[Jacob-list] Fence questions

[Tom and Judy Riddolls]

whenever you move animals tha fencing becomes difficult if it is different.  
We had goats from very secure pasture put into three rail cedar they could 
have jumped over or walked through no problem but they just assumed that 
fences were impassable.  the lambs born here never go through our tighter 5 
cedar pole fence though they could with ease as mother never goes out, the 
page wire so far has kept the coyotes out.  We had problems with goats moved 
from electric to page when they noticed animals on the other side- something 
that never happened before they came here.  Also if given enough room i find 
they never challenge a fence, we have 9 sheep in 2-3 acres with lots of 
variation in the landscape (rock outcroppings and trees) that they never 
seem to tire of it.  They do seem to get bored of "exercise yards" when 
being fed hay and have limited space.

we don't have enough soil here to get a good ground for the electric fencer, 
if we use it we set it up in the spring, soak the 18" of soil around the 
ground rod and really zap the animals by pushing their noses into the wire, 
then they tend to stay away from it even after the soil goes bone dry and 
the fencer stops working.

also i have found that after an animal is here for a year it is hard to get 
them out of the pasture, they hate to leave and i have left the gate open 
before and had goats run out only to panic at the strange new environment 
and dart back into the barn without me doing anything. they certainly know 
where home is.

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