Advice Please

Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Holbeach

We have embarked upon a project for next year and into 2009. We have rented a piece of land about 3/4 of an acre very close to our house and are planning to keep a pair of Golden Guernsey nanny goats. The plan is to spend next year fencing, housing and preparing the field and get the goats in late 2008 or early 2009. We would love any advice anyone could give us. We have already been asked by the owner of the field what grass mix we would like them to put down for us. Does anyone have any recommendations?

We intend to join the Fenland Goatkeepers, the Golden Guernsey Society and the British Goat Society as soon as Christmas is out of the way.

Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 5

Goats are browsers not grazers so it won't make any difference how your paddock is sown. They will ignore the grass and want to eat trees, shrubs, brambles etc. HTH.
I am about to go back into goats after a break of several years. I need to build a new goatshed and fence their paddock and it will take me all of 5 days maximum to do it. How come it'll take you a year? Do you know what sort of fencing you will be using? I have found that my previous goats got out of just about everything exept electrified goat netting and the only time I had a golden Guernsey (I kept BS) it cleared the goat netting like a steeplechaser. It did it one time too many one day and was hit by a car and killed. This time around, I am using Heras fence panels to make a goat proof encoluse.

Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Holbeach

We thought posts and stock fencing, probably with an extra couple of lines of wire above the stock to raise the height (barbed maybe, I'm just not sure yet). I'm having a baby in January and don't want to start on the Goats at the same time, so we thought we'd take our time and get things done right. Our friend that will be helping with the fencing will be doing it in his spare time, so probably won't ever have a 5 day run at it. The guy that'll build the housing always takes longer than agreed and the field is currently ploughed so it needs sowing with something. Hence, I thought that if there was a recommended grass mix, it might be as well to get the right thing down to begin with. There isn't much of a hedge and so we will also need to plant extra stuff for browsing - and I never said it would take us a year, I said we were going to take a year doing it - not the same thing at all! I don't see the need to rush into it. We already have pigs, chickens, ducks and a toddler to look after, so 2008s project is the baby and 2009s project is the goats, by 2010, I'll probably be looking for a bigger house with more land Very Happy

Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 5

please not barbed wire. Vile stuff. Goats will try to get out. It's what they do. A hobby. Suppoing one decides it can jump over th top, but finds out it can't. With normal wire, not a problem, goat lands on top wire, gets a bit hurt, gets off after a bit of struggle. Imagine that scene again with barbed wire, goat jumps, lands belly first onto barbed wire, agony, udders torn and pierced, goats struggling, ripping more skin as it's held firm.You are talking agony, possibly hours of it until you go to see what all the screaming is about, if you hear it or until you next go out to see to the goats, distress, shock and a big vet bill or death if it is so badly wounded it has to be put to sleep. I curse the person who invented barbed wire and believe it has no place anywhere near livestock.
Your goat book should help decide which fencing to use. My own preference based on many years experience is electrified poultry netting (it is higher than sheep or goat netting). You can use a car battery energiser if you have no mains near the goat paddock. It means some effort though either mowing or spraying the bottom of the fence to ensure no vegetation grows and shorts out the fence as electrified netting with no current running through it is downright lethal. Animals put head through, can't get head back, start to panic and thrash and tangle and the stuff won't break. I lost a goose like this once and have known of at least one goat killed in this manner. When the owner went to milk the goats she found the goat dead entangled in the stuff and the ground showed how desperately the thing had struggled and panicked.
This time around, I'm using heras fence panels. You know the kind used around building sites? 6 foot high, moveable, 12 feet long, joined together easily by proper clamps or heavy duty plastic cable ties. 100% goat proof and no maintainance needed. You simply leave one section to use as a gate. I'm using them as poultry pens too.
Goats are wonderful things but they are also escapologists. If they are not escaping, they are trying to escape and in their efforts to escape, they may easily injure themselves. You have to ensure that all fences are high enough (stock fencing isn't) and safe (barbed wire is definately not).

Joined: 12 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

hi amandaR - we have kept goats for about 30 years and have used practically everyone method of fencing over the years. so if you live anywhere near us, you would be v. welcome to come down and see our goats and we can discuss any problems that you have. and good luck with your well-planned goatkeeping! anna[/b]