Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Of pigs and electric fences...

I've long been wanting to raise a couple pigs for myself, and it looks like this year its finally going to happen. I only wanted 2, but it looks like I'll have to get at least 5-6 for all the people that want one as well. I'm gone for a few weeks to month in the summer have a caretaker lined up and he wants a couple, got a farmer who will provide grain and chop in exchange for a couple..so lets say a half dozen.

I have a barn with pens to house them the first couple weeks, and a fenced pasture with some cross fencing. I would like to add a electrified fence wire along the bottom of the fence as I know they are adept at digging out, so went to look at some today. Frankly I was a bit baffled by the number of options in both the control unit and especially the wire/ribbon itself. The old standby dipped wire is cheapest by far, is it the best option? I can see how it might be a bit more difficult to work with, but other than that is there any downsides? I thought perhaps the wider white poly bands might be easier to see and therefore more effective, as I'd like to be able to move it around some to allow access to new areas. I have about 4 acres fenced and about a .5 acre is divided off of that, which is where I planned to keep them at first anyway. As they get it rooted up, I would like to move them about the pasture a bit, see if they can get rid of the thistle and weeds.

They should be here by late April I think, and I plan to be butchering by mid October. Should I be getting males or females, or does it matter? I don't think I'll get to choose breeds, gotta take whatever the Hutterites wills sell me but I expect they have decent stock.

Can't help much with the fence types but the pigs either will work fine, but make sure the males are castrated. Not hard to do when little. Young pigs are harder to keep with the electric wire but as they get older, it works fine. In fact if you try to remove them from the pen, you will probably run into problems. I had to trailer a couple of sows 50 yards one time because of an electric fence. Even with it down and the post removed, they would not pass that place. You get them past with their head in a bucket and as soon as they realized they were past the line, they ran back. miles

I used steel wire around the area, about 8" and about 12" above that, 2 wires. Pigs don't climb. It does well, but you have to keep an eye on their rooting. It is amazing how a couple pigs can change the landscape in a hurry! They learn the wires, but root up to it, then you get the ground close to the wire. So you have to keep it clear. They sure do move things around, and are STRONG! They can rip a fence board off with their nose, uplift! I learned not to depend on a physical fence, but rather use the electric wire and keep it clear.

Amazing animals.

They learn a fence fast! When I was a kid my aunt got pigs after not using the hog pen for years. We went over, and using existing posts and a couple new, built a quick, temporary electric fence. The corner came to a triangle right in the middle of the creek. We left the hogs out and a good sized sow walked over to get a drink, she got her snout on the fence, got shocked, jumped back, and I can still see the speaks hitting her backside from the other side of the fence. It took a couple days to get her out of the pen again. We later built a big pasture with locust posts and heavy slabs.

Aluminum wire will carry more current than any "tape" or "polywire" or steel and will never rust
I have fences over 10 years old that look like new

Electric fence hold hogs really well. But... when you want to move them, it's not that easy. Once they know where the fence is, they will have a trail just inside it. When you go to move them, they will not cross that trail. You cant drive them across the trail. The best thing to do is to enlarge the area and give them a few days to figure out the fence is gone. Then while they are on the new pasture area, move the rest of your fence, to keep them there.

BTDT

I raised hogs for many years, mostly behind electric fences. What others have posted is correct....they won't cross that spot even after you take the fence down. Two wires is usually enough, because they can't jump, or fly over it.

I can't add much to the above in keeping pigs in but I have had a little experience with the need to keep things out from our pigs. We ran the same two lower wires as already mentioned with a couple of additions.

When we had pigs, coyotes weren't much of a problem but black bears and wolves could be. We ran 3' of woven wire about a foot above the second wire with a couple more wires above this to a good six feet. The height was to lessen the odds of a wolf jumping the fence (either in or, if inside the pen to keep him from getting out on his own) and the woven wire was to keep bears out. Bears are much like sheep in regards to electric fences- the fur does a good job of insulating them from shock. What was needed was to shock them on the nose or face as that was the least furred.

Shocking a bear behind the head usually meant they went forward to escape the current which pushed them through the fence. Then they were with the pigs which was not a good thing. Shocking a bear in front of the head usually caused them to pull back which kept the pigs safe and meant I didn't have to repair the fence. The woven wire did a much better job of catching the bear on the face and kept me from having to do a lot of extra fence mending. It also taught me to run a wire around the shed I used for shelter as a bear tore through the wall one night and I had a bigger mess to fix.

Bears love bacon more than me I think, probably enough they will venture close to the house more often than they do now. They have left the fowl alone but pork is something they do seem to love. It is worrisome enough that my early experiences made me think I would rather buy pork from someone else than raise it myself.

Never had a problem with bears getting pigs, we dont have that many bears.

About the only thing that will bother pigs in our area is the Boggy Creek Monster.