My camera showed 8 or 9 goats trapped in my feed pen, overnight! I called the ranch manager and told him about the trapped goats and asked him if he could go release them and leave the gate open. He released them, called me back and told me that "those sumbitches will be gone lin 45 days"! The owner will ship all of them to market once the lambs are ready.

We have goats and sheep on the lease.

so I need to advise when ever I turn out a horse too.

I could under stand to a point if it was durning season and they had no pens, but not 7 months before season.

We try to feed year-round, especially now with our protein feeding program. So these guys do present a major problem! Cattle are also on the lease, and at least they stay out of the pens and do not present any problems......except when we try to fill feeders! They like to crowd around the truck or 4-wheelers!

Kind of reminds me of a story my uncle told about letting some city hunter come out to his farm. Neighbor had Angora goats. City hunter came back from hunting around lunch time and said he shot a spike buck on the west fence line. Yeah he shot one of the neighbors goats.

Rancher heard the GW would have a game check setup not that far away, killed a goat he had been wanting to kill, gutted it, tagged it and went through the game check. When he stopped he told then hi had the biggest spike he had ever seen....

IMO, a landowner with any kind of livestock ought to fence off feeders. Especially if he is leasing the place for hunting. Or, the hunters should be required to fence them.

I’m a landowner and, when I had cows and/or horses, I made sure feeders were fenced. I’ve never found a feeder that a horse can’t destroy.

Remember when the ostrich and emu market crashed and people turned them loose? I lost some feeders back then.

emu’s are aholes. I got kicked by one, and almost bucked off a horse due to one

I would say this strictly falls on the lessee. A landowner should not have to spend $$$ or time meeting “nice to have” needs of a lessee. He can enable the lessee to make those changes and that goes a long way towards building a successful LO/Lessee relationship, but if I leased out my ranch and a lessee told me I had to fence off their feeders I would laugh them off the property.

May have to give them some
'shocking advice"

I have always been leery of leasing a place that has any kind of hinged fencing around it, just for the fear the rancher could run goats. In my years of leasing though I have found most cattle ranchers will have nothing to do with goats. Deer and goats just don’t mix . They compete too much for the same food. I feel your pain .

The 4x4” 4’ panels have stopped all the goats I’ve ever seen. I see goats & deer interact regularly. Not a big deal.