Fencing:

You will need some strong fencing capable of holding in goats. Fencing can be woven wire or multiple strand electric fence. Depending on where you live and the size of the goats, you may want to choose different mesh sizes for the woven wire (field fence) and different strengths of electric fence power. A local breeder can guide you about the issues for your region and type of goats.

We have woven wire field fence that has smaller mesh down low and bigger above. It's 4' tall and is supported by a mixture of wooden posts and t-posts. The goats occasionally get their heads stuck in the fence, but seldom for long because the vertical wire on this fence can slide, enlarging the area where their head is, allowing them to get free. The long runs without many wooden posts were too weak for our buck. When he stood his yearling weight on the fence, it bowed over and he was surprised to find himself on the wrong side of the fence. Luckily a buck doesn't go too far from his girls, so he was easy to get back where he belonged. I temporarily reinforced the fence with additional t-posts, and am now almost done building a the buck pen using wooden posts every 8 feet, with 5' no-climb horse fencing further reinforced with heavy combo panels. Another solution is to run an electric wire along the inside of the field at about human-knee height. This keeps the goats from rubbing and climbing on the fence. I used to have such a wire and it worked really well as long as I kept up on the weeds that would short it out.

Tethering: Tethering goats is not a substitute for a fenced pasture. If you train the goat to tether and are there with him the entire time he is tethered, it can be an acceptible way for him to eat brush in an area that isn't fenced. If you leave him tethered all the time, he will find a way to hurt himself and will be "steak-on-a-stick" for every neighborhood dog and coyote. A better choice for temporary pens for eating brush can be to use hog or combo panels from your feed store; they are heavy panels about 16' long. You can use large bolt-cutters to cut them in half and then two panels will give you the four sides of a temporary small brush pen. Keep panels together with snaps, or in a pinch, with baling twine.

Housing/Shelter:

Where you live will determine how much shelter you need. Here in southwest Washington state our winters are very mild compared with northern parts of the country or the Rockies. However, the goats still need shelter from wind and rain. A three-sided shelter will be fine in our area. They don't need a fancy barn. Goats do go to the bathroom inside their shelter, so either you need to have a way to clean out the accumulation of poop and ammonia inside the shelter or a way to move the shelter around your field. If you're going to use a garden shed from one of the home stores as a small shed for two goats, you can build the shed on skids so that your pick-up can move it around the pasture, leaving the old droppings as wonderful organic fertilizer for the old spot.

The barn/shed should have a way to feed off of the ground to reduce parasite problems. Hay and grain feeders are available at local feed stores. You can get soft hay bags or permanently mount metal hay racks intended for horses in your barn.

Water:

Goats must have water available at all times. You can find a small automatic waterer that hooks up to a garden hose for about $20 at a feed store. Or you can buy a float for a water tank you already own for about $15 -- either way your goats will have access to as much water as they can drink around the clock every day. If your location gets cold in the winter, consider buying a heated water bucket from one of the supply companies like Jeffers or Valley Vet. You can put the automatic float into this bucket and have an automatic heated waterer for much less cost that a permanently installed one (but do know that you need to have the bucket where they won't tip it over as that will cause the automatic float to keep water flowing out). There's also heat tape available for water tanks at feed stores.

If you have small goats or kids or maybe chickens that you would like to also be able to use the waterer without risk of drowning, try this: take a small black rubber ground grain feeder from the feed store (about 4-5" high and 18" across). Attach one of the livestock floats to the side ; you'll see that the screws from the float won't attach well to the rubber side -- simply put a small scrap of wood in between the rubber and screws, and the screws will bite into the wood and it will be securely attached to the rubber feeder. Find several largish rocks, clean them, and put them into the feeder to prevent animals from turning it over. Attach the garden hose to the float and turn on the water. You now have a low safe automatic waterer that you can clean just by picking one side letting the dirty water flow out. I have fancy waterers on my place, and yet this low rubber waterer is my favorite because of ease of cleaning and safety with the very young goat kids and chicks.

Food:

If you have a lot of bushes, trees, and grass, and only a few goats, you may not have to feed them much from the feedstore. A little grass hay is good for them. You can feed a small amount of goat feed to keep them used to coming to you. The best source of feeding information will be a reputable breeder of your type of goats in your area. Wethers (neutered boy goats) will need to eat much less than goats that are lactating. The breeder can help you figure out what to feed and teach you how to 'see' the condition of your goat and make sure they are not getting fat or skinny.