What a pain, we used to need it for sheep. Ever tear out an old woven wire fence?
Half buried, and the wire rips often.

Our cows are masters at crawling through the top of the old woven wire, and bottom barb.

While it is a pain to tear out and to install it does turn a sheep better than barbed wire. We had those that could crawl the fence as you describe. They even taught their offspring to do it too.

Net wire fences also turn coyotes much better too. Not only keeps the sheep and goats in, but most of the coyotes out.

You can sure catch lots of coyotes by using snares at the slides in net wire fences too.

It makes it a lot easier to catch new born calves.

I used to use woven wire to hold hogs, and have a woven wire around my horse lot, and garden. I'd like to have part of the cattle pasture fenced in with it, but barbed is cheaper and easier for be to put up, especially if I'm doing it by myself.

We've got a few areas where we've used it but like you mention barbed (and electric) is so much easier if you have to do it by yourself. Of course I don't have one of the woven wire roller frames that fit on a 3 point hitch so I just roll it on the ground then tension with a bar run through it at the end. I'd definitely get one of the 3 point roller/tensioners if I was going to do a lot of it.

I think the best all around sheep/goat fence would be the class 3 no-climb horse fencing with the smaller holes. Goats will get their head stuck in the regular woven wire....heads can be shoved through but the horns stop them from coming back out. It's expensive and a headache to install.

The majority of what we have is barbed with a strand of electric below the bottom and between the first and second run of barbed.....it works really well for turning coyotes....as long as it isn't grounded/wrapped on the barb wire. Have replaced about 1/2 of the low tensile electric with high tensile and I'm VERY happy with it. Will be starting on replacing the rest now that hunting season ended.

My son decided to fence in a woods lot behind his house, and get his kids some goats. I told him that he needed woven wire, but did he listen to me.......no, he put up a five strand barbed wire fence. He bought 2 nannies and a billy, turned them in, and the billy went through the fence, back through it again, and finally out a third time, and never came back. The nannies were gentler, and stayed in.

The next day, he had me putting up 2 strands of electric up. As long as the electric wire doesn't get twisted around the barbed wire, it will hold them alright. I still remind him that if he'd listened to me, he'd still have a billy.

There are those who would say that he came out ahead.

lol....I still listen to my Dad. Some things with goats are just a learning experience. I've learned that fencing for goats is really pretty simple and I'm not sure why people make it so complicated.....if it will hold water it will probably hold a goat.

Woven fences are pretty dependable shoe pullers for horses.

If you need the netwire for sheep, or goats, fine. Otherwise it's the Queen's hemorrhoids.

I've had to doctor several horses that cut themselves on barbwire too. Sometimes without success.

Barry, modesty, and good taste forbids me from repeating an old bad joke about a farmer that had trouble with a horse he was training being cut with barb wire.

Perhaps 5sdad will have it on his huge file of old jokes.

Don't need to know about the queens parts!

Haha!

Yup, water will not run uphill, sheep will.

I don't know anything about Goats or Goat fencing but I'm pretty sure you're right.

There's a guy across the river with a large heard of Goats that does weed/undergrowth abatement with them.

I've only seen them at work from the road so I'm not sure exactly how it's constructed but he contains them in the targeted area with what looks like 1/4" diameter 2' tall plastic stakes with one fiber type elec wire around the top.. ....At least I think it's elec but I've never seen the power pack. He'll leave em in one spot for a few days and then move goats and fencing on down the line. The goats are a smaller strain....probably about 2-2.5" at the shoulder but I never see any of em flattened by log trucks so the fencing must work.

I'm a fan of electric...with a heavy charger. The ease of setup for anyone doing the graze for weed control thing is a no-brainer. Most of our goats don't test the fences as long as they've got food and access to luv in da pasture...miss one of those and any goat will test a fence. Occasionally one will come along that is going to test the fence no matter what....and they get thrown in jail (woven wire), then go directly to the sale. In the end, although it hurts, electric is just a psychological barrier....if they want through it bad enough they can get through it. For a physical barrier, the non-climb horse fencing is probably the best thing going...but a pain to install and expensive (especially with class 3 galv):

https://redbrandstore.com/products/square-deal-non-climb-horse-fence-200-class-3-1660-2-12-1-2

I used to love hogs that would squeal just before they got to the electric when they ran through the fence.

I run Red Brand woven wire with a single strand of barbed at 49" in the front pasture. Over time it's proven to be an excellent fencing. Cows/bull are very easy on it and the chickens can free range without coyotes or the occasional neighborhood stray dog attacking. I keep the coop right in the pasture. For our Highlander stock there's been no downside.

In the back pasture we went 5-strand barbed due to the many does and fawns that pass through the area. My decision to go barbed over woven was an ethical one. I would have loved to use the woven wire back there but couldn't do so in good conscience.
The barbed is a real PITA. I fix something every week back there.

We call it ‘page wire’. Our main fences are page wire on railroad ties. It lasts 30 years. But these are Herefords.

For sheep I think you need a dog and a shepherd.

Back in the late 1970's, several of us got some of the mustangs that were being adopted out. Mine was a mare that was the best looking of the lot, and the only one that was never rode. She got out one day and went in a barbed wire fence and it cut her legs up something bad. She was meaner than Hell and would try and kick the chit out of you, so I was very cautious about handing her. I got to the barn and in a stall, tied a rag to the end of a stick, put grease on the rag and treated her cuts. Did that a few times, and she healed up completely in no time. Grease contains sulfur, and sulfur is an ingredient in drugs, so it works good on cuts.

Knew a woman that rented out goats for brush control.

She kept them contained using one strand of electric wire.

I asked what she did when a goat jumped the wire. She looked at me and said, "I shoot it"

All the goats she had never jumped the wire!