Trapping wild billy goats

A little shelled corn in the livestock trailer quickly attracts a crowd,
but the wild buck at far right is still suspicious.

A few months ago I acquired several Kiko x Spanish bucks. To say they were a little wild is an understatement. They were penned up in horse stalls when I picked them up. It wasn't until I got them home that I realized what great jumpers they were. As soon as I unloaded them at the barn, the largest three promptly jumped over the catch pen fence. Unfortunately the biggest, nicest buck caught his back leg in the fence and snapped it right below the knee. We were able to splint it, but pneumonia set in and we lost that buck.


We managed to herd the others into an area where several of our bucks are spending the summer. Apparently the new boys didn't like living in a pine forest, so they jumped over a 48-inch net wire fence into the paddock next door. This happened to be the pasture into which I was going to rotate a herd of does so I needed to get the bucks out.  This is about a 50-acre area with hills, woods, bottomland and a small stream -- no way to corner wild goats here.


So I moved the tame bucks into the pasture with the wild ones. They eventually found each other and became one herd. I occasionally put out shelled corn on the ground for the bucks, and the tame ones taught the wild ones how to enjoy this treat.


Last week, I parked a livestock trailer in the pasture and put shelled corn inside. Of course the tame bucks jumped right in. It took awhile for the wild bucks to drop their guard. Twenty-four hours later, I put more corn in the trailer, went out the escape door in front, walked around and closed the back gate and had them all trapped.


I used the inside cut gates to sort out the wild bucks, turned the tame ones out and got ready to head for the sale barn. The good news is, even with losing the biggest buck and having to chase the wild ones around for a month, I managed to turn a profit on the group of bucks.

Trapped!