 Electric fence is a must for keeping goats on pasture: keeping them and our livestock guardian dogs in, AND keeping predators out.
As good as electric fence is, it isn't foolproof. Sometimes it's not working as well as it could be. The only way you might not know is if... hmm... a goat breaks out of your paddock fence, or you find one of your livestock guardian dogs roaming the whole pasture. Thank goodness for perimeter fence! (Learn how we use permanent, perimeter fence and temporary paddock fencing in this article). So how do I know if the fencer is working like it should be? I will look at the fencer itself (see picture below) and check to see if it's fully energized, with the lights flashing all the way up to green. If it's not something could be grounding it out. But, do I always want to run back to the barn and troubleshoot? No. So, enter in one of my favorite grazing / electric fencing tools -- a fence tester. I have the Fault Finder by Gallagher. When I suspect the fence might not be as hot as usual, or not even on at all, I'll take out the Fault Finder and test the fence. It will show the KV running through the fence, and if there's a grounding issue it will point an arrow to direct you in the direction it's at. It gives me a general idea of where to check the fence to look for down trees, areas where deer may have knocked down the top high tensile wire and it's now touching the woven wire, or other issues. These tend to be my most common issues. I also like to use the fence tester when I'm running more temporary fence than usual, or running temporary fence outside of our permanent fenced in pasture. These are instances where I want to be especially certain the fence is HOT. The more electric wire I put on my energizer, the greater odds it might drop the KV. Usually, in these instances, I might also need to do more trimming or knocking down grass and brush to make sure there's no other grounding issues, which impact how hot the fence is. If you're going to use electric fence and graze, this is a tool to have. There are several options out there to choose from. I happened to use Gallagher's Fault Finder since I use a lot of their fencing products and have been happy with the quality and performance. if you're interested in learning more about more of my favorite goat things and how we’re raising meat goats on pasture, join our online community for raising goats for meat here.
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 I’m honored, and a bit humbled, to share that I’m featured in the most recent issue of the Rural Route magazine, which goes out to farm families and others involved in agriculture in Wisconsin. You can read the full article here to learn more about how I got started raising meat goats in western Wisconsin. The magazine also featured a number of grilling recipes in the Farm Flavor section from my personal food Instagram account: @GrillingLikeSteven You can check those below. My food account follows my grilling and smoking adventures, mostly following recipes and cooking techniques from one of our family favorite grilling gurus / personalities, Steven Raichlen of the Barbecue Bible. He is also a regular on PBS. If you’re on Instagram give my farm a follow at @CylonRollingAcres, and if you like a good food feed add my “fun” handle at @GrillingLikeSteven.  If you want to see the whole magazine, click here to read it.
 To make your gyros complete, tzatziki (pronounced Zatsiski) sauce is a must. You might be able to buy it in the store, but if you can’t or want to make it from scratch here’s a quick way to make your gyro sauce: Tzatziki Sauce – the Gyro Sauce ½ cucumber 8 oz. of Greek yogurt (not a fan of yogurt, sub with sour cream) 1 tbs. lemon juice ½ tsp sea salt ½ tsp black pepper 1 tsp dried dill (or 1 tbs chopped, fresh dill) 2 ½ tsp of minced garlic from a jar (or fresh if desired) Directions
Order your goat gyro meat from Cylon Rolling Acres here. For more goat meat recipes, cooking tips, promotions, and to know when goat meat is available, sign up for our email list here.   I love making fresh naan flat bread when we have gyros at home. It makes such a big difference in the whole gyro experience vs using pita bread or even store-bought flat bread. Here’s my go-to recipe for flat bread from scratch. And, yes, it is easy. It’s even easier if you have a bread machine (or your parents have one or you find one at a thrift store). If you’re tight on time naan from the store will work just fine. Easy Naan Flat Bread for Gyros Recipe Makes 6 flat breads. Perfect for gyros fresh from your kitchen. I love using our own Cylon Rolling Acres goat gyro meat, which you can also use by ordering it here. Ingredients 1 tbs olive oil ½ c Greek yogurt ½ c milk 2 c flour ½ tsp sea salt 1/8 tsp baking soda 1 tsp SAF yeast 2 TBS butter melted for brushing on top Pink Himalayan Salt or Sea Salt Bread Machine Instructions– SO EASY!!
