How To Keep Goats From Escaping (Explained!)

We had a bit of a scare on the homestead the other day: some of the goats escaped.

It seems like one went first, and then a couple of the others followed.

Some of them were good, and stayed home—probably wondering what the others were doing leaving their comfort and food!

It got us all a bit rattled, though, as this has never happened before.

We got them all back and everyone was just fine, but we were naturally concerned about how we could stop this from happening again.

If your fencing is robust enough, your goats will never be able to escape in the first place.

They have a naturally very curious will, and often want to escape the fencing just to get at some better forage they can see or smell.

Let’s look further into this.

Why do my goats keep escaping?

The first reason is that goats are just quite intrepid.

By their nature, they are roamers and foragers, and they tend to spend their time looking around for good things to eat.

This means there will always be, to some extent, a drive to travel further afield.

Look at the reasons they are actually able to escape, then.

Most commonly, this is going to be due to inadequate fencing.

Goats are much better jumpers and climbers than you might imagine—even more so for smaller breeds like dwarf goats and pygmies.

They can jump really high and climb high too, it being much easier for lower body weight.

There might also be somewhere they’re getting underneath the fence.

This is less likely, but still possible, so do a sweep of the perimeter of the fence.

Make sure there’s nowhere they might be slipping under.

If this isn’t the case, though, how can I stop them from getting out?

How do I stop my goat from jumping the fence?

There is a natural first solution: taller fencing.

Goats can jump high, but there is obviously a limit to how high they can jump.

Ideally, you should have fence posts that are eight feet high.

The fence should extend six or seven feet high.

Very few goats will be able to jump six feet in the air!

But goats can be quite heavy animals, and they are likely to spend a lot of time rubbing themselves against the posts.

So, the posts need to be sturdy enough to handle this without toppling over.

Make sure they are laid at least two feet deep.

Space the posts around eight to ten feet apart.

This will give you a nice, strong fence that even the heaviest goat could knock down.

You can also use metal posts, instead of wooden ones.

This will give you an even stronger foundation, that will last a lot longer than a wooden fence will.

That said, a robust and sturdy wooden fence will still do the job.

So, which type of fence is best?

What type of fencing is best for goats?

Generally, the advice is that woven wire fencing is best for goats.

It is more expensive than other options, like wood, but it will last longer and is more economical on smaller homesteads and pastures.

Woven wire fencing, with sturdy, metal posts, will withstand all kinds of goat rowdiness you could think of—climbing, pushing, anything.

That said, if you’re on a tighter budget, then wooden fencing will do you just fine.

Again, you’ve just got to be a bit more careful about how its built.

You also need to be sure that the gaps aren’t big enough for the goats to get their heads stuck in—though this is also a problem for woven wire, too.

If you haven’t yet put up your fence at all, you may be wondering whether you can simply let your goats roam free.

Many chicken farmers do this, and the chickens always come home at night—but is it the same for goats?

Can I let my goats roam free?

Unfortunately, no, you can’t. as I’ve said, goats are roaming creatures by nature.

In the wild, they have rather large ranges that they travel across in order to find food, and they very rarely sleep in the same place for more than one night.

If you let them roam free, they will just wander off.

They won’t have the instinct to come back to their pasture or stable, and you’ll just end up losing them all the time.

You need to have a fence and an appropriately sized pasture for goats to live in.

If you let your goats roam free, you will not have any goats in the morning!

Goats are adventurous animals, and by their nature, they like to roam around looking for food.

This will often mean they want to escape their pasture to get something they can see beyond it, or just for the sake of the trip.

Keeping them in is fairly simple, though, as long as you’re willing to invest in their enclosures.

A high fence, with deep foundations, and corner posts on the outside to stop them from climbing, and you should have no problem with escaping goats.