Raising exotics under low fence.

Which exotics can be raised without a high fence, and what type of low fence is required to keep them in?

Blackbuck under a 5 ft net wire

Sounds like fun. Thanks. Any other suggestions?

You'll run the chance of loosing just about any true exotic in a low fence, but that's not to say you can't do it - you can loose exotics in a high fence too. The feral sheep & goats are your best bet. BB are doable, but you should have a darn good netwire fence and enough room to roam (they will jump a low fence when spooked).

Some of the african animals are in the same boat - oryx species, springbok,and wildebeest won't jump a low-fence, but they could get over one if pushed.

Various sheep and goats.
Netwire fence with the predator spacing on the bottom.

Personally I wouldnt waste my time and money on scimitar or blackbuck on low fence.

Most of the time when I see a post like this its someone wanting to fence off 5 acres or so and dont want to put a lot of money into it.

If thats the case I would not suggest antelope.
The can be too territorial and parasite problems will soon be out of control.
Capture scenarios also need to be considered before fencing and stocking antelope. Various ways can spook them too much and you want to avoid death loss and injury as much as possible wether it be for a hobby or business or both.

It would be more like 40 or 50 acres. That was another question I had. How do you gather them up for transport?

If you want to make the most money develop a trap yourself.
It will all depend on what is being trapped, how much money you want to spend, and how much time you are willing to put into doing it yourself.

What are the predators like in the area? Dogs around it? Poachers? What kind of cover on the acreage? Trees, brush, and/or grass? Soil type? Live catch facility is the fastest way to catch but going to add more expense. I know a man who raise pure Mouflon, Red Sheep and Armenians in small paddocks on a place that size and he makes good money off his sales.

STX, it is all undetermined at this point. Just speculation, as I don't have the property yet. Just trying to get some ideas before I buy the land.

Are you convinced to fence the whole thing on low fence? Considered the cost of just smaller breeder type pens for other various exotics.

Hope you get the piece of land. Having your own place to work on is a great feeling.

Whatever you put out there make sure you learn all you can about it first. Sheep and goats dont often need as much care. But some exotics it helps to be living close by or on the place to watch over them.

I'm actually considering high fence on just part of it, now, since that broadens my options without taking up the entire property.

I will live on the place, but I work away from home, so that's a consideration.

I wouldn't get into this without knowing all I can first. That's why I'm asking y'all. I need to see if it's something worth messing with, first.

If your going to consider high fencing part I would add fallow deer to the list of animals under consideration. There's a huge amount of information available on raising fallow and a ready venison market for culls and excess does.

If you want to do it, go for it, but do it because it's something you'll enjoy, not just to make money. You certainly can make money, but there are no magic formulas.

Couple things to consider, we're relatively new to breeding (8years or so) but a lot of these are fresh to us

A high fence will give you more options. Multiple pens will give you more options.

Think of how you are going to trap before you construct

Investing the extra $ in high quality stock as your founders will save a lot of time and effort

That said, higher dollar animals carry more risk. ( you will lose some) if you blow your wad on a premo breeder male and he dies, you're stuck. Get species that you can afford some losses and repurchases as you are building the herd.

Rarer species carry more risk as well. There's a smaller market, and they can be harder to move at times - keep in mind they have a 'shelf life' on when you can sell, both age and seasonally. It can also be harder to locate new, quality genetics.

If you are interested in the financial aspect, work the numbers. We figure it costs us 0.25 per day to feed a sheep/ goat, and 0.33 per day to feed a mid-sized deer species (this will vary by setup). Feeding a $50 tx dall ewe almost $100 in feed per year doesn't make much sense to us. ( that said feral sheep are great starter animals).

Also work your sale price, but test how low it can go before it doesn't make sense for you anymore. The market moves. We bought a starter herd of pere David's as they became more common on the market, then the drought hit. Prices dropped 75% in one summer and really haven't rebounded much.

Anything with antlers will kill one another in a small area during the rut if you have females in the pen or near by. Even on 25-50 acres, you'll need a way to catch, saw, and ideally separate your non-breeder bucks.

Again, sheep are good in this regard since about the worst they can do is knock chunks out of their horns.

As I write this, it gets me thinking that good wild sheep in a reasonable price range, like reds, Armenian, or pure bred mouflon would be good starter species - if those are too high for you, start with the ferals. Generally pretty low maintenance in a pasture setting, and not too difficult/ dangerous to handle. Biggest challenge will be finding someone you trust and knows what they are looking at to help select stock. There are a lot of hybrids sold as higher dollar pure breds, and it takes some experience to really know what you are looking at (even then females and young can be almost indistinguishable)

As Stx mentioned, sheep can be done in pretty small pens. The more crowded the pen, the more issues you are going to have, but with proper care, it can be done. I have seen herds of 15-25 sheep in 1-3 acre pens do fairly well. They would be in better shape less crowded, but they still produce.

If I could break even, that would be okay. I believe I would enjoy raising exotics a great deal. I was looking at the high end rams, like the Armenian and the Transcaspian Urial. I could see raising those. I really don't have much interest in the more common sheep.

I'll tell you what I've been looking at, and you tell me how viable that is. I was thinking of 60-80 acres with a 5' net wire fence and stocking it with a few blackbuck and addax, maybe a few sheep. With enough room, I would think containing them in that wouldn't be a problem as long as I have a good trap system in place to move them for purchase. I guess I would need to do some cross fencing, as well, to keep the new males separate from the herd male when they come of age. Thoughts?

Great information here.

Where do most people buy exotics? Is it breeder to breeder, auctions, or feral trappers?

Where you buy them depends a lot on knowing what you are really getting. You can buy them at auctions. From what I have seen higher end auctions like the YO normally have better and less stressed animals than the others. Trappers, a lot depends on where they were trapped, how they were trapped, how long before you get them were they trapped. And the actual quality of the animal. Getting them from a breeder is usually the best but probably the most expensive. There you can see the quality of the animals from a number of generations.

If you we're going with high end sheep, I would high fence about 10-15 acres with 1-2 cross fences making 2-3 pens of 5-7 acres each. I would not put TCs or Armenians in a low fence - they can jump.

BB in a low fence in that size could work fine if you just want to watch them for the most part. Addax, you might run into issues getting a permit approved with a low fence.

I was under the impression you only needed a permit to kill the addax. Is there a permit involved in buying them?

Hey Sneaky I found this article online that gives a list of low fence exotics and explains fence requirements. Take a look, hope this helps you out. https://tejasranchfence.com/low-fence-exotics/

If you are going to have to put up a new fence why not just HF it and go on? That way you have more options in the future.

I'm no expert, but I have my doubts about raising some of those animals listed and expecting them to remain inside a 4 foot fence. Pier David are said to be able to jump over 6 feet in one of the books I have. Bison will go through most fences that are not High Tensile. I saw Mouflon jump a barb wire fence that was probably close to 4 feet tall when chased.

I raise or have raised the following behind low Fence: Blackbuck, Dybowski Sika, Fallow, Mouflon, I have gotten along well for 12 Years, BUT I have been around all types of Animals my entire Life (55 Years) one thing I have learned is, Animal Savvy goes a long long way in determining your success rate raising Exotics in Low Fence, ESPECIALLY Small Acreage Places, as I can/could, I have/am replacing all of my Low Fence with High Fence, if I were starting over today, knowing what I know now, I would have High Fenced to start with and been done with it! P.S. the biggest Problem with Low Fence is Predators, in fact when Fencing a low Fence Place, one needs to "Fence the Predators out" more so than "Fence the Animals in"....no matter the Species....my 2 Cents.