Make your gyros! Fill with Cylon Rolling Acres gyro meat (find it here) and top with lettuce, thinly sliced onion, tomato and tzatziki sauce. In the future I will be converting this to a by hand or mixer version. Recipe inspiration: Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook. Order your goat gyro meat from Cylon Rolling Acres here. For more goat meat recipes, cooking tips, promotions, and to know when goat meat is available, sign up for our email list here.   We’re excited to share that we’ve joined the New Richmond Chamber of Commerce. To celebrate, we’re offering a special sale to Chamber members and their employees: 15% off the purchase of our goat meat in stock at our farm store near Deer Park. Sale is good until Aug. 31, 2019.
To order, visit our online Farm Store and promo code “NR Chamber.” You’ll receive an email confirming your order is in stock and then arrange to pick up your order at the farm store. As a member of the New Richmond Chamber of Commerce, we will now accept Chamber Gift Certificates for the purchase of goat meat at our farm store. About Our Farm and Goat Meat We know it often can be hard to find goat meat in the grocery store and if it is available it’s often imported all the way from Australia. At our farm, Cylon Rolling Acres, we raise Boer-Kiko cross meat goats on pasture using rotational grazing practices. The farm is located east of New Richmond, just a few miles past the “four corners” of highways 64/46/63. We offer cuts of goat meat, gyro meat, organ meat and bones for sale at our licensed farm store. A whole goat can be ordered for bulk pricing in fall-winter. All meat is cut and packaged at a USDA inspected facility to ensure quality and safety standards. Limited retail cuts of meat are also for sale at Jewelltown Roastery in Star Prairie and seasonally on the menu at the Farm Table in Amery. For more goat meat recipes, cooking tips, promotions, and to know when goat meat is available, sign up for our email list here. This is the first blog post in a four-part Grazing Goats Article Series. There’s a popular saying, if a fence can’t hold water, it can’t hold a goat. While it’s true that goats are more challenging to fence as compared to other livestock, it isn’t as big of an issue as what some might think. However, the right type fence, energizer and training is important. It is often one of the most common barriers for raising goats – having the right fencing. When we decided to raise goats, we knew that fencing was important, and it needed to be done right. Our perimeter fence specs were developed by a USDA – NRCS conservationist / grazing specialist with some consultation from a well-regarded fence installer who has experience with fencing goats and sheep. We didn’t want to lose our goats, nor did we want to be in a situation where we weren’t on good terms with our neighbors. Our goat perimeter fencing is about 47 inches high and is high tensile woven wire with a strand of hot high tensile wire about 6 inches above the woven wire to keep predators from jumping or climbing over and keep the goats in. At the bottom, a few inches below the woven wire and a few inches above the ground is a strand of barbed wire to deter animals from digging under, specifically our livestock guardian dogs and predators, like coyotes. Fence posts are spaced about 16 feet. The woven wire opening is 6 inches wide and starts at 3 inches tall openings. Each opening going up to the top gets a little bit bigger, with the top opening at 7 inches tall. The majority of our goats are horned. On occasion some of our younger goats will get their heads stuck in the fence, trying to eat grass outside the pasture. Usually if there’s enough to eat in a paddock (a section of the pasture) this isn’t an issue. Older goats typically can’t push their heads through since their horns are large enough to stop them. If a goat continuously gets stuck, we may put a “crown” on her head temporarily to help train her to not stick her head through. This is a piece of flexible pipe about 8-10 inches long and then duct taped to the horns. If the goat tries to push her head through the fence to eat, the pipe will stop her. It’s a safe way to train her to stop this habit. Goats that are stuck in fences may be more susceptible to predators or bullying from more aggressive goats. Traditional high tensile wire can be used as well. It’s recommended that if you go this route to use a 5-wire set up. According to Randy Cutler of Cutler Fence, who did our fencing installation, goat and sheep fence should be 36-48 inches high with the bottom wire at 6-12 inches above the ground. Woven wire should be 14 gauge, with the spacing at 4x4 inches up to 12 inches between the verticals. Our pasture gates are traditional pipe gates with cattle panel mounted on them with hose clamps. We’ve found this option to be more durable than the gates with wire mesh built in. Do our goats get out? On occasion a kid might sneak out through a fence opening, between a fence post and a gate, or under a gate. But, as soon as they sneak out, their