8 Supplies for Setting Up a Secure Sheep and Goat Fence

There’s a unique kind of quiet that comes with knowing your animals are safe, and for sheep and goat owners, that peace of mind starts and ends with the fenceline. A flimsy fence is an open invitation for escape artists and a welcome mat for predators. Building a truly secure perimeter isn’t about luck; it’s about using the right materials and the right techniques from the very first post.

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Key Considerations Before You Build Your Fence

Before you buy a single roll of wire, walk your planned fenceline. Think about water flow, trees that might drop limbs, and where you need gates for easy access with a wheelbarrow or tractor. Proper planning saves immense frustration later. A straight, clear fenceline is easier to build, easier to stretch, and easier to maintain.

Sheep and goats present unique fencing challenges. Sheep, with their thick wool, can be surprisingly insulated from electric shocks and will test a fence by leaning and pushing. Goats are notorious escape artists; they will climb, jump, or squeeze through any perceived weakness. This means your fence needs to be tall, tight, and constructed with materials that don’t offer easy footholds or create entanglement hazards.

Woven Wire Fencing – Red Brand Non-Climb Horse Fence

The fence fabric is your primary barrier, and woven wire is the undisputed champion for containing small livestock. It provides a physical obstacle that can’t be easily pushed through or broken. Its strength comes from the interconnected vertical and horizontal wires, which distribute pressure across a wide area when an animal pushes against it.

The Red Brand 48-inch Non-Climb Horse Fence is the ideal choice, even for sheep and goats. The key is its 2" x 4" mesh spacing. This tight weave prevents determined goats from getting a hoof-hold to climb and, more importantly, stops both sheep and goats from sticking their heads through the fence—a common and dangerous cause of injury or death. The Class 3 galvanized finish ensures it will stand up to decades of weather without rusting through.

Before you buy, measure your perimeter and calculate the number of rolls needed. A standard roll is 100 feet long. While cheaper "field fence" with larger openings is tempting, the cost savings aren’t worth the risk of a trapped animal or a successful escape. This is a foundational investment in your animals’ safety.

Wood Corner Posts – YellaWood Pressure Treated Pine Post

Your entire fence’s strength relies on its corners. These are the anchor points that will bear hundreds of pounds of tension from the stretched wire. Skimping here is a recipe for a sagging, failed fence within a year. Wood posts provide the mass and rigidity that steel T-posts simply cannot offer for this critical job.

A YellaWood 6-inch diameter, 8-foot long pressure-treated pine post is the perfect anchor. The 6-inch diameter provides substantial strength to resist bowing under tension, and the 8-foot length allows you to bury a full 3 feet in the ground for stability while leaving 5 feet above ground. YellaWood’s pressure treatment is rated for ground contact, protecting the post from rot and insects for years.

These posts are essential for all corners, ends, and any significant change in direction. They are also the only suitable choice for hanging a heavy gate. To achieve maximum strength, they must be set in concrete and braced properly, typically with an H-brace assembly. This isn’t a place to cut corners—a solid brace assembly is what allows you to properly tension your woven wire.

Steel T-Posts – Bekaert Heavy-Duty Studded T-Post

Between your sturdy wood corner posts, you need line posts to hold the woven wire upright and maintain spacing. Steel T-posts are the standard for this role because they are cost-effective, fast to install, and durable. They provide the vertical support that keeps the fence from being pushed over or trampled down.

The Bekaert Heavy-Duty Studded T-Post (1.33 lbs/foot) is the right tool for the job. The "heavy-duty" rating is crucial; lighter posts will bend when a 150-pound goat decides to use it as a scratching post. Bekaert’s posts are made from high-quality rail steel and feature a durable enamel coating. The studs along the post give you flexible attachment points for your fence clips, ensuring the wire is held securely.

Plan to space your T-posts every 10 to 12 feet in straight runs. You’ll attach the woven wire to them using T-post clips, which are sold separately. While they are strong vertically, T-posts have no resistance to side-pull, which is why they can only be used as line posts and never for corners or ends.

Setting Your Posts for Maximum Strength and Longevity

The longevity of your fence is determined the day you set the posts. A perfectly stretched wire on a weak foundation will fail. Your wood corner and brace posts are the most critical element. Dig your post holes at least 3 feet deep and set the posts in concrete. This creates an unmovable anchor that will resist the immense tension of the fence wire and the force of the changing seasons.

Once your corner assemblies are set and the concrete has cured, run a taut string line between them at ground level and again at the top. This is your guide for setting the T-posts. It ensures a perfectly straight fenceline, which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also structurally sound. Drive your T-posts along this line to the proper depth—look for the anchor plate to be just below the soil surface. A straight, well-set line of posts makes the job of stretching and attaching the wire ten times easier.

T-Post Driver – SpeeCo Heavy Duty T-Post Driver

Driving dozens of steel T-posts into the ground with a sledgehammer is exhausting, dangerous, and results in bent posts. A T-post driver is a simple, purpose-built tool that makes the job faster, safer, and more effective. It’s a weighted, hollow steel tube with two handles that you place over the post, lift, and drop, using its own weight to drive the post into the ground.

The SpeeCo Heavy Duty T-Post Driver is an excellent choice for the small farm. Its heavier weight and robust handles mean you do less work with each stroke. The tool’s momentum does the hard part, saving your back and shoulders. It’s a purely mechanical tool with no moving parts to break, so one purchase will last a lifetime.

Using a driver is straightforward, but requires a good rhythm. Wear sturdy gloves and safety glasses. Let the weight of the driver do the work; don’t try to force it down. This tool is ideal for anyone installing up to a hundred posts. For massive projects, a hydraulic or pneumatic driver is faster, but for a typical pasture, this manual driver is the perfect balance of cost and efficiency.

