When we first purchased our ranch property we knew we had much to learn about raising animals in a rural setting. For four years prior we had been practicing "small space farming", keeping chickens, bees, rabbits and even a dairy goat on our tiny suburban lot. Our experience with predators had been limited to raccoons, opossums, skunks, hawks, and neighborhood cats. Now suddenly we had to learn how to keep our animals safe from coyotes, loose dogs, and mountain lions as well. We also knew it would be wise to learn about the land (drainage, wind patterns, etc.) before investing time and money into permanent fencing and structures. So we bought two alpacas as herd guardians, put up about an acre of goat fencing with T posts, built a mobile run-in shelter out of 2x4s and corrugated metal... and our learning process began.
We learned two things pretty quickly. First, our alpacas turned out to be extraordinary herd guardians. We saw evidence of coyotes all over our property, but never around the goat pen. The second thing we learned is that goat fencing, stretched by hand, and secured with T posts DOES NOT HOLD UP TO GOATS. It was beyond frustrating to work so hard putting in a fence only to see it look sloppy in a matter of weeks. It still kept the goats and alpacas in but it made the whole area look trashy. Unfortunately we did not have an immediate solution.
Over the course of the next few years we continued to add to our goat herd, add fencing, change fencing configurations, build a few more temporary shelters, and learn, learn, learn. Even our milking area was just a chain link dog kennel with a metal roof.
Although there were more than a few unpleasant aspects to our temporary farming methods, I am incredibly thankful that we waited so long to "go permanent". When we started building our permanent fencing and shelters we knew exactly what we wanted. We knew what configuration of pens would meet the needs of our herd, what type of shelters would be best for our needs, and exactly where to build them. And we had a tractor to help with post hole digging and fence stretching!
I had long admired this fence surrounding the gardens at Heather Farm park in Walnut Creek. I love the way it almost has an invisible look. Although our posts have to be closer together, and our wire has to have 4 inch holes rather than 6 inch in order to hold up to goats, we chose to use lodge poles to go for a similar look.
This is the front fence line of the Boer pen. We still need to finish adding the strands of barbed wire for added security. We are making four large pens with gates between: Boer Pen, Nigerian Summer Pen,Nigerian Winter Pen, and Buck Pen/ Back Field (more pictures to come). Each of the Nigerian pens have the option of splitting off smaller pens- for new families, separating babies from mamas, etc. We have found that hog panels work great for this purpose. They are super easy to put in with T posts and move around as needed and they are the perfect height to step over!
