Best fencing for "all" livestock combined

We are a small homestead with the typical menagerie - from a full sized horse down to mini goats as well as pigs, donkey, poultry, dogs. We may get a dairy cow evenually. We do not intend to ever have male animals that will seriously challenge fencing. We are planning to do 2x4 wire mesh no-climb fencing, h-braces at the end, t-posts between, and probably 2 strande of electric - one at pig level and one at goat level. Anything else that would work better? Anything that would work that would be cheaper?? We are looking at at least $1.50/ft to do this, which is crazy, but anything with bigger holes would let baby goats out. Thanks for any advice.

Katie Jarvis wrote:We are a small homestead with the typical menagerie - from a full sized horse down to mini goats as well as pigs, donkey, poultry, dogs. We may get a dairy cow evenually. We do not intend to ever have male animals that will seriously challenge fencing. We are planning to do 2x4 wire mesh no-climb fencing, h-braces at the end, t-posts between, and probably 2 strande of electric - one at pig level and one at goat level. Anything else that would work better? Anything that would work that would be cheaper?? We are looking at at least $1.50/ft to do this, which is crazy, but anything with bigger holes would let baby goats out. Thanks for any advice.

You are pretty much spot on.

I use field fence (known as Page Wire for many years), and it is a bit cheaper than 2 x 4 no climb fencing. I buy it at Tractor Supply for $179 a roll, 4 feet high, 330 feet long, high tensile. It has varying horizontal wire heights that are lower down bottom, and higher up top which keeps the cost down. It works well except for chickens and ducks that waddle or walk right through it. It also did not work well for our beef cows only because they liked to rub on the fence. A single strand of electric fence though will persuade them to rub elsewhere for very little money. It has also kept out coyotes for the past 9 years without a dog. That is kind of important because anything under 48 inches they will not compensate you for regarding livestock losses...in short, it is not considered coyote proof fencing.

If it sounds like it is less than ideal, then I probably have failed you, because honestly I would never use anything else. I have tried different fences and gotten everything from animals being in the road, to dead lambs from electrocution. With page wire, my sheep have not got out for 4 years now. It is costly, takes time to put up, but once it is up, those 3 days turn into 30 years of solid fence. Considering what it keeps out, as well as what it keeps in, it is VERY cheap fence in my opinion.

As for what I have versus 2 x 4 fence, I have no heart burn about using no-climb fence, but I have a LOT of acres under wire. If a you are only looking at 10 acres or so, then 2 x 4 no-climb would be better of course.

One other thing, deer love this fence. Deer can out-run coyotes, and they can scale a 48 inch fence, so on my farm anyway, if they can get over a fence of mine, it means they live because a coyote has to go way out of its way to find a spot where they can get in.

We were hoping to use field fencing but are worried about the mini goat kids getting out (they can be as small as 4 lbs)....because it is WAY cheaper, and what we have around our front yard. I'm glad to know the electric works well and that it's fairly coyote proof - we do have coyotes and foxes, although we may end up bringing the animals up at night anyway. Not sure yet. Thanks!

Katie Jarvis wrote:We were hoping to use field fencing but are worried about the mini goat kids getting out (they can be as small as 4 lbs)....because it is WAY cheaper, and what we have around our front yard. I'm glad to know the electric works well and that it's fairly coyote proof - we do have coyotes and foxes, although we may end up bringing the animals up at night anyway. Not sure yet. Thanks!

It may or may not be a problem. We are primarily sheep (no goats) and while the small ones can get out, a lamb comes back to its mother so we do not worry about lambs getting through the fence, because they always go back through. But that is sheep. Goats may be different.

Our biggest problem with little lambs is during lambing season in the winter and they are in the barn. We found putting up steel roofing on steel tube gates not only prevented lambs from getting out, but prevented drafts in the barn too. So be thinking about gates, because honestly that is 90% of where animals get in/get out.