Summer is quickly wearing away, and if you've been in the goat business very long, you know what that means: Love is in the air! This time of year, when the bucks are in rut, they can be very hard on fences if you are trying to keep the goats separated until a later breeding date. So what are some things you can do to decrease the likelihood that you'll need to redo your fences next year? Well it all depends on your budget.
To really make sure the job gets done, we'd suggest you try to find a maximum security prison that is no longer in use. While we make no guarantees, we've heard that they will keep MOST bucks in MOST of the time. But since MOST people cannot afford an entire prison just to house a few goats, lets get to some more viable options.
If you want, you can go all out using welded fencing or even guard rails. Along the highway, you will often see guard rails of some sort. (they are usually big strips of metal or cables stretched about 3 feet off the ground) These are designed to keep thousands of pounds of speeding metal from flying into oncoming traffic. So why couldn't they keep a couple hundred pounds of irritable billy-goat in a pen? If you set some guard rails up along the bottom of your existing pen, the bucks can butt against it all day long and probably won't make too much head way. And the good news is you only need it on the sides that are in contact with the 'doe pen'.
Another slightly cheaper option is electric fence.You can use it in much the same way as the guard rails by keeping it on only one side. The only issue is dependability. If a branch falls from a tree or your grass is too high, the fence will short out.
But option number three - the most economical - is our favorite. When the bucks are on just the other side of the fence, they have contact with the does and are consequently not too detered by your puny wire fence. But what if they can't get near them? Our pen consists of basic panel fencing on all sides. Then we made an "alley way" between the bucks and does of about 20 feet so they aren't able to get close enough to touch the goats on the other side. Because of the big gap, the bucks are not as confident that they can get through (and they also can't breed through the fence). (for a diagram View this photo)
See also: How to Build a Goat Pen, How to Build a Goat Barn
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