Pig fence recommendations

[Hideaway Pines]

Thanks @rbruno !! Haha! I stole ideas from @Simpleterrier. He is my hog pen building hero!

@Hideaway Pines that is one SUPER NICE hog pen! Happy hogs = good meat! Fermenting the feed not only makes it go farther, it also makes the meat taste better. Y’all are doing great!

thanks, I am ready for them to have the larger pasture, but we still have a ways to go before that is ready.

 

[Animalsoverpeople]

I'm preparing to get pigs soon so planning out fencing. I've thought about a pallet pen with hot wire on the bottom. Recently I've been thinking about electric only (after training) so I can rotate pastures easily. However, since we don't live on the farm I'm worried about them getting out. We go to the farm about 2-3 times a week. I do not have power at the farm so I would have to use a solar/battery energizer.

I will be getting 3-5 pigs this first go round for growers to finish out.

So, pallet pen with hot wire, netting or a few hot strands?

What do you all think will work best for my situation?

Thanks!

I got lucky with having chain link fence in my pig area. Mine are potbelly’s with strong snouts and can get out anywhere. I staked every foot at the bottom with 2” stakes and it has held great. I can’t do hot wires with my little kids or I would. I have used pallets for fencing and had good luck with some animals. The other main one I see in my area is 4”x4” square welded wire with hot at the bottom. Cost wise obviously pallets can be less expensive initially. But again mine are not full sized pigs.

 

[Hideaway Pines]

I got lucky with having chain link fence in my pig area. Mine are potbelly’s with strong snouts and can get out anywhere. I staked every foot at the bottom with 2” stakes and it has held great. I can’t do hot wires with my little kids or I would. I have used pallets for fencing and had good luck with some animals. The other main one I see in my area is 4”x4” square welded wire with hot at the bottom. Cost wise obviously pallets can be less expensive initially. But again mine are not full sized pigs.

one thought, we added downed trees/logs to the bottom of our cattle panel where it was not flush with the ground an attached them to the fence, this made it extra strong and heavy. If you have any trees you can use for this it would be a good easy solution.

 

[Simpleterrier]

Oh you can have hot wire with little kids it's good for them. My son was 4 and crawled under a fence got shocked in the forehead and just rubbed it and kept on going not even a look around. It was a good one I saw and heard the zap from about 100 ft away.

I know people who can touch electric fences and they can't feel it. I'm wondering if my son is that way

 

[jjack010]

This is our first year with pigs as well. we picked them up a few weeks ago. They are in a smaller pen made of hog panels and T posts, then when we finished their pasture area (about 2.5 acres in all) which is made of stretched horse fencing with barbed wire up top with T posts with concreted corner wooden posts they will have three paddocks that they can be rotated through so we can start to grow some grass in each of them. We have not had any issues with them escaping but they sure gave it a good hard try for the first few weeks. Now they are happy to just enjoy their area. But the bigger they get the stronger they get, they could push over fencing that is not super strong. We took advice from @Baymule for some of our design, we have not got the nipple watering system in yet, but I put their water in an old tire, now they cannot dump it, so for now that works well. We made them a house (we call it Hog Heaven) and when they were small we locked them up at night, but we are not doing that now. We live in deep woods with lots of predator's, so just wanted to be sure they would be safe. We also built this with other animals in mind, incase we wanted to get something else in the future - it could be use for other critters. We added guttering to the roof and directed it to the wallow we made out of clay, so they have a cool place when it gets hot, something we have to think about here in Texas. We also learned that pigs love wet food, and fermented food goes further and is better for their digestive system, so we feed them twice a day with a fermented wet mash... I know you are not there full time, so this will not work for you this time, but it might be something to consider in the future, it makes the food go twice as far, so costs less.

Looks great and thanks for the info. Did you bury your panels?

 

[Hideaway Pines]

Looks great and thanks for the info. Did you bury your panels?

no, the panels are just at the top of the ground or slightly under depending on the variation in the area, but to be fair, we have lots large tree of roots in our area even though we are sugar sand, the roots are a deterrent to them getting out. But we will see how the horse fencing does, we may have to lay large logs in any areas we are concerned with.

 

[jjack010]

no, the panels are just at the top of the ground or slightly under depending on the variation in the area, but to be fair, we have lots large tree of roots in our area even though we are sugar sand, the roots are a deterrent to them getting out. But we will see how the horse fencing does, we may have to lay large logs in any areas we are concerned with.

Thanks for the info

 

[jjack010]

So I'm leaning towards woven wire exterior fencing and using electric to section off pastures. I like the design towards the bottom of this article.

https://cefs.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/designing-pasture-subdivisions-for-practical-management-of-hogs-2015.pdf?x47549

What are you all using for gates for multiple paddocks? That seems to be where I'm hung up. I understand if I use electric they won't want to cross it later so I'm confused as to what to use here.

 

[Tjcib]

What breed of pigs are you getting?

Our American Guinea Hogs are perfectly content to stay within our Premier1 Electric netting. They are super smart so they will find a breach in the net, but if everything is secure and I don't have too much discharge from weeds, it keeps them in.

Obviously, a bigger breed will probably need more. But that's why I love AGHs...

 

[jjack010]

This is our first year with pigs as well. we picked them up a few weeks ago. They are in a smaller pen made of hog panels and T posts, then when we finished their pasture area (about 2.5 acres in all) which is made of stretched horse fencing with barbed wire up top with T posts with concreted corner wooden posts they will have three paddocks that they can be rotated through so we can start to grow some grass in each of them. We have not had any issues with them escaping but they sure gave it a good hard try for the first few weeks. Now they are happy to just enjoy their area. But the bigger they get the stronger they get, they could push over fencing that is not super strong. We took advice from @Baymule for some of our design, we have not got the nipple watering system in yet, but I put their water in an old tire, now they cannot dump it, so for now that works well. We made them a house (we call it Hog Heaven) and when they were small we locked them up at night, but we are not doing that now. We live in deep woods with lots of predator's, so just wanted to be sure they would be safe. We also built this with other animals in mind, incase we wanted to get something else in the future - it could be use for other critters. We added guttering to the roof and directed it to the wallow we made out of clay, so they have a cool place when it gets hot, something we have to think about here in Texas. We also learned that pigs love wet food, and fermented food goes further and is better for their digestive system, so we feed them twice a day with a fermented wet mash... I know you are not there full time, so this will not work for you this time, but it might be something to consider in the future, it makes the food go twice as far, so costs less.

Thanks for sharing. What size gates are you using? Yeah, the fermenting won't work for my situation since I'm not on the farm daily.