pig fence?

[michiganmom]

I raised pigs before and had a real hard time with them getting out. We had them fenced in and had hot wire low to discourage rooting out but they shorted out the hot wire any way and went to visit all the niebhors LOL.
Could some one tell me how to do it the right way, i heard they can root through cement is this true?
Does any one use those nose rings and do they work ?
Thank You michiganmom

[musicman]

They cant rut thru cement that I know of but they will rut under it if they can.

Yes, rings help. You may have to use more than one, and you may have to do it more than once if they start rutting bad again. The first time you do it, it will be a lot easier than the next times cuz they know whats coming.

I never used a hot wire but a lot of people do. I had a barbed wire on the inside of my fence at ground level (attached to the inside of the posts, with the fence on the outside of the posts). That seemed to keep them from rutting under the fence too.

Cattle panels are the way to go if you can afford them.

[fancyfowl]

I use hog panels(closer spacings at the bottom than cattle panels and shorter overall) with a hot wire at about a foot. Never had any get out, yet. I do have to keep an eye on soil being nosed up and shorting out the electric. The larger the area, the less problem it seems.

[michiganmom]

Thank You, this will really help me if i get back into it again.

[txplowgirl]

We used hot wire about 3 inches off the ground and my dad made sure it was HOT. :o Would leave a stripe on my ankle if I brushed against it. Never lost a hog.

[High_Desert]

I had good luck with the panels also. I used "goat" panels as they were 1 foot taller and then burried them a foot in the ground. No hot wire or barb wire. No escapes.

HD

[michiganmom]

Thanks at least now if we raise hogs again they wont be running to the neibhors bait pile.

[Boris859]

LOL,so goes the addage "make your fences pig strong",
my wife is the household pig expert,she is the asst manager at our local pig farm,she has close to 3500 pigs in her barn,from farrowing all the way up to big ol boars,if you have any pig questions I can ask her,unfortunately we cannot have our own pigs here,company policy is no outside pig ownership out of fear of disease,a bad outbreak can put down a whole barn. :)

[Anon001]

When I ran 5 sows, a boar, and the piglets in 2 acres timber I didn't have much trouble... But I did ring them all and had to put 3 to 5 rings per snout.... I only had to do it once on some and a couple times on the others. I had field fence with an electric wire just off the ground... but with all the timber, roots, and such there was plenty rooting they could do without going to the fence. That was before I moved here and went off-grid.

After moving here, the most I do with hogs is raise a couple at a time for butchering. I keep them in a pen that is 32' x 32'. It isn't bad, because it doesn't take that long to grow and fatten them. My pen is built with t-posts in the ground every 4 feet and hog panels attached to that. That means that there is a t-post for each end and two between those. I have had no problems with them getting out of that.

[harvester]

Wow, the hotwire trick is brand new to me, i had no idea people used hotwire around their hogs..hahah. learn something every day!
anyway, we used *good fence posts, not cemented as we did move our hog pen regularly to fresh ground about every other year. but we did burry the fence. You do have to fill in rooted out holes near the fence on a regular basis just to keep them from finding the very bottom of the fence and pulling it up. A little trick, if you have *a hog that consistantly digs in the same place along your fence all the time...Before you go and fill that hole in again, fill it full of the pigs poo! then fill it in with dirt, etc. I have done this many many times and the pig gave up digging in that spot. Keeping the pigs busy in their own pen will greatly cut down on their "boredom rooting" levels. Grass clippings can go a long lip smacking way in a pig pen! Chances are you will never notice the difference in weight gain or loss feeding a simple coffee can full of clippings per 200lb hog in the middle of the day between regular feedings. Adjust the amount per size. Scatter it, dont dump it in a pile, and the pig can spend hours picking up every single blade of grass and thoroughly chewing each individual one. Much to the tail wagging enjoyment of piggy!

[Anon001]

Hogs don't always root out of boredom... Only sometimes. A hog roots mainly to find underground bugs and roots to eat... it is a part of their natural diet. So, if they have enough room, they normally won't root under the fence. I say normally, it's not always the case. Like I said earlier, I ran them in 2 acres of timber and never had one get out because of rooting. They did root around the fence and I later added the hotwire to keep them from deciding the want out. Electric fences with hogs are not a new concept.

[harvester]

hahahha, well its a new concept to me!
Ofcourse i didnt have in mind a two acre area to raise a butcher hog in, i highly doubt there would be any boredom problems there. What I had in mind was a small area suited for one hog, something round abouts 15' x15' should be more than plenty to house a hog for 5 months. Thats gonna cause boredom.

[Anon001]

Harvester,
When I had 5 breeding sows and one boar for a few years, I kept them in the 2 acres. But now, I only raise hogs for butcher. I have a pen I leave set up even when hogs aren't in it and I have it 32 ft x 32 ft. What I did was place t-posts in the ground every 4 feet. Then I put hog panels.. I wired the panels ALL THE WAY down the t-posts. The 6 ft t-posts were pounded into the ground until the tops were even with the tops of the hog panels. They did a lot of rooting and rooted around so much that they rooted dirt up over the bottoms of the panels holding them down. That was the first 3 I had at one time in the pen. Since then, they don't seem to root right at the fence.... I also have a great old cow dog and he works the pigs too. He would go sit and watch and when they get too close to the panels he backs them away... lol... so I guess that helps too.

[harvester]

I guess it did. Mine always rooted at the fence line. I guess when they had every other part of the pen all cleaned out there was no other option for them but to try to get to the untouched soil under the fence. Just goes to show that all animals are individuals and they will do their own thing acordingly.

[Anon001]

not only that, but the other problem you run into is that a hog is the smartest domesticated animal there is... and they are one of few animals that are smart enough to reason things out.... and they know if they have to get outside the pen to get more roots, bug and such.... They are really amazing....... and so tasty!

[lsg]

I am glad to see you adding that last statement. Our hogs didn't root under the fence from boredom, they rooted under the fence because they were smart enought to figure that was the way out. ;D