Fences

Our fences are old. Some of them are thirty years old, some only twenty and a few interior fences, dividing one pasture into two, are only ten years old. But our fences are failing.

All but one of our exterior fences are woven wire stock fencing stapled onto wooden fence posts. The woven wire is designed with smaller openings on the bottom (2” high by 6” wide) and larger openings on the top (up to 6” by 6”). This clever design is to keep animals from sticking their heads through the fence and getting stuck and in the process destroying the fence. This clever design works really well for sheep, but not so well for goats. The goats put a lot of pressure on our fences.
We practice rotational grazing which means that the animals are restricted to one small pasture until they have cleaned it up and then are moved to another small pasture, repeating this schedule all summer long. This means that the best tasting grass is always in the next pasture and the goats are smart enough to know that, so they stick their heads through the fences to eat the fresh grass on the other side.

Over the years we’ve repaired a lot of holes in fences.

We also have one strand of barbed wire at the base of each exterior fence and two strands at the top, to keep dogs and coyotes out of our pastures and our animals in. Our interior fences don’t have barbed wire anywhere. They were made by stretching four foot high woven wire stock fencing onto metal fence posts designed for the purpose. Those metal posts worked well for about twenty years and then we began to run into problems.

After awhile, the wire began to sag. The four foot high fence became a three foot high fence in the middle between some posts. The sheep don’t often jump a fence; the goats reliably do. Every time a goat jumped a fence, she dragged a little on the woven wire. The fence got even lower. The sag combined with the patched holes meant that the fence was no longer stretched. It became increasingly easier for goats to force holes in the fence with their heads, then their shoulders and finally their entire bodies. Once the goats had made holes, the lambs followed. A good mother will follow her lamb anywhere, so the ewes followed the lambs.

Some of our fences are completely porous to animals. It’s been a hassle, but not a catastrophe on the interior fences until Bucklet, the cute, tiny ,bottle kid we added to our flock last year, became sexually mature. Yesterday we moved Bucklet and Winthrop the ram to the farthest pasture from the ewes and the goats and the lambs. By the time Dave had walked back across three pastures to the lamb pasture, Bucklet and Winthrop had rejoined him. We collected our fencing supplies and moved the two males back to their pasture. Then we wove wire and stapled until we were sure the hole was closed.

They rejoined us five minutes later. We led them back to their pasture and spent half an hour actually inspecting the fence and checking for all possible holes. The males were back with the lambs by lunch time. We left them there. The lambs are too small to get pregnant yet, and the ewes are still two pastures away in a well fenced pasture and we need a little breathing room to figure out what to do next.

We have walked every foot of our fence line in the last month. It looks thirty years old. We were thirty something when we first learned how to fence. Now at sixty something it seems a much bigger job. Maybe that’s why farmers retire, they can’t bear the thought of refencing.

Bucklet

Bucklet was born last March. His mother died shortly after his birth, so Bucklet became a bottle kid. We bonded with him immediately. He was affectionate, cute, and tiny. He maaed mournfully when we left him in the barnyard after feeding him. He spent most of his time with Ditsy Baby, another bottle animal, and in general, hung out with forty sheep and four does.
We only keep male animals in two situations, one as a vasectomized teaser to get the females cycling together, or two as a breeding male. With only four does, we didn’t need a teaser, but we did need a breeding buck, so we decided to keep Bucklet. He grew slowly. I wasn’t sure if he’d be tall enough or mature enough to breed the does come fall. The does spent September hanging out at the fence between their pasture and the ram pasture. I didn’t think they could be bred through the fence. But eventually they stopped hanging out at the fence line.
By November, Bucklet had changed, like a young man, spitting and swaggering as he entered puberty. He didn’t spit but he did swagger and he developed an even more disturbing habit. He urinated on his face and front legs. Adult bucks also stick their heads in a doe’s urine stream to see if she is in heat. No wonder male goats are known for their horrid odor.
When we put Winthrop the ram and Bucklet the buck in with the females, Bucklet seemed to have no interest in the does; he mounted sheep after sheep. He mounted sheep from the front, from the side, and occasionally from the proper position in the back. But he was fortunately too short and of the wrong breed to impregnate my sheep.
Over a month later, he began following the does. Perhaps he had figured out sex while practicing on his sheep friends and was now sure enough of himself to take his place as dominant male in his goat flock.
We returned Winthrop and Bucklet to the ram pasture in mid-December. They had been with their females for two heat cycles, so we should have a good percentage of pregnant animals. Three weeks later, Winthrop went over the fence and Bucklet went through the fence back into the barnyard. We wrestled them back onto the ram pasture and reinforced the fences. Did they leave because their ladies were in heat or because we hadn’t fed them first?
We won’t know how many animals are pregnant or how well our new breeding males have done until lambing begins in April. I can hardly wait until then.