# Getting pigs, need pasture fencing help!! And other help...



## secuono (Jul 28, 2012)

Getting a pig or three and wanted to have a moveable pen. Was thinking of getting the cattle panels and pounding in small T-Posts. Move the panels and posts as needed to let them have fresh pasture. 
No job, so cannot buy another solar charger just yet, but wanted to add that for the future so moving the pen would be far simpler. 

I was going to use a small cattle panel with a tarp for shelter. _What food should I give to a 3mo PB pig that is also on pasture? _

We plan on growing him out for a roast, but don't want to just fatten him up, lean and mean is better than squealing lard.  
_
Do PBs root a lot? Will I be filling in a lot of holes so my horses don't break their legs? Can I have their pen over mountain areas full of overgrown weeds and grasses? _

Thanks for any help! Looking around on the forums, but post what you can help me with in the mean time!


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 28, 2012)

No idea on the rooting for PB's - others here will be able to help you. ALSO take a look at the farmer's field where you are purchasing from  All piglets root more than adults but some breeds are WAY worse than others. 

Moving cattle panels will be a LOT of hard work. We use the electric netting but that is because we bought rolls of it with the farm so have not had to buy it! Solar chargers do not work that well with the netting - mains electric are much better. The netting is SO easy to move around so if you can find some on Craigslist or somewhere similar it might be worth looking. Depending on your climate, a tarp may not work on the cattle panel as when it rains it will leak really bad or puddle into the middle & maybe rip.

HOWEVER you can make a hoop house with a cattle panel & tarp. We used those for a while here before we found some used PortaHuts which are superb. 






We made some bigger ones with whole panels that we secured either side with T-Posts so were not moveable but when you build a smaller one like above & attach a frame to the bottom of it using wire you can move it easily. Can be made all with scraps. We have experimented with all types of housing here - some worked, some didn't!

Liz


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## secuono (Jul 28, 2012)

Yea, that hoop house is what I meant by panels and a tarp.

Hard part of moving the panels would just be driving in and removing t-posts. Moving the pigs would be easy, would just need 3 extra panels and 2 extra posts. Build onto one side and then remove the center enough to let the pigs through, then lock it back and remove the old 3 panels. Ta-da! 

My biggest issue now is getting those 16ft long panels to my house...no truck, no friends with a truck and they don't deliver. lol.

We can't have the fence hooked to the house, waste of money and never going to happen to get that wire all the way out to pasture. Oh, and our power likes to go out at a drop of a hat, so not smart at all. 

I have electric for my critters and the pony, .5 joule solar, 8,000 volts, works like a charm. _How much voltage do you need to keep pigs in?_


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 28, 2012)

> I have electric for my critters and the pony, .5 joule solar, 8,000 volts, works like a charm. How much voltage do you need to keep pigs in?


We have two electric chargers here - one is 12 joules, the other is 6! Pigs are smart & they will test the fence to see if it is working. If they think the jolt is not bad they will walk right through! We have our chargers hooked up in the barn. Right now they are running off extension cords from the house as the guy that lived here before did not bury the electric cables very deep so the pigs dug them up the first winter we were 

As to cattle panels - they may well work for PB's but I wouldn't use them for regular pigs unless they are well buried - will just root & push them up & out they go. 

Liz


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## secuono (Jul 28, 2012)

No regular pigs here, way too big and ugly. lol.

Are any solar chargers 6+ joules?


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 28, 2012)

> No regular pigs here, way too big and ugly. lol.


Now! Now! Now! Have you ever laid down beside a Large Black?! Good job our pigs cannot understand you thinking they are ugly  They taste SO good too - oh my! BUT I have heard PB's have good flavor too so I'm sure you will enjoy them once it comes to butchering time. 

We do have two solar chargers out there that are 3 Joules but we rarely use them anymore as they were just not strong enough for the pigs. 

Liz


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## drdoolittle (Jul 28, 2012)

We use the hog panels and T-posts for our PBPs and they work great!  We haven't had one escape yet.   I don't know if there is a price difference between the cattle panels and the hog panels.  I like the hog panels, because if you want to get in there quickly w/o undoing the "gate" you can climb over the panels.

I move my pigs, when needed, by setting up a wire crate in a corner of the pen with a long board as a chute.  It doesn't take long at all, and then you can take the pen down, put it back up with the crate inside it, and just open the crate door.

 We feed our pots the mini-pig food sold at TSC (Nutri-Source).  I am raising 3 castrated males for butcher, and one is being fed the mini-pig food and the other two are getting regular pig feed (just want to see if there is a difference ein how they grow out).

As for shelters, we have 2 homemade houses made from pallets and 2 shelters made from the part that goes on top of semis (someone gives them to us for free.

Our pigs are not on pasture and get 2 cups of feed each 2x a day.  Here are some pics of them and their enclosures/houses.

The boys for butcher (taken about a month ago, before they were separated)










Nigel (one of our breeders)





Bugsy (another of our breeders)





Another pic of Bugsy---you can see the shelter much better


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## secuono (Jul 29, 2012)

Hog panels are a dollar more here, I guess the bottom is better on them for piglets. Idk, can reuse the cattle panels much better than the pig ones. I have cattle panels to keep my pony on his side of the barn, I just climb up them if I need to get over, but don't want to walk all the way around. They don't collapse, much stronger and stiffer than regular woven wire. 

I don't want a giant pig that could more easily break things, eats more, makes a bigger mess and we wouldn't be able to roast. Just not what we need on our small farm.

6 joules for a huge pig might be enough for tiny pigs. Anyone w/PBs have electric?


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