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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> What's the best fence to contain goats? Electric or barbed wire?

Barbed wire is useless unless you put it every four inches  and even then I 
bet they'd get out.

No fence (except Lynda's suggestion of a prison fence) will hold goats that 
don't want to be held.  The first thing is to make it so that their 
motivation 
to leave the perimeter is minimal, enough food, water, shade, etc.  They 
don't 
like to be in the rain and if a shelter is INside the fence, they are more 
reluctant to leave.

All you can do is somewhat discourage them from leaving.  High tensile is 
expensive and not necessary.  What we've found to work best is common 17 
gauge 
electric fence wire with the slack kept out of it by means of high tensile 
tensioners.  Those nylon tensioners for 17 ga fencing are useless.    Wires 
at 6" 
12" 24" 36" keeps them in.  We learned to rig the 6" and 24" wires as one 
circuit and the 12" and 36" wires as a second circuit so the latter could be 
disconnected from the charger grounded if the weather gets too dry and 
provide the 
other pole for the shock.

The fence also has a wire at 52" for the benefit of equines and bovines.

The goats will learn what the wire is and avoid it.  But if they want to go 
out badly enough, they will go out.   </HTML>