Planning for our first pigs

[Matt n Lee]

Hello all,

new to the forums..we have 8 Katahdin sheep that we love! but in an attempt to put more meat in the freezer we are looking at getting our first pigs. We have a 1 acre pasture in the back we plan to fence in.

would 2 strands of electric fence be enough or will woven wire also be required?

We really like having breeding animals but we arent sure we are going to like raising pigs....should we get a pair strictly for the freezer and then decide if we want to breed or jump in feet first and start off with breeders?

still pouring through all the info on this site, thanks in advance for any responses!

 

[SheepGirl]

Build your fence as strong as you can. We had five pigs that we had fenced in with three board fencing with fence posts spaced every 5 feet and cemented in the ground. When the pigs were smaller, they would dig underneath and escape that way. Now that they are bigger (we have four now as we butchered one), they scratch against the wood boards and break them in half due to their sheer weight. They also tore off cattle panels from the fencing where there was an opening for them and escaped that way. Neighbors have gotten annoyed and called animal control. First call was a citation of $75. Second was a citation of $350. And now the most recent one was a citation of $750. (For a total of $1175. Makes for some very expensive pork! We have now started adding additional boards so that way they would have to break more than one to get out as electric is not an option for us at this time.

 

[Latestarter]

Holy mackerel @SheepGirl Expensive pork doesn't do it justice!

 

[Southern by choice]

Get hog panels with strong t post. hotwire on the inside.

No hogs here - never will be but many of our friends raise a few hogs and the hog panels seem to be best. Some do use 3 strand wire but they do not fully rely on it and tend to use those fields when they are home.