Goats, and Electric, and Cattle panel Hoops, OH MY!(fencing)

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I posted this on another board and just wanted to give an update here as I thought it might be helful to some!

Well this is the update on the crazy horned wether and the nasty neighbors cattle. The "New Zealand" type fencing I did works GREAT!!!! My horned wether is staying behind the fence with no trouble and I haven't seen a cow on my place in several weeks.(:smiles:). What I did was run a ground at the top and the bottom of a five strand electric fence. I wrapped the ground around 2 poles set at 12' and then ran it through an insulator on the thrid pole. The hot wires are 1" to 2" off set from the ground wires. This is so much less expensive than the cattle panel!!!Yeah! I ran the wires like this :

Top to bottom: Ground-Hot-Hot-Hot-Ground.

There is obviously no need to jump the ground as the poles (if they are metal) do that work for you. The only tricky part was keeping the ground and hot seperated over the distance I needed to travel to the fence from the charger.

Which brings me to the second thing. The cattle panel hoope houses are fantastic. I now have several isolation pens and they have housing from the dismantled panels. Wonderful, portable, and inexpensive. Who could ask for anything more?

Just wanted to give an update, as goat fencing is a rather famous topic of discussion.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 23, 2002

Answers

Please explain more about your cattle panel hoope houses. How are they made? How big are they? I'm very interested. Thanks!

-- Sharon in AL (Sharonspaws@aol.com), February 23, 2002.

I'll give it my best shot. I have had a couple of emails about it, so I hope they all check in here.

It's really very simple. You need to have 7 t posts, 2 cattle panel and another short piece of cattle panel to bridge the backside -if you want to make the structure enclosed on 3 sides- and at least 8 sheets of 8' long galvanized. I used a string to make sure all the t posts were square,just like setting up a foundation for a small building, and set the 7th t post inside about 1' at the backside. The distance from side to side can be 4 or 5', whichever gives you a heighth you are comfortable with. From the front post to the rear post should be 8'7". Still with me?

Then take the first cattle panel and leave the smaller spacing to the outside of the front. Hold it straight up against the first two posts on one side and wire it tightly to those posts. Then bend it over and wire it tightly to the two opposite posts. Take cattle panel number 2 and face the small spacing to the back and bridge over the first one until the end is just outside of the rear two t posts, wire tightly and bend over just like the first. Then wire those two panels together.

Then take your first sheet of galvanized and place it right inside the two smaller spacings so the goats don't cut themselves on the sharp edges. I used wire to hold them down and drilled small holes for the wire to pass through.Start at the bottom and do one side then the other, being sure to overlap for water shedding. I used self tapping screws to hold them to eachother, but had to do a little wire tying as well.

Then cap the end, and you are done.

Hope you understand. If I can do pictures it would be self explanatory. Please ask for any clarification you may need!

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 23, 2002.


Yep, electric fence is great. Except when you forget and touch it! ;)

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 24, 2002.

Sorry! I lied to you!!! The front to back measuremnts that work the BEST are 8'2". The side to side that work the best is 6'. I may be able to get pics tomorrow.

And yep, I hate when I touch my fence!

-- (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 25, 2002.


I think I've got the basic idea, but the pictures would really help. Thanks for the trouble.

-- Sharon in AL (Sharonspaws@aol.com), February 25, 2002.


I'm on goat butt duty (my coarse vernacular for waiting on the miracle of birth) this week, and the pics may take a bit of time as I have the stuff to do it at work and not here. I'll just post them on a seperate thread if it is closer to the weekend. The hardest part really is getting the panel bent up correctly, which I accomplished by pushing it against two posts and then wiring down the oppositte side, then lifting the panel over the Tposts and wiring them down. Then holding the tin in place. But if you have a helper this part will be easier too. I had to use wire to hold the top in position while I screwed the second panel to the first, etc.

-- Doreen (animalwaitress@yahoo.com), February 26, 2002.

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