moms are calling them back and back they go. Since we practice rotation grazing, we use portable fencing to divide our pasture into paddocks. The first few years we used electronet fencing from Premier 1 Fencing (ElectroStop 10/42/12). It worked well. However, we were grazing three different groups of goats and our pasture was old overgrown CRP land with lots of brush and trees. It got to be cumbersome to move that much fence and it would often get tangled on brush or tree stumps. The last three years we’ve been using Gallagher’s Smart Fence and I love it. It is easy to put up and take down. It’s also easy to transport. I can put several fences in the back of my gator, along with other grazing gear and there’s no issue with the fencing getting tangled. To create paddocks, we have a short temporary fence set up running down the middle of the pasture built with t-posts and step in posts strung with poly wire. Then, we set up two Smart Fences running from the perimeter fence to the center temporary fence to create the paddock. Then an alligator clip connects the portable fence to the top hot wire on the perimeter fence. Our energizer is located our barn and is a M1500 Gallagher (15 stored joules, up to 160 miles, 900 acres). We had a M120 (1.2 stored joules, up to 15 miles/60 acres), but upgraded it this grazing season so we could continue to run more portable fencing and keep the fence hotter. The video below is one I made a few seasons back explaining the Smart Fence and why I like to use it on the farm with our meat goats. Watch for the next blog post on fence training goats in this grazing goat series. Sign up for our online community here so you don’t miss the next post and to learn more about what we do on our farm raising goats for meat.   I’m a big podcast fan. I listen when I’m working around the farm or cleaning up the kitchen at night after the kids are in bed. One of my favorites is the Savor Podcast from Stuff Media. It’s the perfect ear candy for a foodie (that’s me!). I had a chance to listen to their episode on Shawarma and Gyros thought our farm friends and community might find it interesting as well!
The episode from earlier this year dives into the two flatbread wraps, which both include shaved meat. The hosts discuss the history of both shawarma and gyros, what makes them different, and other interesting information about these popular wraps. You can find the podcast episode here on Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’re now thinking gyros, you can find our flat bread naan recipe and tzatziki sauce recipe on our website and also order our goat gyro meat through our farm store. Source: "Shawarma and Gyros: Assemble!" 26 April 2019. Stuff Media LLC. <https://www.savorpod.com/podcasts/shawarma-and-gyros-assemble.htm> 15 August 2019  On the farm we work to be as low stress as possible when it comes to handling our meat goats. It’s easier on their health and for us as farmers too. One of the best goat handling tools we’ve added to our management system is a crook. Yes, that’s right a crook.
We use the Kiwi Crook from Premier 1 Fencing. It looks like a long fiberglass cane, with a traditional crook opening for the head at one end and a self-locking lever to catch a leg on the other end. It’s named “Kiwi” since it was created by a New Zealand sheep family. You might wonder how is the low stress? If you don’t have a formal animal handling setup designed to move animals through safely and calmly, you’re in a situation where you are catching your goats by hand. The first one or two might go ok, but after that the rest of the goat herd will likely catch on to what you’re doing. Then you’ll be in a “goat rodeo” situation where the goats will be running away from you, causing them stress and putting yourself at risk for falling, tripping or getting charged by an animal. Using crooks greatly reduces the stress put on the herd since you can quickly catch the goat at a distance. As soon as I have the goat, I’ll release the crook and then work with the goat from there. We use the crooks on pasture and also in the winter in our barn pens. They’re handy for quickly catching a goat that might need to be given a closer look over for health reasons or even treated depending on her symptoms. We like them so much, we have two crooks, a his and hers. That way if my husband is helping me out with some animal health work, we both can work quickly to catch the goat(s) we need to work with. I even gave one to a fellow goat farmer friend of mine as a wedding present. While in the future I would like to set up a formal goat handling facility, this crook will still be useful when I need to work with an individual goat here and there, especially while out on pasture. If you're interested in learning more about more of my favorite goat things and how we’re raising meat goats on pasture, join our online community for raising goats for meat here. Here's quick overview of the components of our goat pasture. During the summer our meat goat herd is on pasture 24/7 using rotational grazing practices.
