Kimmi Woodmansee

We have a one acre pasture with 48" no climb perimeter fence with smooth wire along the bottom and 3-rail western dowels. We feel pretty comfortable with the exterior set-up. We are trying to figure out what to use for interior paddock fencing. We currently have one paddock set up with four strand electric fencing. Our 70 pound american guinea hog walked right through it with 14000 volts going. She did get shocked but it didn't seem to bother her enough to keep her from doing it repeatedly. The larger and calmer 120 lb hog respected it from day 1 (but he had it at his previous home). We are a bit worried about when we pick up our nigerian dwarf doeling next month. We need a new fence system. We plan to end up with our guinea hog breeding pair (including future piglets) and a nigerian dwarf doe and a lamancha or alpine doe (and their future kids) sharing these paddocks. To be clear, we will NOT have bucks. We are also definitely open to the idea of a farrowing/kidding pen to contain the smallest animals until they are ready for the paddocks. We really don't like having the electric fence if at all possible.



We have thrown around the idea of getting hog panels and putting a couple smooth strand wires above it to raise the height to 48" (to contain the full size goat). Do you think this would work? Would they just climb it?

We have considered 48" combination panels as well. This is a more expensive (though much simpler) option. Would it be better?

We have considered 50" cattle panels with chicken wire along the bottom 24" to make the holes smaller for the kids/piglets. Would chicken wire be strong enough?

Is there a forth option that would contain small pigs and goats all the way up to full sized does?



What do you all think our best, most economical option is? We really don't want to deal with escapees or broken fences. We will end up with about 700 feet of interior fencing.

(Also, with any option above, do we need the T-posts at 8' apart or could we do 16'?)

That's awesome info thanks! Do you pasture your pigs with any other animals? How big are your paddocks? How many pigs do you run in each paddock and for how long?

I am looking for someone selling a breeding pair of Guinea hogs in or around CO. I live in Northern Colorado in Loveland. I have looked at the AGH web site for registered breeders and have had no luck finding a breeding pair. Anyone know anyone selling AGHs?

Second I was looking to raise the AGH pair with a Nigerian Dwarf goat and a Alpine goat on a single acre pasture. I have water from a well and perimeter fencing of no climb horse fence but was wondering what the best fence option was for the rotational Paddocks. I was looking at eclectic netting from Premier 1. Anyone have any experience with them? which netting configuration did you use. Should I get the poutry netting with smaller holes or the goat netting with closer spaced posts and bigger holes. Or would T posts with different height Electric lines be better? There are a ton of options.

Any update on the pigs? were you able to breed them? where do you live in NE. I live in Loveland, CO and we are looking to buy a breeding pair of Guinea hogs. You have any for sale?

That is some great information! I really appreciate you taking the time to write that. We are super excited to start the adventure and know we will learn a ton along the way!

Our property is located in a rural portion of Loveland, CO. The neighbors have some animals of their own. Two horses and a goat on our pasture side and two horses on our house side of our property. The previous owners took great care of the property. He did not have animals though so he preferred the look of mowed pasture and would water the whole acre pasture then mow it down regularly (see Pics) He did let one section go to seed so you can see the potential of the pasture. The other pic is the fence I installed for the perimeter of the pasture. It also shows the pasture currently in winter. Keep in mind it was mowed through fall so that is why there is no growth. We have clay soil here and have a well house on the property for irrigation. We have a creek that runs through the property so the well house has a good supply of continuous water.

We understand that we will have to supplement the goats with feed and definitely a cow with feed (if we got one next year) but would it be possible or would the cow just ruin the pasture even with supplementing and regular rotating between the 5 paddocks?

What fence would you recommend for separating the paddocks? 48" No climb horse mesh like the perimeter but on on 4" wood posts with no rails, or 48" electric mesh on T posts, or electric strands?

If you haven't caught on by now we are complete nubbies to the country living. Could we rotated a couple pigs through the pasture at some point as well or would they just destroy it too fast?

My husband and I just recently purchased a two acre property. We have a one acre, well water irrigated, fenced pasture. We would love to get some goats for milk, yogurt, cheese, etc. We've been doing a TON of reading and have been talking to as many people as we can but still have some unanswered questions.

We would like to get a standard sized goat (leaning toward Lamancha or alpine) so that we can have a decent amount of milk and also a Nigerian to have some richer milk to play with for cheese making. We don't want to over burden our pasture, so we would like to limit the number of goats we have. I also imagine we'll keep a kid here and there and end up with more goats than we start with. We plan to divide the pasture into six paddocks and use one as a garden. That leaves us with 5 - 1/6 acre rotating areas (with a moveable shelter on skids.) I know goats like to browse more than graze so we plan to bring in supplemental branches from tree services if possible. I guess our questions are twofold:

1) Can we have a single Lamancha doe with a single Nigerian doe? What if one were a kid? Would the size difference be an issue? Would the baby try to nurse off the adult even if she were bottle fed? We were hoping to get the lamancha in milk and the Nigerian as a kid. Would the full size goat bully the little one? Would it matter if the full sized goat were a yearling as opposed to being older?

2) How long should we leave the goats in each area before rotating them in order to minimize parasites and protect the pasture? We hope to follow the goat section with a flock of chickens to clean up. We also are considering getting a cow to co-graze with the goats. Is that way too tight?

Is this even possible in our one acre pasture? Thanks!!