Fence Stretcher – Maasdam Pow’R-Pull Fence Stretcher

Woven wire fence must be stretched tight. A loose fence will sag, get tangled, and fail to contain animals. The only way to achieve the necessary tension is with a mechanical stretcher, often called a come-along. This tool gives you the leverage to pull the wire taut before permanently attaching it to the corner posts.

The Maasdam Pow’R-Pull is a reliable and powerful come-along that is well-suited for fence work. Paired with a fence stretcher bar (a separate but essential accessory that grips the wire evenly), it allows you to apply slow, controlled tension across the entire height of the fence. Its ratchet mechanism holds the tension while you work, allowing you to staple the wire to the post securely.

Stretching fence is a two-person job. One person operates the come-along while the other watches the wire and prepares to attach it. The goal is to remove the slack and slightly compress the tension crimps built into the horizontal wires, but not to stretch them flat. Over-tightening can snap wires or put too much strain on your corner posts. This tool has a learning curve, but mastering it is the key to a professional-looking and effective fence.

Tube Gate – Priefert 6-Bar Economy Tube Gate

Every pasture needs a gate, and it needs to be as secure as the fence itself. A good gate is easy for you to operate but impossible for your livestock to open or damage. Tube gates are the standard for farm use, offering an excellent combination of strength, visibility, and longevity.

The Priefert 6-Bar Economy Tube Gate is a fantastic option for sheep and goat pastures. The 6-bar design provides good height (50.5 inches), discouraging even the most athletic goats from attempting to jump it. Priefert is known for quality welds and a durable powder-coat finish that resists rust. The "Economy" line provides all the necessary strength for small livestock without the extra weight and cost of a heavy-duty bull gate.

When ordering, measure the opening, not the gate itself. A 12-foot gate fits a 12-foot opening. The post you hang the gate on (the hinge post) must be a substantial wood post, at least 6-8 inches in diameter and well-braced, to support the gate’s weight without sagging over time.

Adding an Electric Offset Wire for Extra Security

A woven wire fence provides the physical barrier, but an electric wire provides the psychological one. By adding one or two "hot" wires on offset insulators, you teach animals to stay away from the fenceline entirely. This simple addition dramatically increases the effectiveness of your fence, stops animals from leaning or rubbing on the woven wire (which extends its life), and serves as a powerful secondary deterrent for predators like coyotes or stray dogs.

The ideal placement for goats is one wire set at about nose height and another higher up, around chest height. For sheep, a single wire at nose height is often sufficient. These wires are mounted on offset insulators, which hold the hot wire several inches away from the main fence. This prevents the fence from grounding out the electric charge and creates a clear, startling boundary that animals learn to respect after one or two inquisitive zaps.

Electric Fence Wire – Zareba Polywire Electric Fence Wire

The wire you use for your electric offset needs to be highly visible and conductive. You want animals to see it and associate the wire with the shock. This is where polywire excels over traditional steel wire. It’s a woven blend of plastic and metal filaments, making it both strong and easy to handle.

Zareba Polywire is a great all-around choice. It typically comes in bright white or yellow, making it stand out clearly against the background of your woven wire fence and pasture. The multiple strands of stainless steel conductor woven into the poly rope ensure a consistent charge along the fenceline. It’s lightweight, easy to tighten by hand, and can be quickly repaired if it breaks.

Remember, polywire is for the psychological barrier, not for physical containment. It’s installed on offset insulators attached to your T-posts and wood posts. It doesn’t need to be stretched with heavy equipment, just pulled taut enough to prevent sagging. This is the perfect wire for training animals and adding that critical extra layer of security.

Fence Energizer – Gallagher S40 Solar Fence Energizer

The fence energizer, or charger, is the heart of your electric fence system. It takes power from a source (battery, solar, or AC outlet) and converts it into a safe, high-voltage, pulsed electrical charge. The size and type of energizer you need depends on the length of your fence and your access to power.

For a pasture that isn’t near a barn or outlet, the Gallagher S40 Solar Fence Energizer is an incredibly practical solution. This all-in-one unit combines a solar panel, a rechargeable battery, and the energizer into a single, portable package. The S40 puts out 0.40 joules of energy, which is plenty of power for a multi-acre perimeter on a small farm. Gallagher is a top-tier brand known for reliability and performance.

To work effectively, any energizer must be connected to a proper ground rod. A 6- to 8-foot galvanized steel rod driven into the earth is essential. Without a good ground, the circuit can’t be completed, and the animal won’t feel a shock. The S40’s solar design means you can mount it directly to a T-post in a sunny spot and have a 24/7 psychological barrier protecting your flock.

Final Checks and Ongoing Fence Maintenance

Once the last clip is on and the gate is hung, your job isn’t quite done. The most important final step is to walk the entire fenceline, inside and out. Look for any gaps at the bottom where a lamb or kid could slip through, especially in dips or uneven terrain. Check that every T-post clip is secure and that the gate latches firmly.

A good fence requires routine maintenance. Walk the perimeter at least once a month. Check for any sagging wires, broken insulators, or tree limbs that have fallen on the fence. Most importantly, keep the electric offset wire clear of weeds and grass. Heavy vegetation will ground out the wire and drain the energizer’s power, rendering it useless. A few minutes of maintenance each month ensures your significant investment in time and materials continues to provide peace of mind for years to come.

Building a secure fence is one of the most satisfying projects on a small farm. It’s a tangible line of defense that lets your animals thrive and allows you to rest easy. With the right supplies and a methodical approach, you can build a perimeter that will stand strong for a generation.