What would you like to know more about raising goats on pasture? Let me know by commenting below or sending me an email at leslie@cylonrollingacres.com. I'll share more on what I'm doing with our goats in future blog posts. If you're interested in learning more about our goat pasture management and rotational grazing, join our online community here to get updates on what we're doing on the farm grazing meat goats on pasture.   A few months ago, I decided to quit social media. In late May I decided to start a month-long digital hiatus, primarily from social media, and attempt to cut back the invisible tether to my phone. It wasn’t a total shut down since I still needed to manage my farm business online, but it was as close as I was going to get outside of work.
At the time I was feeling smothered with life, feeling like a standstill while at the same time never having enough time for my business and farm, and even more importantly my time with my family – my kids and husband. Everything felt like it was spinning so fast, yet at times it felt like I was at a crawl. I didn’t always feel like I was in this place. I’m not sure how I got there, but I was there. Close to a breaking point, I recognized it was time to take a step back and recalibrate my life. I had started to think about making a change but hadn’t gone further than that. I decided I was going to start now, not wait for the right time, or the next big thing to wrap up. So, I turned back to what gets me going: learning and growing. I started listening to podcasts and reading books about productivity and focus. In particular, I started listening to a few episodes by Michael Hyatt (Lead to Win), in particular #067: Destroy Distractions with These 9 Focus-Boosting Strategies, #065: 3 Actions to Beat your Biggest Distractions, #061: My Must-Have Apps for Productivity in 2019. I immediately recognized that I needed to start managing how my time was spent, rather than let it get away from me. It was about living life on purpose. In particular, social media (and other apps) along with its ease to pull up on my phone became an obvious distraction I needed to figure out how to manage. Additionally, I was looking at other ways to be more productive with my farm business and also at home. This also meant evaluating my other commitments and evaluating future opportunities to make sure time was well spent for my work goals and also priorities with my family. In a number of Michael Hyatt’s podcasts he referenced the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. So, like a good professional development nerd, I ordered the book, along with Michael’s newest book Free to Focus. In the meantime, I downloaded a podcast episode where Cal was interviewed, on The Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman, M.D.: 39. How Social Media May be Ruining Your Life with Cal Newport to get a feel of the theme of his book. Honestly, I didn’t think I was using my phone and social media that much. I wasn’t like I was just sitting on the couch snacking and scanning feeds for hours on end. But, I could see how it was easy to fill in the voids of one’s day to help pass the time, even if it was for a few seconds or minutes, like waiting for my son to get his haircut, walking back from the barn to the house, waiting in line at the store and so on. But, here I was ready to make some changes and my digital life was going to be part of it. I decided to make little steps to get started. I ordered a real alarm clock for my nightstand and plugged in my phone on a bookshelf nearby, but not within arm’s reach. No more scrolling of emails, social media feeds or news as soon as I woke up or before I went to bed. You should have heard my 5-year-old when he first saw it. “Mom what is that?!” On my phone I turned off all notifications for all apps with the exception of text messages, forcing myself to take the time to check emails and notifications from certain apps, vs. have the phone constantly dinging at me. Next, I squeezed out the time (yes, I made time) to go to a yoga class at a local studio. I realized I needed to start taking time for me so I could function at my highest for work, my family and others in my life. I had been wanting to start practicing yoga again, but it was too easy to push it down on the priority list. It’s made a big difference in how I feel physically, even though my work on the farm has always been active, as well as mentally. There’ve been weeks where I haven’t been able to make class because of our planting schedule or family travel, but that’s ok. I just pick back up the next class that fits. I put it on my schedule and don’t take it