Building my first pig pen...

[JakefromOhio]

Hello,

I'm new to the site and new to this homesteading stuff. The family and I just purchased our first house on 5 acres out in the middle of no where. 3 acres was open and had been let go to field (I now mow the majority of it) with a pond in the front. The other 2 are wooded (mostly junk pine, not good for anything but snapping in the wind). I decided I wanted to put the land we are paying for to work for us. So, I decided to build a pen and get some pigs... then I decided to build a coop and get some chickens... now i'm eyeballing the front "Yard" and thinking "a cow would look good out there grazing... "

So I got some posts from a craigslist add at the suggestion from an "experienced friend", for next to nothing and dug some holes and tamped them in. They are like pillars of stone now. After reading a bunch of threads here I realized I could probably have gotten away with T posts. I'll chock it up to a learning experience. So my dilemma is: I don't know what kind of fence to put up on these posts that i set. My first instinct was "just go buy hog panels and be done with it." then I realized they're only 3 feet high and we have a ton of coyotes out here and i'm worried they'd hop right in and have my future meals for a meal. So what do you think? all electric? cattle panels? welded wire? there is so much stuff available it's mind boggling for a NEWB like myself.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Oh... Here's what i'm working with.

and here's the lovely sand stone I ran into at about 6 inches down and had to spud bar out the rest of the 2.5' of each hole.

 

[JakefromOhio]

(I would have put this in the fencing forum but I thought I'd keep a kind of running journal as the pen is finished and the hogs arrive all the way to the end)

 

[Mini Horses]

Cattle panels are taller than hog panels. You could use hog & put couple strands of electric above, around....solar electric box to energize. When young, hogs could be vulnerable but as they grow they are a formidable animal for an attack.

The fence panels are far easier to reconfigure in future if you want to repurpose the posts & area. Plus those panels are all pretty heavy/strong wire.

 

[misfitmorgan]

You can pretty much use any fencing you like and that is within your budget. We use woven wire with a electric hip wire and another around the top. The kind we use is redbrand 47"H by 330ft long.....i will however second that panels are handy for re-use or re-purposing.

 

[JakefromOhio]

Cattle panels are taller than hog panels. You could use hog & put couple strands of electric above, around....solar electric box to energize. When young, hogs could be vulnerable but as they grow they are a formidable animal for an attack.

The fence panels are far easier to reconfigure in future if you want to repurpose the posts & area. Plus those panels are all pretty heavy/strong wire.

That makes sense. I'm sure if I decide not to do pigs again I could find uses for the panel's so they wouldn't be wasted.

 

[JakefromOhio]

I was set on the woven wire because I was able to find it in good heavy gauges but I can't find a roll shorter than the 330 foot rolls. I'm not sure what I'd do with all the leftovers!

 

[babsbag]

I second the stock/cattle panels. Those things are so darn useful...I love them. Our TSC sells a goat/sheep one that is 4' tall with 4x4 squares. It is the one I use for EVERYTHING as you never know what the re-purpose will be and the smaller squares keep in smaller animals.

 

[misfitmorgan]

TSC does not carry the woven wire in redbrand or generic shorter then 330ft...but they do carry non-climb horse fence which should also work 48"x100ft it is 12.5 gauge which should be thick enough for pigs.

Stock/cattle panels are handy as mentioned though the longest our TSC carries is the 16ft

This is the price break down for them.
woven wire 47"x330ft $149.99 per ft $0.46
non-climb horse 48"x100ft $129.99 per ft $1.30
stock/cattle panels 50"x16ft $19.99 per ft $1.25

As you can see the woven wire in the 330ft roll is less then half the cost of the other two options, that being said your only trying to fence in a small area so any of the options should work for you. You did mention you have 2 acres of woods and you may down the road decide to "pasture" your pigs in which case the rest of the 330ft roll would be very handy but when and if you ever decide that who knows.

Really any of the options are good for different reasons. Woven wire because its cheap and you get a lot. Non-climb because it has much smaller holes for small animals and you wouldnt have so much left over. Panels because they are so very versatile and dont require stretching.

 

[JakefromOhio]

TSC does not carry the woven wire in redbrand or generic shorter then 330ft...but they do carry non-climb horse fence which should also work 48"x100ft it is 12.5 gauge which should be thick enough for pigs.

Stock/cattle panels are handy as mentioned though the longest our TSC carries is the 16ft

This is the price break down for them.
woven wire 47"x330ft $149.99 per ft $0.46
non-climb horse 48"x100ft $129.99 per ft $1.30
stock/cattle panels 50"x16ft $19.99 per ft $1.25

As you can see the woven wire in the 330ft roll is less then half the cost of the other two options, that being said your only trying to fence in a small area so any of the options should work for you. You did mention you have 2 acres of woods and you may down the road decide to "pasture" your pigs in which case the rest of the 330ft roll would be very handy but when and if you ever decide that who knows.

Really any of the options are good for different reasons. Woven wire because its cheap and you get a lot. Non-climb because it has much smaller holes for small animals and you wouldnt have so much left over. Panels because they are so very versatile and dont require stretching.

Thanks for that break down! I didn't realize how much less the woven wire was per foot. That's crazy. Maybe I'll have to come up with some uses for it..... I'm sure I could make nice trellis from it.

 

[Latestarter]

You know, it's a bit more expensive per foot, but you CAN get rolls of the woven wire fencing in shorter lengths at like Walmart. They have a variety of 50' length WW fencing for between $35 and $60 depending on brand and a bunch of other stuff...