree or situating the pen far from the tree. Dried leaves can be the most deadly part of the tree.

You usually don't need to freak out if one of your goats eats a little taste of any of these plants or trees, but you do need to keep an eye on him in case he shows signs of sickness.

Talk to your neighbors about poisonous plants and ask them not to throw their garden trimmings into the yard as a treat for your goats without asking first.