Every spring we experience a strange illness among our hoofed livestock. They all get the sillies and flush with spring and all it’s green, they go nuts. Suddenly, they are ninjas and super heros and able to sneak around and leap fences and just generally be very naughty. They push the limits of our patience with daily breakouts. It’s a case of the inmates running the asylum. And it’s super frustrating.
They always point out the failings of our fencing infrastructure. The low spots where the fence has sagged or something has damaged it. They become amazing leaping athletes! Cruising over fences that you would never imagine they could jump! The little lambs squeeze through the smallest openings to be disobedient to their bawling mothers on the other side of the fence.
So we decided to have a big sale (thanks!) and raise a little extra funds to go pro. Yes, cattle panels!
If you don’t know what cattle panels are, you are missing out on one of the coolest fencing and project parts around. They are sixteen foot long, welded rigid wire panels, about fifty three inches tall and darn near escape proof. They don’t bend or sag, they are tough! Yes, some small lambs can sneak through the 4 x 4 squares of the fence, but not for long. A little chicken wire during lambing time will stop them, if need be. Out of all our lambs this year, only one figured out how to get through a cattle panel. And even then, he would just hang right around the fence because his mom couldn’t fit!
Around here, cattle panels are about $20. Sometimes on sale, for as little as $18, or fancier ones for about $22. You can get them at any farm store. We got ours from Tractor Supply. The biggest problem with cattle and hog panels is how to get them home! Being sixteen feet, they are a little unwieldy. However, we have found they are light enough and open to the wind that if you tie them down well on top of a truck or van, you can get them home pretty easily. We got 8 panels home like this!
The only situation is that the back end tends to wobble up and down. A friend told us that if you have a couple 10 or 12 foot 2 x 4s, you can slip them under the panels and tie into the bundle. It ill make it very rigid and prevent that weird wobbling effect. Our van is just long enough that we didn’t have too much of a problem. We drove the back roads home just to be safer.
Now, to be very fair, part o the problem is our hillbilly engineering and budget minded fencing disasters. The above picture is what NOT to do with goat fencing. Sheep, yeah, maybe, but if there are goats around, they will mess with this and escape in a heart beat. Part of the problem is that fencing instructions in how to farming books are not always very helpful. They seem to make life on the farm easy and foolproof with simple instructions. My favorite was “sheep never test fences”… hahahaha! Yeah, well, mine do all the time, every day. They lean on them, rub against them, step on them and just generally examine and watch for any opportunity to check out the greener, other side. What else do they have to do all day long?
Part of the reason we had to get this done was that the goats managed to escape and then jump into the chicken run and totally destroy all the netting over it and let our hens out! And then they proceeded to get tangled up in the netting and stand there bawling for help. I think Maggie was considering leaving them on the side of the road somewhere, far, far away. But being goats, they wouldn’t mind. More goodies to eat!
You can see how much stronger the cattle panels look in that above picture as well. Just cleaner, nicer and stronger! Yah! My favorite type of fence now. I think we will continue to replace aging, failing fence with panels as we can afford them. Maybe try and budget five a month? Something like that. It would be a good thing. A very good thing!
As you can see… nice and tall, strong and tidy. I love it!
We are going to be putting more slab wood boards on the front part of the paddock, to make it cute and just help to keep the panels nice and rigid. I think it’s kind of neat looking and we have a nice stash of them.
But that is another project for another day! Right now, we are working on just keeping the little boogers IN! And secure. And safe. 
Her highness, Princess Buttercup, is not pleased with the new work. She likes being able to leap the fences and come and go through her kingdom on her whims. I’m afraid she’s going to misjump and break her neck or catch a leg and break it! Silly goat. She is really the instigator of many of the naughty behaviors. I just can’t bear to get rid of her though. And she refuses to wear a pool noodle.
But I think we have solved the problem. She can’t jump over a cattle panel. It’s just too high.
On a blog that I like to read, the lady created a little visiting area for guests to hug and pet her donkeys! I just loved that idea. Right now, when we have visitors, often the flock will avoid them or mob them, either is unpleasant. But I got to thinking… if I had a little visiting area, it would make it less of a mob scene and I could easily train them all to come there for treats! And I can decorate it cute with a few little signs and some paint. I had these two nice solid panels and I thought they would work splendidly! And they do!
And since the two row fence next to this place was a easy jump for Buttercup, we added a third higher bar to make that impossible for her. Rather than fill it in with fence, between the second and third bar, we left it open in that one area. So adults and taller children can feed those that like to jump up. (Goats… if you are wondering….) It’s so perfect! Maggie is showing us how it works. Now we have a little visiting area! I think it would be nice to add a bench or a few sitting spots as well. I’m sure this area is going to evolve! It will be fun!
Hopefully, we have solved the problem. So far, 24 hours, no escapees. In fact, they are all slightly annoyed and angry with us. Which serves them right. They have been annoying to us for several days as they all acted badly. We will let them out to graze the middle yard and their weed patch, but under our terms. We already expanded the paddock in the back, under the trees, earlier. They should be happy about that. And they better stay out of the chicken coop run!
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