off for other commitments unless it’s a pressing matter. When the book arrived, I started reading it. Right away Cal talks about taking a month-long break from technology that’s tied to our phones and then afterwards start to build it back into our lives. I liked the idea and wanted to do it, but I couldn’t get myself to start. My challenge was that I love technology and my business is dependent on the online space. I was trying to figure out how to make this work. Then I realized, I needed to just jump in and get started. Little steps, just like what I had started. So that day on my walk back from the barn to the house I deleted all my social media apps. I didn’t go full force as Cal indicated in his book, but I focused on the ones that I know were the major time suckers. I wasn’t sure how to manage my farm accounts, so I started working on them from my desktop computer, which unfortunately or conveniently, died during this time period. I scheduled out some time to check in online during this time. The first day “away” was hard I admit. I didn’t realize how much I’d open up my phone to pass the time, or while making my way somewhere. Then after the next day surprisingly I realized I didn’t miss Facebook at all. Yes, I admit I missed Instagram. I also intentionally kept my phone at a distance so I could be more in the moment and present in life with my family and even the simplest moments, like my walk from the house to the barn. It’s so easy to miss what’s happening around us because our phones inadvertently fill in the voids. And you know what? IT WAS SO FREEING. It became apparent there was too much noise. Let me get back to Facebook. I do recognize the value in it from the perspective of staying in touch with friends and family that aren’t nearby or from other times in my life, along with networking and learning from farm-related groups, and, yes, running my business. But I realized that the constant pull to always check in, get social media approval or see what others was doing was creating unneeded, unintentional stress. In the book, Digital Minimalism, Cal also points out how it has the potential to become a full out addiction. I needed to figure out how to make it a part of my life, but not how it had been working. Honestly, I didn’t think it was causing that much of a drain on me. I didn’t think I was using it that much. During my digital hiatus, I started reading at night before I went to bed as a way to help wind down and turn off my brain. Eventually I switched my bedtime reading to novels or biographies and kept my self-help and business books for other times of the day. I also focused on getting some other things done so I felt like I was making progress in life. I built the porch table I had been wanting to make for several years now and made a baseball scoreboard for my son. I also made a sizable dent in organizing the farm shop, which hadn’t really been organized since we moved to the farm. I’m not trying to say look at what I’ve done, but I am in the sense of what happens when one prioritizes their time and puts some selfcare in place. Now that I’m past the digital hiatus time. I’ve reinstalled Instagram on my phone, along with the Facebook pages app. I’m still using my personal Facebook account through my computer and think it will remain that way. I’m still working on my personal boundaries and parameters for using social media, and even for work. I’m scheduling time to use it for work just like any other task and taking pictures for the farm for future posts, not necessarily always sharing them in the moment. Honestly, I’m still figuring out how to keep technology and the positives of social media in my life. But, I’m way more conscious of what I’m doing. The other night I started scrolling Instagram while we were watching a movie. I stopped as soon as I realized what I was mindlessly doing and put my phone down on the coffee table. It’s a work in progress, but I feel so much better on where I’m at and where I’m headed. What have you done to intentionally live your life? What are you doing to put yourself first? How are you managing social media use in a healthy way? |
About LeslieI own and manage Cylon Rolling Acres in northwestern Wisconsin. On my farm I raise Boer - Kiko meat goats on pasture. Sign up for the Meat ListJoin our community to find out when goat meat is available, recipes & tips for cooking goat meat, and, when there are promotions.
Why Cylon?
Cylon (pronounced Si-lon) is the name of our township in St. Croix County, Wisconsin. Sorry fans, our farm is not named after the robots of Battlestar Galactica.
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