Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeder Enclosure

My son raises Boer meat goats and is planning to fence the around the pond in order for the goats to control weeds and brush.
Goats will not get in the water as will other livestock.

I have two feeders that will be at risk unless fenced or with some sort of enclosure.

Any ideas?
Pictures of your enclosures would be great.

Thanks much,
George Glazener
N. E. Texas

George, I know absolutely nothing about goats. However, I've seen concrete remesh used to successfully contain and enclose hogs. Strengthen it with T posts. Of course, they weren't really determined hogs. Pellets ought to go through it pretty well. If necessary, you could circle the fence with electric fence. I think it depends on just how determined an individual animal is.

to keep bears out in norht GA streams. Clients use solar pwoered elctric fence. IT is not cheap but only thing we have fiugred out that works. They love the smell of trout chow. Do you have a directional feeder? If so you can mount them on longer legs so that they are basically above the water in the shalow sloping areas. Good luck

george:

I think everything respects a live electric fence. IMO the best e-fence is done with high-tension wire. The hardest part is putting up the posts. The high tension wire itself is galvanized like crazy and will last for 20+ years, unlike the soft steel wire used for "temporary" e-fence, which will rust to uselessness in 4-5 years.

For short stretches or next to gates/corners, where it seems foolish to put in very short pieces of wire and their tensioners, we use treated 2"x6"s. If cattle don't push these down, they should be OK for goats.

You would need to decide what board and/or wire spacing (and height) will be needed for goats; with the high-tension it is easy to add more wires in between later on if needed. I can post some pictures tonight if you would like.

Hey guys, thanks for your suggestions about feeder enclosure.

One thing I failed to mention is that feeder has to be enclosed only on three sides – goats won’t get in the water – they don’t even drink pond water – return to pens to drink from water trough.

Theo, I would appreciate the photos of your “hot wire” enclosure.
This is the logical approach, which was my first thought, but I don’t want to fool with wire, stakes and batteries if I don’t have to.

Since the morning post, I got to thinking (dangerous) about using a 16ft cattle panel.
Cut to correct length, bend to a semi-circle, hinge to a T-post on one side of feeder at water edge and fasten to a T-post on opposite side of feeder.
Maybe open like a gate?

Think this might work?

George, I have been thinking about this since you made your last post, explaining that you need a small withhold area around the feeders. Had to explain to the wife (who has more farm years in than I do - I'm just a dumb city boy who now knows woo-woo) what I was taking pictures of, and got some input from her as well (later).

High tension electric is not very efficient for small, angular runs (it's GREAT for long straight or gently curved runs). For a short-term setup, I would go with cattle/hog/sheep panels (buy per the hole size versus the goats, not the name) wired to steel T-posts. You can throw these up in almost no time; if the goats really don't go in the water, they'll be all you need (well, if the water level drops you'll be moving both the fence AND the feeders to the new shoreline).

Personally, I would not buy a long section and bend it - that's too much work and might weaken the welds. I'd put up a three-sided enclosure with three shorter sections, rigged so I could open one side as a gate to get to the feeder.

Long term, if you want to "upgrade" (a dubious claim based on personal preference) to something you may consider better or more attractive, take a look at my windmill enclosure below. It's only keeping cattle out right now, so there's no electric on it. We have a larger hexagon enclosure around our barn water wells, which has a high tension electric wire on top to keep the horses from cribbing on the boards (the camera batteries died before I got a picture of the hexagon).


FWIW, here a a couple high-tension fence photos showing how sharp curves/corners and ends must be braced horizontally (else the posts just lean into the corners, as my first stretch of fence did until fixed) and also need a diagonal crosswire. Each section of high tension also needs the tightening ratchets shown next to the gate in the second photo (the top wire has the old style spring tensioner I have never seen a commercial fence installer use, I just have a bunch of them that keep getting reused rather than remove them from the ratchets.




None of this is exactly rocket science, I hope it may be of help to someone.

P.S. My wife, who has finally given up on getting me to let her acquire goats, says "Use electrified hog panels, on all six sides."

Theo and George, I use the remesh, cut it with bolt cutters, and tie wire it to T-posts.

Theo, I have never done anything that looks that professional. OK, I'll admit it. I was born in Oklahoma.

Hey, I was just thinking about electric fence. Deer on my place lunge forwards when they hit a shock fence. Cattle back off. Not sure about goats that act a lot more like deer than cattle.

Great post, Theo. Can you think of a design that will keep snapping turtles out of my horizontal aeration pond? I'm only half kidding.

Dave- It all depends on where an animal is "shocked" on what behavior it will exhibit. If it is shocked behind the ears, it will move forward. If hit in front of ears it will back up.
Deer tend to walk head up, which causes them to contact in the chest. Cows tend to walk head down. Hotwires will contain goats nicely, if wire is stretched at proper heighth to contact them in the nose.

George- Be careful if you decide to use treated lumber. Goats will chew on it and possibly ingest some of the wood. If you use treated make sure it is ACQ and not CCA. The arsenic could be fatal to the goats, or make someone quite ill if consuming the goats.

Hey guys – good info especially for heads up hot wire problems and treated lumber.
Cutting cattle panels or re-mesh and wiring to T-posts make more sense that my idea of bending.

I’ll have to experiment on design to fit two sides that have steep slope to waters edge – will have to be angle cut on two sides of panels?

Great pictures Theo – thanks.
A picture is worth a thousand words – right?

I can see angle cutting the uphill end to mate up with a vertical T-post, but I wouldn't care if the end at the water stuck out at an angle. If you angle cut, you should only have to make one cut for each three-sided enclosure:
____________________
[__________/________] Cutting panel on an angle
[_________/_________] gives you your two sides
[________/__________] when you flip one over.

This would work IF the grid size on the panels is the same top to bottom - that might be a reason to look for panels with constant hole spacing as opposed to the frequently seen proportional spacing (tighter at the bottom than at the top).

I have given up on turtle exclusion, Bruce. I decided the only thing the turtles do I don't like is dig burrows in the bank which collapse and leave holes. If the turtles can move bank dirt into the pond, I can move pond dirt into the resulting holes to fill them. This is what I am doing, except I get to use a shovel - those poor turtles have to dig with their feet.

____________________
[__________/________] Cutting panel on an angle
[_________/_________] gives you your two sides
[________/__________] when you flip one over.

Neat... ....!!!!

George :

I may be missing something but what about the following. Three t posts - 2 in about 8in of water on the pond side of feeder and 1 post in back of feeder to form a triangle - 2 panels of 1in. rigid plastic fencing to run from post in water to one behind. I don't think the goats can chew or break that type of fencing but if so then use chain link fencing or hog wire. If the goats won't go in water this should work and be easy. Either one can be attached to back post so it can be easily opened like a gate to give access to feeder. Good luck.

Three cattle panels and four six foot tee posts is all that is needed. Cattle panel are four feet tall and you just tie off to the corner tee posts with wire. You might need a driver for the tee posts. Total cost should be less than $150. plus your time.