Goat Climbing Fence: How Our Dwarf Goats Beat Woven Wire

When the Shipleys first got their Nigerian dwarf goats, the goats kept getting out, and nobody could work out how.

This was while Gray's granddad was still alive. The family spent days plugging gaps, closing holes and fixing the fence around the garden where the goats were kept. The goats kept turning up on the wrong side of it. So Gray went down to watch.

“I saw one of these goats climb a woven wire fence to get up high enough where it could squeeze its head through the square. It was only about 12 by 12.”

Gray Shipley

The goat climbed the wire like a ladder, put its head through a square about twelve inches by twelve, worked the rest of itself through, and jumped down on the other side.

“I was angry and proud at the same time. It was the most impressive display of athleticism I'd seen for a goat to climb a fence like that.”

Gray Shipley

That was the day, Gray says, the family accepted that these goats were simply too good to keep in that way.

Why goats climb fences

Goats are built to climb. In the wild their relatives live on cliffs and rocky slopes, and a domestic goat sees a fence the same way: a series of footholds with something interesting on the far side. Small goats like Nigerian dwarfs are light and nimble, which makes them better at it, not worse.

Goats jump as well as climb, and a fence they can reach the top of invites both. The same fixes work for either: wire stretched tight and tall, nothing to stand on near it, and a hot wire along the inside.

The same goes for pygmy goats and other mini breeds. Small goats need smaller openings, not a shorter fence, because being light makes them better climbers.

How to keep goats from escaping

Woven wire, also sold as field fence, can hold goats only if the openings are small. Ours had squares about 12 by 12 inches, big enough for a dwarf goat to climb the wire and push its head through, and that is how they got out.

There is no fence a determined goat respects, but some make it a lot harder. What people who keep goats generally rely on:

• Small openings. A square a goat can fit its head through is a square it will try to fit its body through. Smaller mesh, such as no-climb horse fence, gives them nothing to climb and nothing to squeeze through.
• Nothing to stand on. Move anything they can use as a step away from the fence line: feeders, carts, stumps, a parked tractor.
• Tight and tall. Sagging wire becomes a ramp. Keep it tight and high enough that a standing goat cannot reach the top.
• A hot wire. A strand of electric fence along the inside, at goat nose height, teaches most goats to stay back.
• A reason to stay. Goats with company, shelter, water and enough to eat test the fence less than bored ones.

What is the best fence for goats?

There is no single best goat fence, but the ones that work share the same traits: openings too small for a goat's head, wire kept tight with nothing to climb on, and often a hot wire inside. Small-mesh fence such as no-climb horse fence is a common choice.

And when one does get out, do not chase it. Gray's rule for every animal on the farm is the same, and Cattle on the Road explains why.