Shorn and Jack
Surprise! Jack and Shorn are my two year old Angora goats.
Instead of going to college, I will be staying at home and doing college online through College Plus. Two weeks ago Dad reminded me that I will have to earn the money for my tuition and that I will be starting college next year. Earning the money for a full college tuition in one year sounded like a fun challenge. The last couple weeks I have been pricing out animals. Dad and I were looking on Craigslist for goats, and happened to find these. I was only looking for milk goats, but I liked the idea of raising these for their fiber. After visiting a local fiber mill and doing some research about the price of mohair, I decided to buy them. This afternoon Dad, Thomas, Pierce and Lucas put up an electric fence for the goats in two hours. I decided to name the younger one Shorn because it was already partially shorn, and because there was a similar looking sheep in Wallace & Grommet named Shorn. I couldn't figure out what to name the older one, but after a little while I added a line to the poem This is the House that Jack Built about Here is the sheep all white and shorn. So I named the older one Jack. Jack has been pretty friendly, but Shorn doesn't let anyone near him. Shorn prances around, looks at us, and tosses his head as he runs away to a far corner of the pen, while Jack comes up to get petted and fed.
Instead of going to college, I will be staying at home and doing college online through College Plus. Two weeks ago Dad reminded me that I will have to earn the money for my tuition and that I will be starting college next year. Earning the money for a full college tuition in one year sounded like a fun challenge. The last couple weeks I have been pricing out animals. Dad and I were looking on Craigslist for goats, and happened to find these. I was only looking for milk goats, but I liked the idea of raising these for their fiber. After visiting a local fiber mill and doing some research about the price of mohair, I decided to buy them. This afternoon Dad, Thomas, Pierce and Lucas put up an electric fence for the goats in two hours. I decided to name the younger one Shorn because it was already partially shorn, and because there was a similar looking sheep in Wallace & Grommet named Shorn. I couldn't figure out what to name the older one, but after a little while I added a line to the poem This is the House that Jack Built about Here is the sheep all white and shorn. So I named the older one Jack. Jack has been pretty friendly, but Shorn doesn't let anyone near him. Shorn prances around, looks at us, and tosses his head as he runs away to a far corner of the pen, while Jack comes up to get petted and fed.
I wasn't sure what else to write about them, but then... we found that the goats walked straight through the fence. If you touch the individual wires you don't get shocked, but if you touch the two middle ones at the same time you get shocked pretty hard (I tested it out). Mom heard the goats making a lot of noise, and asked me to check on them. The noise was from when the goats got shocked going through the fence. When I went outside Dad was trying to get a hold of their horns, which they definitely didn't like. They ended up walking around our house, through the one cultivated garden, up to the edge of the pool. Dad was able to get Jack's horns, and I held Jack still while Dad caught Shorn. Dad ended up tying them to a tree in the middle of their pen for the night.
We think that the wool insulates them, weakening the shock of the fence. Tomorrow we will attempt to shear them, so that they (hopefully) won't go through the fence again.
Shorn
Lauren Ashley
make sure your ground rod is very wet and that the ground along the inside of the fence is wet... then they will get a good shock whether they are shorn or not. The other problem is that they have to be trained to the fence. If they are able to go forward they will do so even when shocked. Remember the training pen I showed you when you visited? That has a physical barrier outside of the electric fence so they have to back up when shocked. Best of luck and feel free to call if you have any questions.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteI think they got shocked pretty hard after it started raining, since then they haven't gotten near it. I think they learned their lesson. :)
Those goats! They just got out and came around to the back porch to watch us through the window!
ReplyDeleteWe have a solar charger hooked up to the fence and it has been cloudy, so the shock isn't very strong. We'll definitely be making a training pen soon.
It takes a 4000-5000 volt shock to keep in goats and sheep, so be sure to test that you have enough "pop" running through the fence at all times.. goats will continually test it.
ReplyDelete