Hello. I have 14 goats and 8 sheep which I recently (6 weeks ago) put on a piece of land I have. I have two areas enclosed with good fencing (woven wire) which can contain goats and sheep. This gives me about 5 acres of enclosed area which they ate down fairly quickly. Following a friend's practice, I purchased electric netting and a charger to enclose other areas quickly and easily to move the animals around.
I bought electric netting from Amazon which is 42 inches tall and has small rectangular openings near the bottom, getting larger going up. I also purchased a fence charger from Amazon (
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BWZB74/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).%C2 If you ever used a fence charger without a solar charger and with an external car battery then you know that it sucks something awful. This fence charger is made in the USA, has an internal battery, and a built-on solar panel. It worked so well and I liked it so much, I bought 2 more "just in case I needed them". Since then, I have moved the netting around and needed 2 chargers (disconnected fencing) so it was worth buying the extras.
All my electric fencing eventually terminates at a fixed fence which is pipe driven into the ground. I connect the ground from the fence chargers to the fixed fence which works very well.
To my knowledge, none of the animals I have had ever been around electric fencing/netting before.
With all that said: they figured out what that fence was double quick. My friend grabbed one of the goats and put her nose on the fence but the others figured it out on their own and they all steer clear of it. This has been an effective way to contain both the sheep and the goats, with the goats, in my limited experience, being the harder to contain. We've tried to catch a couple of sheep on his place, contained with the electric net, and, even when chased, they will stay away from the netting.
The only problems I have had are: 1) a billy tried to mate one of the females and drove her into the fence. Thank God I was there to put the fence back up. Neither goat managed to escape, however, as once she got free, they both returned to the enclosed area rather than attempt to cross the downed fence. That occurred the first day I had them contained in the netting so they hadn't encountered the mesh before, I suspect. 2) I bought some of the cheaper netting which is about $130 or so for 164'. It has smaller rods supporting it than the more expensive stuff my friend bought (in 100' sections). These smaller rods a) have short spikes on the bottom which can be easily uprooted and b) are smaller in diameter and, therefore, bend kind of easily. This bending is a problem when curving the fence. The solution is to use some step-in electric fence posts which cost about $2 each (Amazon or Tractor Supply, with TSC being a little LESS expensive than the ones I bought from Amazon, same product, however).
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/step-in-poly-fence-post-48-in?cm_vc=-10005I use those to reinforce corners and whenever there is a run with a little sagging due to the terrain.
You can successfully enclose an area with electric fencing of some type and contain your goats. As stated by others, a good ground connection is necessary. I prefer the mesh over the tapes and wire, but that's just me. If you're doing a "permanent" electric fence, you may not want mesh. For temporary fencing, the netting is handy and fairly easy to move around.
Finally, be aware that there is "permanent" and "temporary" netting available. At least that's what I gather; some is, I presume, more resistant to UV damage for long-term installation. Also, there are "step-in" posts and "not step-in" posts. You will probably prefer the "step-in" style. Amazon is one place to purchase some of this netting, but you can look up something like "premier 1 sheep goat" and look at their site.
Hope this helps and best of luck to you.
--HC
