How to Build an Electric Fence for a Goat

Clear the fence line. Remove all stones and underbrush. Use a weed eater or push mower to cut along the path and further shorten the grass along the proposed line of your electric fence, thus reducing chances of having your wires ground out.

Install your fence corner posts. Dig a 3- to 4-foot hole with your post hole digger for each corner post. Position your first corner post firmly in the first hole and place your level on top of the post to make sure it is flat. Pound the loose dirt into the hole around the pole using your tamping rod. Leave the dirt piled up about 6 inches around the pole so rain water will run away from the pole's base. Repeat this process for each of the remaining corner posts. Tie a string to your first corner post and run it around the perimeter of your fence, securing it to each corner post.

Using the string as your guide, install line posts. Position your posts 18 to 24 feet apart. Alternating steel T-posts with 3- or 5-inch-diameter pressure-treated wooden posts provides a secure, economical fence line for your electric goat fence. Install the wooden line posts just as you installed the corner posts in Step 2. Hammer your steel T-posts in with a post driver.

Position corner insulators. Locate your terminal plastic insulators (on each corner post) approximately 6 to 8 inches apart, with the lowest insulator about 6 inches from the ground. Gail Damerow, author of "Your Goats," suggests that the best height for your goat fence is approximately 48 inches. Install enough insulators for 7 or 8 wires, since that will provide the maximum security for your goats.

String the wire and position the line insulators. Insert your wire through the bottom insulator on your first corner post and run it to the next corner post. Install the insulators on the line posts, using nail-on insulators for the wooden posts and snap-on insulators around the steel T-posts, then thread the wire through the insulators. Stretch the wire tight at the second corner before tying it off and repeating the process for the next sets of corner posts. Once you have finished running the bottom wire around the perimeter of your fence, repeat the entire process for each of the remaining 6 or 7 wires.

Attach the energized wires to one another using insulated cable at the corner post closest to your energizer unit (fence charger). Charge every other wire, including the bottom wire. Use wire cutters to snip a piece of insulated cable that is long enough to reach from the bottom wire to the third-from-the-bottom wire. Slice through the insulation at both ends with a knife (about 2 inches from ends). Strip the insulation at both ends and securely wrap one end of the exposed wire around the lowest wire and the other end around the third wire. Repeat this process to connect the third and fifth wires to each other and to connect the fifth and seventh wire to each other. This leaves your second, fourth, sixth and (if you chose to do an eight-wire fence) eighth wires grounded.

Connect the energized wires to the energizer unit. Cut a strip of insulated cable that is long enough to reach from your top energized wire to the energizer unit. Strip the cable from both ends, then wrap one end of the exposed wire around the top energized wire close to the corner post. Wrap the other end of the exposed wire around the positive terminal of your energizer unit.

Check the energized wires to ensure that they are all connected to one another and are not touching the grounded wires. Plug in and turn on your energizer unit.